I bought and watched Indie Game: the Movie last night.

First, I’d like to say that buying a movie on Steam is great. The media player is good, the quality was amazing, it has plenty of subtitle languages, including Hebrew and the best thing – the movie is DRM free. It’s placed in your Steam folder as an mp4 file which you can copy and watch without the steam player itself. That is awesome.

Now for the film itself – the movie documents 3 stories independent video game developers. The first is Braid, which has already come out and its developer, Jonathan Blow reflects on the development process and the success he received after the game has released. The second, and major part of the movie, is the story of Super Meat Boy, in different staged of development, conceptualization and release, as well as the reactions to its success. The last part is the story of Fez, which by the time the movie came out was in development for 4 years and not yet released. The game has been considered a “vaporware” and the movie followed its creator, Phil Fish, as he struggles to make something out of this project (the game was eventually released on April 2012).

I enjoyed this movie. It was well worth the 5$ and 96 minutes I spend on it, but then were some parts I really didn’t like.

The movie portrays those developers as “tormented artists”. Its vibe for the most part is depressing. There is an over-emphasis on the negative sides on being an indie developer which is given out of context. There is very little talk about the alternative – the film mentions the time before digital distribution became a viable option, but it does so in a very roundabout fashion and doesn’t really goes into the business model behind the “indie scene”. At one point in the game, Jonathan Blow (I believe) talks about how he would never go work in a big publisher’s studio – but again, this is given out of context. It is placed solely to reinforce the “artist” theme and nothing more.

The problem with this is that it will create the wrong impression among people how are not familiar with the medium and the industry. Instead of showing a genuine process of indie game development, the movie focuses too much on “sad” personal stories, which will only deter most people from trying it themselves. It is a problem for every type of information – when given out of context; we run the risk of reinforcing the wrong ideas and Indie Game lack context almost entirely.

There is the possibility that as someone that is knowledgeable about this topic, I “created” a wrong context for myself, and thus see this movie more criticism than I should.

“But wait! You said you liked the movie!”

Yes, I did. Beside this issue, I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed getting to know the people behind the games, learning about their thought processes and beyond everything, I enjoyed the last quarter of the film where they showed other people playing those games, and their reactions.

As a game maker, the absolute best feeling in the world you can get is seeing someone else playing your game. Seeing their reactions, seeing them laugh, and seeing them struggle on specific points. There is a dichotomy in every medium you create between the enjoyment you feel about people experiencing your creation, and your fear they will not understand this creation the way you do – the Indie Game nails that issue perfectly. I sat there for the last quarter of the movie and smiled so hard my face hurts.

Need a final conclusion? Go watch it.

But remember not to take it at face value. Yes, those are personal, human stories, but just because this was their experience doesn’t mean it will be yours.

P.S: Pictures here are courtesy of the press kit, available on the movie’s website.