If you’re interested in what it takes to make an independent game, Indie Game: The Movie will be a must-see.
Indie Game: The Movie has been in development for over a year after first being funded through a Kickstarter effort last year. Filmmakers James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot have released the film’s official trailer, showing that the project has come a long way.
Indie Game: The Movie is pretty much self-explanatory thanks to its title. Over the course of the movie’s production, Swirsky and Pajot have filmed with dozens of independent developers and other related folks in an effort to delve deep into the process of creating a game outside of a publisher like EA or Activision.
It primarily follows Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes of Team Meat as they worked to release Super Meat Boy, Phil Fish of Polytron as he still toils to release Fez, and Jonathan Blow, creator of Braid. Many others such as Jason Rohrer (Passage, Sleep is Death), Kellee Santiago and Jenova Chen (Flow, Flower, Journey), and Ron Carmel (World of Goo) will make appearances in the film or in its special edition DVD.
The most compelling thing about Indie Game: The Movie to me is how it appears to expose the unique processes and mental struggles that these independent developers go through for their craft. Not just from a business standpoint, but on the emotional end as well. Like art, many indie games are an expression of the developer’s feelings. It’s also not easy to develop a concept for a game from scratch and then take the risk to create it all by yourself (or with a few others) over the course of years.
Indie Game: The Movie‘s final push has already been funded, but if you’d like to help out and get some swag, the Kickstarter page is here. The current goal is to release the film on DVD and via digital download by the end of 2011 or in early 2012.
Source: Indie Game: The Movie website
