After making rounds in the festival circuit, Indie Game: The Movie has finally made its way to home viewers via streaming or digital download on its official website, iTunes, and Valve’s distribution service Steam. The movie, first funded nearly two years ago on Kickstarter, set out to capture the drama-filled development process of various indie titles.
The film’s directors, Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky, were inspired to embark on the project after making a short documentary covering Canadian indie studio called Infinite Ammo, as well as the time they spent covering the 2009 Game Developer’s Conference.
“In producing the short film and attending the conference, we found the individual stories and entire culture of independent developers exceptionally fascinating and compelling,” the filmmakers explained. “From the perspective of storytelling, game play and development process, it seems that some of the most interesting things going on in video games are happening in the indie space.”
Check out the goosebump-inducing trailer below to get a quick taste (warning some NSFW language):
After capturing over 300 hours of footage, the filmmakers cut together the 90 minute movie that covers the development process of Braid, Super Meat Boy, and Fez — three of the biggest indie titles to come out in the past four years. The film focuses on the incredible amount of dedication that goes into the development of indie titles, whose teams largely consist of only one or two people.
Though it’s only seen a limited release, the film has been a great critical success. With 22 reviews, Indie Game: The Movie currently has a perfect score on RottenTomatoes, and during last year’s Sundance Film Festival, the movie took home an award for Best Editing in the Documentary Competition. The film became so popular after its Sundance premier that HBO even optioned the rights to create a fictional half hour series based on the premise.
The movie is available now for $10 on the film’s official website, iTunes, and Steam. Physical copies are currently only available for pre-order in either standard DVD or Blu-Ray formats. Head on over to discover the heartbreak and high stakes of indie game development straight from the creators themselves.