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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Games / Film Watch This Thing: Indie Game: The Movie Trailer

Posted by Earnest "Nex" Cavalli on Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 6:59 PM

Indie Game: The Movie finally has a trailer! Joy!

In case you haven't heard, IG:TM is an upcoming documentary exploring the people behind the independent games movement. It tracks their lives as they make, market and publish their indie opuses (opii? Opie?), and seemingly exposes the key pro-creativity ethos of the movement in the process.

If you've been wondering why all the major game releases are sequels and boring rehashes, these are the people you should be paying attention to.

It's a perfect topic for this sort of film, but ...

Honestly, documentaries are kind of hit and miss for me. For every brilliant Man On Wire, you have a pandering Michael Moore flick or some stupid movie about bears.

That said, videogames have fared pretty well as a topic for documentarians. King of Kong was like a geeky retelling of Rocky, with a douchebag hot sauce salesman in place of Carl Weathers, and the BBC's Tetris: From Russia With Love may be the most inventive Cold War spy thriller since that one Bond flick where George Lazenby punches Lenin's corpse in the groin.

Oh, and of course, I can't mention gaming documentaries without namedropping my pals at Pure West. Their movie, Second Skin, is the gold standard for in-depth glimpses at the people who spend their days in virtual realms like World of Warcraft and Everquest. No joke here. It's just a damn good flick.

I'm hoping against my inherent genre wariness that Indie Game: The Movie can live up to the promise of its slickly-produced trailer. The subject matter is interesting and the people they interview (especially Braid creator Johnathan Blow) are just the right combination of artistic geek and outspoken character.

Of course, assuming the film is good, that's still no guarantee that people will seek it out. For many this is a side of gaming they simply can't see over the massive marketing budgets of the EA and Activision titles that clog store shelves like so many derivative baby rabbits.

In closing, watch this thing. Also, give them money. Also, don't buy games made of baby rabbits.

 

Comments (4) RSS

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1
Holy shit how am I not aware of this? I purchased both Braid and Super Meat Boy, and I spent what must of been days of my life trying to beat the insane levels in SMB.
So I assume that I am the target audience? I mean i dont shave anymore. Is this playing in local theaters anytime soon?
Posted by Rusty! on June 22, 2011 at 1:43 AM · Report
2
Finally, a movie for neurotic nerds by neurotic nerds. The gods hath spoken.
Posted by DamosA on June 22, 2011 at 3:58 AM · Report
3
@ Rusty: It's not yet finished, hence showtimes are up in the air.
Posted by Earnest "Nex" Cavalli on June 22, 2011 at 8:58 AM · Report
4
dude, he has my exact same visual studio color scheme. and i hand-picked those colors. that's nuts (to me, at least).

i work with another Braid developer, and Jonathan Blow's written some great columns, so this is now looking extremely interesting to me. thanks for spotlighting this.
Posted by mhulth on June 22, 2011 at 9:27 AM · Report

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