Sivaram Velauthapillai I was quite surprised by how well this documentary kept the viewer's interest. This is a documentary that follows three popular indie game makers. Some of the developers have had successes in the past and all of them had a lot of hype before the games were released. So the documentary is sort of biased in that it doesn't show a typical indie developer; rather, it shows the best of the best. As the title suggests, this documentary covers INDIE game-makers which means a team of 2 or 3 people developing a game. This provides a different perspective from big-budget studio games where there are 50+ people working on it.The filmmakers had full behind-the-scenes access to the developers. So we get to see their personal life and the impact it has on some family members.The film also imparts some good wisdom for indie developers. For instance, one successful developer that is profiled mentions how you don't want indie games to be fully polished and perfect like those blockbusters released by the big studios. Instead, being a bit rough around the edge, and having unique personality and feel is what one should aim for.If anyone wants to see the struggles indie developers go through, this is a very good introduction. A lot of long days and nights working on a game that may or may not turn out to be a success. The saving grace is that if the game does become a big hit, you will literally become a millionaire overnight. In some sense, this no different than what entrepreneurs trying to start other businesses face.

bob the moo The first thing to say on this film is that you really will enjoy it more if you play indie games or know the couple of games that are mentioned here. This is not to suggest that the film will exclude you if you don't, but it is about these games and this culture but it will not hold your interest if you already have no involvement or interest in them. The film looks at the makers of indie games – ie not the 2000 people working on the next Grand Theft Auto, but the 2 or 3 people working on the game you'll pick up on Xbox Arcade or your phone for a few dollars and play to death over the following week or so. Early on it quotes many examples but mainly it focuses on Braid, Fez and Super Meat Boy in terms of experience development challenges, the feeling of success and the challenges of success.In this way the film does it pretty well because we do get all these things. I'm not sure if the makers followed many people and then edited down to be these specific guys, but their choices are good either way because the film gets a lot from these guys throughout. It wisely doesn't go into the real detail of writing games but keeps it accessible to those of us who just play them and have no understanding beyond that, but it does enough to help the viewer understand the effort and obsessive nature of the work, even if it could have done with an example of a total failure (the closest the film has is Fez, which doesn't succeed when the film closes but we know does in the end). The people are mostly engaging despite some of them (unsurprisingly) not being the most socially confident people you'll ever meet, the regular clips of games and the gentle soundtrack does add to the feel of a quirkumentary – which I guess it sort of is, but it felt like less of one to me since I'm sort of part of that quirk I suppose.It would have been good to have explored some bigger picture stuff above the characters here as well as following them, but the film still works well for what it does. It is limited a bit in its audience because the tight focus does need you to at least like gaming and to play indie games – but saying it like this makes me think it is not doing itself too much harm by "limiting" its audience to gamers, since there is a few of them around. So, if the film sounds interesting then it probably will be, as it captures the passion, frustration and success of the people making indie games in their bedrooms for years – and it mostly has engaging and likable characters to focus on while doing it.

SaranshTMF Have you ever imagined how being creative becomes a curse? Imagine yourself as amongst the 100 chosen individuals in entire human race blessed with the power of most amazing imagination and a will to show that imagination to rest of the world. The sacrifices you make while making your childhood dream come true is unimaginable to the extent that the same creativity for which you were identified from any other ordinary human being becomes a taboo. No social life, no personal life, no money, no luxuries of life just a huge burden and frustration of completing what you have started. The plight of indie game developers makes me shed a tear not just because the amount of frustration, time, effort, expectations but because of a will to express yourself through your art and in the process, loosing everything or i should say missing everything out of life. Video Games are the biggest irony that could happen with the very person making it. How can a dream cost you more than your life?This documentary perfectly portrays the life of a person on the other side of the screen. Makers of FEZ, Super meat boy, braid presenting an account of their daily life, their personalities and the amount of torture they have to face every single day of their life. Be it an army of online trolls beating the s**t out of their aspirations and creativity or getting a certification for selling their art to the world. Its all there and its truly heart breaking and eye opening for an ordinary person like me. Documentary showing how the idea of making games as the sole activity you are going to do in life, how it all started, matured adults watching the drawings they made when they were 4 and crying their heart out because they have turned those drawings into a language of communication between them and rest of the world is truly moving. Even if you are not into games, just watch this thing and you will explore an entire new world which no matter how pretty it looks from outside, is a tale of pain and suffering and the only sunshine they had is when it gets released and in just few hours thousands of reviews start pouring in, praises from all over the world, breaking records and finally an achievement they have been waiting for so long. One of the greatest documentary i've ever seen in a while. 9/10

stephanie Grey Indie (ĭn'dē) Developer (dĭ-vĕl'ə-pər) Meaning: An artistic work produced by an independent company or group.Synopsis: Documentary about three indie development team. Who produce Fez, SuperMeatBoy and Braid. Together its products symbolize breakthroughs in game development with concepts as time-bending, cube- ish levels and quick 2d plattformer.Points about Indie Game: Disappointing. Yet refreshing with in-depth interviews, a better understanding of programming, and never-before shown beta version of the most successful indie games this year. We follow Jonathan Blow, Phil Fish and the Meatbrothers Edmund & Tommy in a years-long development of their game. Indie Game is cake but it's not a chocolate cake. We learn about the years it took to produce Indie Games but mostly centered on the Developers hence the Game itself. Warning! - this movie will make you depressed that's a fact. As this Documentary focus to much on frustrated moments in development and its biggest torn. Its "We make a Game then We Die" motto. Which is NOT the part of Indie Development...Learning from mistakes is. At start you question their decision to pre-announce their game years before being close to release date of their death books. Yes.. the developer of Fez says he kill himself if he fails with releasing his game. That statement killed all mood I'd left for this Documentary . . But overlooking Indie Game flaws and its hyper-stressed and emotional freaks to creators the Programming part is very solid.. it's a very solid window for regular folks to learn about indie development and how developers create games. How SuperMeatBoy's first-levels is learning curves to its game mechanics. How Jonathan really made Braid in three weeks... and next two years was just polishing work. Deficiencies: More Programming, More Evolvement, More Game Ideas.. Indie Game is produced for a certain audience.. give that audience more of what they desires. It's also sadly produced with 3 games in-mind and not Indie Community. Most Indie Developers creates MANY games not ONE and LEARN from predecessors. Indies publish game, after game, after game... Indies can do that adverse distributors (Infinity Ward, SCE, Naughty Dog) who has time schedules Indie Developers publish games whenever they wants. Aside when you tell the World we're making THIS cool GAME watch US and haven't finished the majority parts yet. Then you get stressed as weeks and weeks passes .. like Phil Fish felt. I wonder if Phil ever wanna work with games again.. seeing this. ^^