This is a documentary released at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. Although it is titled "Indie Game Movie", "Indie Game" is only an introduction, and the main content of the record is the complete mental journey of game makers from designing an independent game to successfully releasing it and selling it. Other moviegoers may focus on the performance of the indie game makers themselves in the film, including their thoughts, emotions, etc. From the player's standpoint, I observe more of the huge gap between "author's expression" and "player's perception".
1. Author
Independent game makers are often at the top because they stand at the apex of their own work. The "high above" mentioned here does not contain the derogatory meaning of domineering and unattainable, but only for the audience position of the player. The whole process of the player playing the game is a process of constantly climbing to the ideological peak set by the author in the game. Obviously, being able to resonate deeply with players is the great success expressed by the author, but this also happens to be the most criticized point of Jonathan blow in the film.
There is no doubt that Jonathan blow is a fairy-level producer, and the work "Dreamland" mentioned in the documentary is his masterpiece. To put it bluntly, the picture, plot and depth of this work completely overwhelm all other independent game works in this film. But while the author was praised by players, he also received a flood of bad reviews, because he often accused players of making comments without understanding his game. For example, many players interpret the core of "Time and Space" as "Scientists have finally built a nuclear bomb through the hard pursuit of truth, which has made a big mistake, and it will be too late to regret it", but he strongly denies this. The players of Illusion were conflicted. When the reporter interviewed him about what he meant, he kept silent. In this case, the player denied the value of what the author Jonathan blow really wanted to express on the basis of acknowledging that the game was really good.
I write a lot of film reviews and get a lot of reviews, so I understand a writer like Jonathan. For example, when I wrote a film that I disliked some settings in "Frozen 2", some viewers who loved "Frozen 2" rushed out and accused me of not understanding, innocence, tinted glasses, ignorant and boring. At the same time, the audience who have the same criticism of the movie as I do will support me, but the reason why they support me is not the reason why I personally criticize the film. At this time, I am both the author of the film review article (like a game author) and the audience of the movie (like a game player), and I am sandwiched between the two, which is really doubly painful. Some players have gained profound insights from the game, but let the author fall into a huge pain that is not understood, and even suffer from depression, which is really thought-provoking. It is undeniable that Jonathan's paranoia and perfectionism are important reasons for the tragedy of his illness. This is the responsibility of the author, but the gap between the author and the player is also the player's responsibility, and the responsibility is very large.
2. Players
In an abridged clip from "Indie Game Movie", Edmund McMille (author of the two indie games "Super Meat Boy" and "The Binding of Isaac") explains what they perceive as "junk games" and "junk games" Player" made a ruthless taunt. This taunt is based on the "Skinner box mechanic" being abused by trash games. The "Skinner Box" mocked by Edmund is the behavior that the creators set up the "press the button to get the reward" mechanism in the garbage game, and encourage the player to repeatedly press the button to get the meaningless reward.
This mechanism actually leads to a complete disconnect between the creator's expression and the player's thinking. An excellent game should rely on the connotation and fun of the game itself to attract players. By cultivating players' conditioned behavioral habits, they will eventually only turn players into Pavlov's dogs. Such players who have been trained as dogs by game manufacturers can hardly feel the true connotation of the game, and are only urged by the game mechanism to keep pressing the button to get the short-term stimulation of emptiness and boredom.
Sadly, there are more and more players like this, who love the excitement that can be easily obtained by spending time or a little money, and the big game makers have found that this routine is faster and more money, and accordingly produced a large number of "Skinner Box" mechanics. "The game, a perfect two-way negative feedback loop. As a result, companies willing to make good quality games, like the independent game authors in the film, have become increasingly rare. It's mostly because of love that you can keep doing it.
3. The last words
Game authors and players should not be enemies, but the two sides are basically unable to understand each other, and even despise each other on a daily basis, which will inevitably make the gap between "author's expression" and "player's perception" never filled. Obviously, the author's paranoia and the superficiality of the players will make good games drift away from us.
I hope that one day, the author can let players interpret the game according to their own ideas (this is the right that players deserve), and players can also respect independent game authors who gave up the skinner box mechanism, and actively stay away from those junk games, Feel the charm of the work. After all, games are the ninth art!
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