The creative process behind making video games was a mystery until more companies starting putting their production diaries online to immerse gamers in their creative process. Hideo Kojima and Konami put out their own short to explain the delay behind Metal Gear Rising, which would eventually turn into Metal Gear Revengeance under a new studio, Platinum Games,who were previously responsible for Bayonetta and Madworld. But what if you're interested in tiny, cult favorite flash games that would take online gaming by storm? Then you'd be into Indie Game: The Movie, which opens today in select theaters.
Directed (and produced and edited and shot) by James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot, the documentary follows a year in the life of three American developers:
- The developers of flash sensation Super Meat Boy embark to release their game onto the Xbox Live marketplace.
- Phil Fish is about to announce Fez--which came out in April.
- Jonathan Blow prepares to follow up his award winning game Braid with The Witness.
During Sundance 2012, Swirsky told The Film Stage, "We treated the production of this movie like the production of an indie game. We announced it and were very open, even before we started, and kind of got an audience and started having the dialogue with them. And that's kind of like our open beta period. So it created this iterative process where we're putting out a lot of stuff..." before Pajot could interject with a better term: "Content."
Widdling the subjets down from 25 to three, the documentary became a massive hit at Sundance--where it took Best World Documentary prize--,South by Southwest and Hot Docs this year. Despite this, it barely found any traction among the critics polled by Indiewire for Best Documentary. It still garnered enough word of mouth buzz to be optioned by Scott Rudin (producer of tiny films like There Will Be Blood, The Social Network and Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) into a TV show with HBO. The doc offers a rare look into how these games are being developed, and not just the assortment of user-created Xbox Live games that involve zombies. It's a rare glimpse into what makes a game important and how developers do care more than just based on first-day sales.
Indie Game: The Movie is currently playing in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix with more dates on the way and the option to pre-order DVD and digital releases.
