It's sometimes easy to forget that games are made by people. Game developers, for the most part, aren't particularly visible, and aside from a few big names, most players don't associate specific designers with specific games. The aptly titled feature documentary Indie Game: The Movie is looking to change that by telling the stories of some of the most acclaimed indie games of recent years, and showing just what it takes to create them. The film just recently successfully completed a second round of funding through Kickstarter, and the creators hope to have it completed this fall.

The project was inspired mainly by a trip to the 2009 Game Developer's Conference. James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot, the duo behind the film, were sent to GDC on an assignment for New Media Manitoba to cover local game developers, and quickly became fascinated by the indie game development scene they encountered. Later on, the two created a series of documentaries for the Manitoba government, including one on Winnipeg's Alec Holowka, co-creator of Aquaria, and the positive response they received inspired them to get to work on IGTM early last year.

The film has remained true to the original vision, showcasing indie developers, but the structure has changed along the way. Originally planned to be a essay-style documentary, things eventually shifted towards a focus on narrative. Though this was what the team always wanted to do, they didn't originally think it was possible.

"We were quite uncertain if you can actually make a watchable film of someone making a game," Swirsky told Ars.

"It wasn’t until we were about 85 percent done filming that we started to completely rethink the focus of the project. At the time, we were filming with Phil Fish at PAX East—watching him go through some truly gut-wrenching stuff as he debuted his game FEZ. [It was] stuff that demanded its own space in a film to do it justice. At this point, we had already filmed with Edmund and Tommy of Super Meat Boy, as they went through their release, gathering very similar material. Exceptionally emotional stuff that demands screen time to show.

"Before, we knew it, we had the material for the film that we actually wanted to make, but didn’t set out to. In Super Meat Boy and FEZ, we had a narrative about making and releasing a game—filmed in real time."

The film also focuses on the story of Jonathan Blow, interweaving the story of the already complete Braid with the other two games still in progress.

IGTM was initially funded through donations from Kickstarter; the film managed to surpass its funding goal of $15,000 to receive more than $23,000. But as the film expanded in scope, that money began to run out, and so a second funding campaign began earlier this week, launched alongside a new trailer. This time the funding goal was reached in less than 24 hours. And with just under a month left to go, nearly 900 people have already helped IGTM surpass the $40,000 funding plateau, $5,000 more than the initial goal.

While Swirsky and Pajot were initially worried about running a second campaign for fear of being seen as greedy, the lack of funds was beginning to affect the quality of the movie.

"We think we have something that could turn out pretty special and we want to make sure we finish it properly," explained Swirsky. "Which requires services and talents outside of our own, and unfortunately, these things tend to be rather pricey.

"But, in doing both our Kickstarters we structured them not as a donation campaign, but more as a preorder campaign. You are basically pre-purchasing the DVD, Special Edition, Digital Download, etc. There is space to straight-up donate to the cause, but we don’t push that."

With filming now complete, they have managed to put together a rough cut of the film, and the additional funding will be used to enhance what they already have, which includes a soundtrack by Jim Guthrie, the composer behind the iPad hit Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. The project has clearly struck a chord with the gaming community, as the two successful Kickstarter campaigns attest, but the hope is that it will also reach a much broader audience as well.

"At its core, it's a film about making stuff and putting it out there," Pajot told Ars. "It's about working hard on something and then seeing if people heard you and understood what you're trying to say.

"It's a film about creators."

Listing image by Image of Braid creator Jonathan Blow courtesy Indie Game: The Movie