Indie Game: The Movie Review

Experiencing the dark vacuum between failure and success.

As much of a mystery that video game development remains to most gamers in general, it would appear that the world of indie game development maintains a more nebulous reputation. It is often easy to just imagine two guys goofing off in their parents' basements lobbing ideas back and forth at each other in a creatively nurturing environment. You can almost smell the Hot Pockets. I, too, am guilty of imagining my favorite indie games being produced in such a fruitful atmosphere. Indie Game: The Movie offers a stark contrast to the buddy comedy imagining of independent game development, and it drags the viewer into a rather dark emotional place that could exist in all of us; it just takes the right close-to-home project to suss it out.

Fez creator, Phil Fish, laments at his hotel's bar.

Kickstarted before kickstarting was cool, James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot have crafted a fascinating tale of the development of two games, Super Meat Boy and Fez. Despite the naïveté with which I approached the film, the fun of video games is not present here, not that it has to be. Although the are struggles witnessed remain specific to the video game industry, the film ends up being more about coping with being on the cusp of finishing your life's work. The developers featured here find themselves in a state where not finishing their games is no longer an option, and the idea that success is not guaranteed weighs heavily on them, their families, and their qualities of life.

The two games featured in Indie Game: The Movie follow different paths towards the end of the film. Super Meat Boy is near the end of its development cycle, and two friends, Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, are both cracking under the pressure of completing the game to make a special deadline for Microsoft (the game was developed for the Xbox 360). Edmund, a noted graphic artist and video game designer, lives far from Tommy, in a house shared with his wife, Danielle. It is clear that the couple dreams of a better life for themselves involving a bigger house and a sphinx kitten, but the long time it's taking to finish the game has left money tight, and the amount of time Edmund spends working each day leaves his relationship with his wife less than idyllic. Tommy, the main programmer, on the other hand, lives at home with his family, but while he lacks his own family and property to support, he clearly fears the void that would be left by an unsuccessful game launch. He remarks that his parents had to refinance their mortgage four years before paying it off, and he clearly wants to reward them for their continued encouragement. These two friends clearly have a strong bond, but there are not a lot of good times or laughter to watch. Perhaps in an effort to build tension from the start, Indie Game starts with the Super Meat Boy launch day, and a frantic Tommy is panicking because the game is no where to be seen on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Tommy Refenes, Super Meat Boy programmer, works alongside an obscured Edmund McMillen.

Phil Fish, creator and artist behind Fez, has a largely insular experience throughout the film. His programming partner, Renaud, notwithstanding, he goes through the full gamut of emotions and depression entirely by himself. Whereas the viewer can sympathize with the weight of the work Edmund and Tommy have to do, Phil's story demands a part of the viewer's soul. It has been nearly five years since the game was revealed to the public in 2007, and after three overhauls and several missed deadlines, his visions of failure are continually exacerbated by the criticism he receives from Fez fans on the Internet. Like a nightmare indicative of the sorts of drug-induced hallucinations one would see in a thriller, these anonymous voices turned from resounding support to sickening death threats, and they ebb at Phil's already crumbling psyche. The pressure continues to build when Phil is faced with a potential legal battle with his former partner, which could prevent him from revealing his life's work at PAX East in Boston. Being unable to demo Fez to the public after years of waiting could mean the end of the game's development as a whole, and Phil reveals to the interviewer, whether literally or figuratively, that he would kill himself if he can't finish.

These are some dark tales, and the filmmaking never severs the disparity felt in Indie Game: The Movie. Save for a few moments, the interviewer remains absent, and there is no narrator. The developers tell their stories either to the camera or through their actions as they reach certain milestones on the way to the end of the film. Although video game fans are already aware that both games were successfully released to critical acclaim and significant sales numbers, these facts do not lessen the drama. To the film's credit, it never tries to make any statements about the video game industry itself, nor does it directly critique Microsoft or other publishers of digital content. It remains focused on these two development stories, perhaps in a futile effort to remind the fans that there are real people behind these games, and critique is not dispersed over a team of a thousand designers and programmers. Jonathan Blow of Braid fame is also featured for commentary. Although his game had been released to the public several years before (and Edmund McMillen contributed art to it, which was never used), Blow's presence offers a dissenting opinion on the aftermath of success; what happens when people love the fruits of your labor, but they don't understand it the way that you do? In his case, you take to the Internet to explain yourself.

For your consideration.

The whole of the documentary is filmed in very high quality, and much of the cinematography involves skewed angles and strong closeups on the people involved. The environment plays a large role in the trip into the developers' psyches, and the camera is often aimed at all the tiny elements that reveal the games' influences outside of the computers they were created on. However, sometimes the film reveals shots from their hometowns or outside convention centers, which do not contribute to the immersion the viewer needs to fully appreciate the tales told here. Ironically, the most irrelevant image is the one used for the bulk of the documentary's promotion: the SNES controller hanging from power lines. Despite the influence games of the SNES era may have had on the games featured here, there is no clear tie-in between this random shot and the developers. I would even argue that the fact that the SNES did not feature digital downloads or independent game development only harms the core themes of the film. But I digress.

Minor missteps aside, Indie Game: The Movie is a worthwhile and unexpected trip for the psyche. You will not learn how games are made or the secrets behind game publishing. Most likely, you will come away from the film with the understanding that choosing to work on a huge project with minimal help has major consequences, and the risk of failure becomes the elephant in the room the longer it takes to complete. Wrought with emotional tension and drama, it is a must for video game fans who are remotely curious about what happens before the fun.

Images taken from Steam.