





Indie video games have been riding shotgun to blockbusters like Modern Warfare and Madden for years. One documentary is using the Internet to tell the story of a new breed of developers who are bringing independent and small-budget games into the spotlight.

Games such as Braid and Super Meat Boy are challenging the misconception that indie games are inferior to mainstream games both creatively and visually. Small-budget games are able to compete by breaking gaming conventions and experimenting with imaginative visual styles. Braid won widespread critical acclaim for its time-bending gameplay and melancholic overtures. Super Meat Boy, a cartoonish but enormously challenging platformer, recently hit 1 million downloads. Both games are featured in Indie Game: The Movie, a documentary that tracks how a group of indie games are developed, created and distributed. As with any documentary, there are breakdowns, heartbreak and uplifting success as the film follows the indie game process.

Indie games have hit new heights of popularity thanks to platforms like the Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network and online options such as Steam. What's more, indie games are simply getting better and better.

SEE ALSO: Indie Game Takes Social Media by Storm With One YouTube Video





The film will be shown for the first time in front of an audience at the 2012 Sundance Festival on Jan. 20. The Canadian duo behind the film, Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky of Blinkworks Production, are a little anxious about how it will go. See, Pajot and Swirsky haven't shown the film to anyone, but they funded and promoted Indie Game all through the Internet, raising a total of more than $100,000 through several Kickstarter campaigns and constant online updates to a growing gang of fans and supporters.

Mashable called Pajot and Swirsky to chat about the film and just why indie games are having their moment to shine. Read through our interview and be sure to check out an exclusive online scene from the film below.

Interview with Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky







Why did you decide to make this movie?

Swirsky: It was just this whole new world of people making, producing and distributing [games] ... There was just usually one person making them, they were making them in a much different way.

The interplay between their stories making the game and what the game actually became was really interesting and [the games] actually became a reflection of themselves.

Pajot: I think the big part of the indie game movement is authorship and having auteur creators.

Do you have any background in games yourselves?

Swirsky: I was actually a game tester for EA in Vancouver in 2000, or 2001 ... I grew up a gamer, it was a huge part of my life growing up — the NES and then the Sega Genesis — until I was about 16, then I sort of lost touch with it.

Neither of us are hardcore gamers, but both of us have an appreciation and a working knowledge [of] the industry.

All of the games and developers you interviewed had such a passion for their work, the games were like an extension of their personalities.

Swirsky: [With Braid-creator Jonathan Blow], you can tell he’s trying to say something there. You may not be sure what it is, but there’s purpose and deliberate intention behind every decision in that game.

"I think he really values the idea that people 'get' him by playing his games."

Pajot: I think for all of them … it’s just the way that they can talk to people the best and say what they mean. It’s a compulsion. [Super Meat Boy-co-creator Edmund McMillen] needs to talk to people this way because he feels uncomfortable talking to people one-on-one. It took him a long time to find this audience. He’s been making games for 10 years. I think he really values the idea that people "get" him by playing his games.

Swirsky: We now have this generation of people that grew up playing games, so they have this language. These are the things that influence them or influence their lives and they're using video games as a way to express themselves.

Did you find any overlap with your own filmmaking process?

Pajot: What’s incredibly comforting about making our movie was watching them make their games. There are always those cracking moments where you ask… "Are people really going to like this?" You have a relationship with the product you're making and sometimes you love it. And sometimes you hate it.

How did using Kickstarter help you launch the movie?

Pajot: We wouldn’t be where we were if we hadn’t shared an extra 80 minutes of film [online] and tweeted every day or answered questions every day.

Swirsky: [Kickstarter] basically removed all the financial barriers to making this film. We put a lot of personal savings into it, but we could make the film we wanted to make. The movie is premiering [at Sundance] and we're not starting from scratch because we know people are interested in it and want to see it.

Pajot: Creatively, it's also great to know that people care [about what you're doing]. It's mildly stressful, though, because you don't want to disappoint them. They spent all this time tweeting with us and we don't want them to not like it when it comes out.