Make Something

Indie Game: The Movie is on Steam (for pre-purchase)!

Neat way to release the movie in my opinion.
I haven't seen it yet. Some people have because it's been screened at various film festivals, and seems to have been quite well received.

The movie follows three (now successful) indie games: Super Meat Boy, Fez, and Braid, all of which I have played and enjoyed.



That said, two out of three of these developers have a reputation for being "pretentious". Phil Fish (Fez) has tweeted that "PC's are for spreadsheets" in response to fans who'd like to see his game on PC. He's also been criticized for remarks that "modern Japanese games suck" - apparently Jonathan Blow (Braid) agrees, calling them "joyless husks".

Jonathan Blow is easy to tease. He basically mixed Super Mario with Prince of Persia, added a love story, and called it Braid. He basically broke up with his girlfriend, and called it profound. But I enjoyed Braid! Getting hit by a goomba is presented as a metaphor for "making a mistake". Reversing time becomes a metaphor for "fixing mistakes". I actually liked the twisted metaphor of a princess running from Mario, "kidnapped" by another man. You see the hero struggle to come to terms with how things "should" be. How people should be able to make mistakes, learn and grow from them, as part of the larger love story arc.

There's a Shakespeare quote:

...man, proud man,
Dress'd in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd—
His glassy essence—like an angry ape
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep.

No matter what you think of these guys as individuals, I'm glad that Phil Fish made Fez, I'm glad that Jonathan Blow made Braid. They made the games they were passionate about making. You should make something you're passionate about too!