Indie Game The Movie

Requirement of research led the class to participate in the viewing of 'Indie Game The Movie' portraying Phil Fish (Fez), Edmund McMillen and Jonathan McEntee (Super Meat Boy), Jonathan Blow (Braid).

Overall thoughts:

The development of games that is shown in the film seems to be demoralising and depressing. Indie development of games allows for creative freedom to express a connection and story that is personal between the dev and the players. However, the film also shows the opposing side to indie development; the pressure from making it and after publishing.

Phil Fish (Fez):

Fez was published in 2012 by two indie developers Phil Fish and his partner under Polytron Games. It had won awards even before release and was hugely successful after it. The game was heavily criticised for its long development time however sold 1 million copies in the first year.

The game is about Gomez, the white block character who discovers his world is actually 3D and the gameplay is about rotation of puzzle platforms.

While in the documentary, Fish described the process to be lengthly and damaging to his mental health. When asked about what he would do if he couldn't finish the game he said that 'I would kill myself'. He mentioned that public opinion of his life work affected him a lot but he wanted to make something that people would enjoy. He redrew all the designs three times, showing his strive for perfection and self-improvement and frequently voiced his frustration at the public when they tried to rush him to finish his game.

Fish showed an insight of his fast falling situation, mentioning that his girlfriend left him a year prior, his dad had gotten sick and then his parents divorced and then his previous work partner left him and the company. He quickly went on DeviantArt and hired a replacement and started working on Fez again, saying that it was his life's purpose and work.

Edmund McMillen and Jonathan McEntee (Super Meat Boy)

Super Meat Boy was published in 2010 by developer and graphic designer Edmund McMillen and Jonathan McEntee under 'Team Meat'.

The game was under development for over a year and was hugely successful upon release, selling over 22,000 copies in the first day and rated number 4 on the best games on Xbox.

The devs described the process to be inhumane as it was extremely tiring to meet deadlines. They showed signs of depression and desperation towards finishing the project with no funding and happy motivation.

Edmund McMillen described his need to show the vulnerability of himself by making the main character made out of human meat with no skin. The end goal is to save his girlfriend counterpart, who is made out of bandages, as she is meant to be portrayed as his missing piece. Coincidentally, Super Meat Boy also won an award at a show where Edmund proposes to his wife Danielle McMillen.

Over the course of the film, the two describe the feeling of impending emptiness as the game is reaching its end saying they don't know if the struggling and time used was worth it at all. To create something that everybody likes while showing your own personal touch in an indie group is one of the hardest things to do.

Edmund McMillen said at the end, that he knew for a fact that one little kid out there, spent all night playing his game -and perhaps that even inspired them to make games for the future generation of young gamers. And that one thought alone made it all worth it.

Jonathan Blow (Braid):

Braid is a game released in 2008 by Jonathan Blow and Number None. It is a painter style puzzle story game that sold 450,000 copies in two years.

Jonathan Blow created this game as he wanted to complete a project for the first time in his 22 years in his career. It was formed from an idea he created in one week with a unique point of being able to revert time in the gameplay. Blow put in $200,000 of his own funds into the hiring of the art designer and living funds.

At the release of the game, it was highly praised for its interesting time gameplay and storyline that had an ambiguous ending. However, Blow felt like many players did not understand the meanings of the game and that they just had a basic understanding of his work which led him to feel negatively towards the feedback of the game. He was notorious for responding to any comments he found connected with his game and was publicly criticised for it.

Thoughts about going into Games Design Industry:

Overall, I am trying to be as optimistic as possible. I have a couple of different companies that I'd try to apply for. However, after watching this film, it has made me aware of the struggles, mentally and physically of being not only an indie developer but also in the industry in general. I would say that I'm already feeling the lack of motivation and the impending doom of it all perhaps not being worth the stress and time. However just like Edmund McMillen, if I am able to create a piece of interactive story telling that can weave a connection between me and the players; if it can inspire someone out there to start creating, then all of it might be worth it.