Or the indie game is closest to the essence of the game - after watching "Indie Movie"

Xzavier 2022-02-04 08:14:08

The documentary "Indie Movie" revolves around three of the best indie games, telling about their origins, the production process, the twists and difficulties in the middle, the troubles and perseverance of the producers, and of course the victory of the final producers. The three independent games are:

Braid 2009
Producer: Jonathan Blow

Super Meat Boy 2010
Producer: Macmillan (artist), Reffin (programming)

FEZ 2012
Producer: Phil Fish

Revelation 1: The earliest games are closest to the essence of games, and independent games are returning to the earliest games.

These independent game developers have an obvious common feature. They all grew up playing games on Nintendo's red and white consoles, such as Super Mario , The Legend of Zelda, Tetris and more. They usually despise today's so-called game masterpieces, and think that games at that time were really good games before the invention of the Internet (this is really to my taste, the current online games are scum).

They usually get the idea of ​​making their own games at that point, and when they actually start making games now, it's no surprise that they're consciously going back to the earliest games. This can be seen from the picture engine they use. There are almost no exceptions. They all use the pixel engine (pixel engine), which is the kind that everyone first saw on the red and white machine. Of course, pixel games can’t be compared with those large-scale productions that are tens of millions in terms of special effects and fidelity, but the essence of games is to stimulate players’ imagination. Compared with 2048x2048 super-large textures, SSAO, bump textures, and pixels are better. Stimulate the imagination. This is like a landscape painting or oil painting that stimulates the viewer's imagination more than a photograph.

Revelation 2: Indie games are completely personal and flawed, but that's exactly what makes them so appealing

Jonathan Blow: Things that are personal… have flaws. They have vulnerabilities. If you don't see a vulnerability in somebody. You're probably not relating to them on a very personal level. Flaws. They have flaws. If you can't find flaws in someone, you probably won't have a personal relationship with them)

In Braid, Tim (the protagonist of the game) looks like an ordinary city White-collar workers can neither save the world, nor slay dragons, and go through a hail of bullets. This game is about discovering yourself, your own mistakes.

Super Meat Boy is just a mass of meat without skin protection, and even the smallest things can be deadly to him.

FEZ can only see one side of the 3D world at a time.

Revelation 3: Independent games pay great attention to the innovation and fun of

gameplay. The protagonist of FEZ lives in a 3D world, but every time he can only see a 2D surface, going back and forth between the 2D surface of a 3D object Explore, just imagine how fun and complex this can be.

Super Meat Boy's gameplay emphasizes fast jumps, and reflexes are everything. If you find that you often can't help falling the handle and pulling your hair while playing SMB, don't be nervous, you're just one of countless SMB victims.

Braid's rewinding time is definitely a great initiative. Although Prince of Persia can also rewind time through the sand of time, the number of times is very limited. In Braid, you can turn back time at any time, and this is not just a gameplay, time reversal and Braid's plot There are also deep connections.

View more about Indie Game: The Movie reviews

Extended Reading
  • Trent 2022-03-18 09:01:10

    Making games is as crazy as making movies, it's just more lonely...

  • Darien 2022-03-16 09:01:09

    If you want to cry and fuck, you all need an aloof and paranoid prison soul!

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.