My favorite part of the movie was the insight about how personally expressive and artistic video game development can be- especially on the indie level. Like any good artist these guys are trying to come to terms with some major event or issue in their lives.
To hear Phil's story of his dad creating simple games from his childhood art for him to play when he got home from school, or the guy that found a stash of his childhood art at his grandma's and re-discovered the same themes and characters that were in his games 20+ years later-- pretty neat that the filmmaker was able to find those moments.
I also love that doc, but haven't played any of the games. I think Steam is a really cool company. It's neat to see them turned what seemed to me (as a teenager) the easiest to crack media item into a thriving and profitable industry for both the big and tiny players. Why isn't there a Steam for movies and music?
There is! It's called iTunes/GooglePlay/Amazon. But there are way less sales (EDIT: by this I mean "stuff on sale") and they aren't integrated which is understandable. My girl and I just bought the same track, her on iTunes, me on Amazon due to the slow-burning rage the iTunes app kindles in my heart whenever I accidentally launch it.
I got distracted at work this morning with looking up articles on Fish and Blow to explore their deeply personal exploration in some indie games, here are some links in case you never caught them;
"I pivoted away from the monitor to look at the man on the sofa—face bathed in the glow of his laptop, widow’s peak veering slightly to the left—and realized with a start that I was wandering around inside Blow’s own mind."
"I'm becoming more and more useless, and it's kind of scary actually. All my friends who have shipped their big indie game all warn me of the most severe depression of my life coming."
Oh yeah Curt that reminds me I still have your email about the Minecraft server flagged in my to-do list, SBG and I will be logging in soon! Get ready for some ponies.
If I decide to go in on Minecraft I would love to check out your lands. I still don't completely understand how it works. You just sort of mine and build crazy stuff? It's sort of an MMO?
Currently I'm doing FFXIV which is incredibly beautiful but intensely nerdy.
Comments
To hear Phil's story of his dad creating simple games from his childhood art for him to play when he got home from school, or the guy that found a stash of his childhood art at his grandma's and re-discovered the same themes and characters that were in his games 20+ years later-- pretty neat that the filmmaker was able to find those moments.
I got distracted at work this morning with looking up articles on Fish and Blow to explore their deeply personal exploration in some indie games, here are some links in case you never caught them; http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/the-most-dangerous-gamer/308928/ http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134934/the_making_of_fez_the_breaking_of_.php?print=1
The dialogue/voice acting is awful, which is disappointing.
His voice sounds ok, but yeah her voice is pretty robotic.
Good one.
If I decide to go in on Minecraft I would love to check out your lands. I still don't completely understand how it works. You just sort of mine and build crazy stuff? It's sort of an MMO?
Currently I'm doing FFXIV which is incredibly beautiful but intensely nerdy.
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/microsoft-near-deal-to-buy-minecraft-1410300213-lMyQjAxMTA0MDAwOTEwNDkyWj
I'm not sure what that will mean for Minecraft. Hopefully not the same thing it meant for Rare and Bungie (i.e. games for only MS platforms).
If I wasn't playing big dumb Destiny (speaking of bad voice acting) I would probably be downloading Minecraft tonight because of this video.