Watching Notes from an Indie Game Maker

Kale 2022-02-04 08:14:08

No boss fight, no death penalty or penalties for dying, it's a 'stop and smell the flowers' kind of game"

This film has been lying in my Steam library for four years, and I remember it was tie-in when I repaid Braid at that time. This time, in order to clear the hard disk space, I finally saw the 7 GB.

As a fan of puzzle games, Braid and FEZ occupy the top two spots on the GOAT list of games in my mind. Braid is one achievement short of all clearance, and FEZ all achievements are cleared.

I took notes while watching and shared them here. It basically recorded some plots that moved me (spoiler alert?), and of course mixed with my personal subjective judgment. If there is any inappropriateness, please do not take it seriously, and welcome to communicate.


Indie Game: The Movie Notes

Production line vs workshop:

Commercial games are production-line, and the current mainstream trend is to make them more ambitious and realistic, and always want to amplify everything. Indie games are workshop-style, private and spiritual. Similar to literary novels and literary films, but somewhat different. The author not only expresses himself in one direction and expects resonance, but also actively interacts with the audience through his works. It is a spiral ladder of "expression-feedback-anti-feedback" to achieve soul fusion.

Perspective and Realm:

Excellent indie games do not lie in niche gameplay, perverted art, or sub-cultural voices, but in the perspective of observing and expressing the world, such as Braid's reversal of time and FEZ's 2D/3D dislocation. This is not only the accumulation of professional experience over the years and a flash of inspiration, but also the precipitation of the author's past life and his perception of the changes around him. In terms of realm, Braid is like a person in his forties who calmly interprets time and space; FEZ is like a person in his thirties who is struggling to deconstruct the world; Meat Boy is like a person in his twenties who expresses his personality. .

Author's Difficulties:

Braid is a nine-point or even ten-point masterpiece in the industry, but the superficial magic of the game is enough to amaze the audience, so many people fail to go deep and understand the emotions and thoughts that the game really wants to express. Jonathan Blow was disappointed by the failure to connect souls. Phil's relationship with his former partner is a lot like Halliday's relationship with his partner in Ready Player One, a feud between a sensitive and introverted world builder and another businessman with different personalities and values. Edmund and Tommy care too much about success and about being recognized by the mainstream.

Phil's golden quote:

Phil described FEZ in this way, "No boss fight, no death penalty or penalties for dying, it's a 'stop and smell the flowers' kind of game".

Jon's thoughts:

Jonathan Blow has clearly reached the philosophical level. He said that in order to cater to more users, commercial game manufacturers will polish off the edges and corners of the game to present a bright and beautiful product. And indie games are personified, we all have shortcomings, you see a person is perfect, you can't find any shortcomings, maybe you are not close enough.

Some other records:

In level design, a mechanism needs to be reusable and complex. Important mechanics are taught to ensure user mastery and provide review in subsequent levels based on the forgetting curve.
Meat Boy saves his girlfriend. In the Chinese context, he can be a yang fish looking for a yin fish. To be successful together is to be successful.
The three historical masterpieces are all Arcade types, that is, the jumping game represented by Super Mario, which proves the classic and extensible of this ancient gameplay. So are other types also possible to hit the historical level? Edmund's next game, Isaac, for example, is a Zelda genre.
The incongruity of Braid's fifth level of opulent furniture littering the rancid swamp and sinking slowly creates a sense of discomfort.

View more about Indie Game: The Movie reviews

Extended Reading
  • Abelardo 2022-03-28 09:01:14

    Detailed and comprehensive completion is high because the difficulty factor is really not big

  • Tyra 2022-03-28 09:01:14

    After reading this, are you still embarrassed to jailbreak and install pirated copies?

Indie Game: The Movie quotes

  • Jonathan Blow: If you don't see a vulnerability in somebody, you're probably not relating with them on a very personal level.

  • Edmund McMillen: My whole career has been me, trying to find new ways to communicate with people, because I desperately want to communicate with people, but I don't want the messy interaction of having to make friends and talk to people, because I probably don't like them.