Indie Game: The Movie

I don't know how to react to this intriguing and engrossing documentary. We are voyeurs into the lives of a few Indie game computer programmers who produce and distribute their products alone, as against the vast corporation produced games we are more familiar with.

There are three different projects examined here in the run up to their release of their creations, and it's a rough and at times uncomfortable viewing. Their road to release is really quite hellish.

Very basic low budget filming puts the onus on the conversations with these programmers. In truth, of the four programmers it's hard to believe you'd wish to have a drink with three out of the four of them and in any case the other one is so busy he'd likely pass you up. Yet you still seem to empathise with them and the key of this documentary is how you do hang out to the end wishing them to succeed.

As said, at times you will feel uncomfortable watching these guys. They've all admitted to practically cutting themselves off from normality and having social lives, and it shows. One is married and that marriage seems to make him the most grounded something that becomes clearer as the film moves on when you compare him to the rest.

I'll state that I don't play computer games at all and have not done so for donkeys years, bar Angry Birds. So really the twee type of games these gamers are making appeals to me as I'm not familiar with the modern gaming market. I don't fully understand their world and maybe I never will, but I did like their products and maybe that's why I wanted the best for them.

However, I still admired these guys through their travails and stresses. The documentary doesn't build them as heroic but they are winners in my eyes no matter their quirks, and as viewers we are given a very broad overview of them to form our opinions.

Enjoyable and engrossing. I'd say it's worth a watch.

**Includes some minor spoilers. will not spoil your experience**

I watched the documentary last night and was just simply blown away about the people, their life-philosophy and the motivation to push forward and create something new.

In one scene one of the protagonists told that "he would never want to work for EA or Epic cause he would lose his freedom of creativity in it".

This in essence is what makes Artists great - they create something new and do it so well that it transcends the normal standard of standardized "materialistic" work processes - by far.

It was interesting to see how the video game gurus in this documentary were actually even sad for people not understanding their work. In essence - they were disappointed for people doing shallow reviews after testing their games.

Deep understanding of others creative work often springs into criticism - but thats only positive since it means that the other one has understood the creation and is able to add something new into it - thus being part of the logics of progress.

9.5/10 for the best documentary/movie I have seen this year.

Before the end of this movie, I cried, cried twice. I deeply realized that it is never ever easy for an ordinary man to get huge success. But there is still some chance to help you get here only if you are open-minded to yourself and throw yourself into the business totally, work hard, delay gratification, you'll see success beckons to you. To implement that goal, you need to have an extremely clear understanding of yourself, such as what you want most out of life, what you are best in, what things you are really really want to do, what's the goal of your life and so on. Now then you have the direction, the rest of the way is pursuing it, straining all your nerves to it. Don't worry when there's no any joys, no social in your along way, hold on, finally, you'll can't help crying out because you made it.

There aren't that many documentaries about video games so to say that this is easily the best of the bunch might not mean much to many (that's a lot of M's right there), but it is. It's also one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. If the film-makers idea was to first give you a really great view of how some of these indie developers do their stuff and why, then have you on the edge of your seat as release day looms and problems arrive, then finish by leaving you a little bit misty and in a really good mood? If that was their idea then it worked for me.

It's every bit as brilliant as the games that are featured. I think people owe it to themselves to watch this.

Very interesting look at the world of indie game development, following 4 developers with extremely different personalities but with the same passion for making awesome games.