After two successful Kickstarter campaigns, which raised a total of $94,676, James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot released Indie Game: The Movie this past June. The documentary first appeared to the public back in January, at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received notable acclaim and won the World Cinema Documentary Editing Award.

While Indie Game: The Movie has been available to the public since June through Steam (being the first film available through Steam), Amazon, iTunes, the Google Play store, and YouTube, Netflix is the first to offer Indie Game: The Movie through a streaming service.

Indie Game: The Movie documents the struggles of independent game developers Jonathan Blow (Braid), Phil Fish (Fez), and Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes (Super Meat Boy), as they painstakingly developed and anxiously released their respective games.

From over 300 hours of recorded footage, Swirsky and Pajot produced a concise 96 minute documentary which tells the stories of the three developers during various stages of their game’s development.

The soundtrack to Indie Game: The Movie is the work of Jim Guthrie, the composer to Superbrothers: Sword and Swocery EP.

Indie Game: The Movie holds universal high ratings: 8/10 on IMDB, 4/5 on Netflix, 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 9/10 from The New York Times.

Both James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot are at Iceland’s Reykjavik International Film Festival this week. There will be a screening of Indie Game: The Movie, as well as a post-screening Q&A session. The duo will also be participating on panels discussing digitial distribution, and an “extended talk” about the production of the film.

The official website for Indie Game: The Movie is selling pre-orders for physical DVDs and Blu-rays of the documentary, as well as a $9.99 digital download of the documentary.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – ‘Indie Game: The Movie’ Now Streaming On Netflix

Earlier this morning Jonathan Blow, creator of the popular indie puzzle game Braid was featured on CBS News to discuss the current state of the video game industry and his new game The Witness. Blow commented on the message the video game medium is attempting to purvey. He stated that “I [have] this idea of what games should do. They should be pushing the boundaries and trying to expand the medium because someday games can have a much bigger role in terms of their participation.” The interview continued with Blow claiming that game developers should think about what immature games can do to our modern environment.  You can see the full piece here.

The end of the piece featured Blow discussing aspects of his upcoming game The Witness, which is a 3D puzzle game. Blow claims that it is both better and more thoughtful than Braid. CBS stated that The Witness has been in production for over 4 years now, and that it has cost Blow nearly all the money he has earned from Braid.

On a alternative note, it was interesting for Indie gaming to get into the news, even if it is one of the more recognizable Indie developers and game. Also interesting is hearing news reporters talk about the gaming industry, which it is somewhat obvious they do not cover often.

The release date of The Witness is still unknown, with Blow stating he is still rethinking the puzzles of the 3D island.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Jonathan Blow on CBS News: Talks Gaming Industry, ‘The Witness’

We’ve just written up a post about the Develop Conference Indie Showcase which highlights the 10 finalists fairly and squarely, because that’s the right thing to do. However, out of those familiar games comes a DigiPen student creation that we’ve never met eyes with before but its blown some minds around here, thus making it very worthy of its very own post. Remember the first time you saw Fez in action and the 2D world suddenly became 3D? Well, take that to the next level and that’s what we’ve got going on here.

Perspective takes what would otherwise be a fairly typical 2D platformer and once again shoves it into a 3D world. This one isn’t confined to the four faces of a cube though, instead, the player is given control of the camera from a first person perspective. While doing this, the screen 2D character is locked in place and once the perspective has been shifted, they can then be unlocked and travel across the world. It’s basically like walking through a 3D level but having to bring a little 2D person with you, sort of.

As usual, these kinds of things always come out like nonsense when futilely explained with words such as this, so you better watch the trailer. You really should!

Impressive, no? We’ll pursue the student developer of Perspective if we can to find out how they pulled this rather marvellous feat off, and to see when are where it might be playable. It is a DigiPen student project which have a good track record of releasing excellent games for free, so we can’t see this being any different.

Consisting of a couple of ex-members of the Bionic Commando team, Might and Delight are a Swedish studio of 14 developers who have created what seems to be one of the next big platformers coming out of the indie scene. Pid is likely to sit among the likes of Braid and Super Meat Boy upon release, due to its unique art style and distinct game mechanics, not to mention its intuitive feel. Following the story of a young boy named Kurt, the player must overcome the obstacles of a robotic world which is under the command of an all-controlling power. Every movement and motion of the world’s inhabitants is under intense scrutiny from security cameras and bots. What the game is truly an allegory for remains to be seen, but its impending release has us excited because Pid is a joyous little trip through a strange and sordid land.

Housed in its XBLA publisher D3′s kiosk, I picked up the Xbox controller on the E3 show floor expecting a good old-fashioned platformer. I wasn’t too far off: this is indeed a platformer and functions like so. However, Pid‘s main action consists of using what could be described as an instrument which shoots light beams. These light beams are your means of travel through the volatile environment and, although at first uncomfortably strange, they will eventually become second nature in your time with the game.

You can only have two active light beams at a time, which means you will have to be precise with your selection. As the robots in the world of Pid are at war with each other, there’s a sense of impending doom for Kurt. This aids in the developing of a sense of urgency; Kurt just wants to get home to his family. For the most part, though, you can take your time with the stages/levels and will want to do so to avoid dying repeatedly. While you’re doing that, the game is rather superbly creating a forlorn atmosphere.

While initially Pid‘s light beam mechanic is introduced rather lightly and simply as a means to roam the environment, later power-ups such as a slingshot will help you better your platforming skills by allowing you to shoot light beams in places that were once unreachable such as ceilings. This promises to be good news for campaigning hopefuls – who are promised 10 hours of gameplay if taking their time with the game. And even though the slingshot can be regarded as a weapon, it really isn’t one. In Pid, you want to avoid direct confrontations and focus on avoiding obstacles safely instead.

Might and Delight will also include a co-op mode in Pid in which Kurt will play alongside a female friend named Aurora. The two will be able to aid each other in puzzles but with one catch: they are unable to spam light beams and will only be able to shoot one at a time (for each). The co-op game mode will be same-screen and, provided both gamers have good chemistry with the in-game mechanics, should last a couple hours less than the single-player. With a delightful and luminous art design, Pid promises to likely be a hit on Xbox Live Arcade, as well as on PC and PSN. In 15 minutes of play, I was intrigued and really wanted to finish the story, but I will have to wait for my chance just as the rest of you this summer.

For more on Pid, check out the official website.

Don’t fret! This isn’t another clone. Our reference to Braid there is merely based upon a slight visual resemblance. What do you think, looking at that screenshot above? Similar art style to Braid, right? Prepare to be impressed – this is a student project developed by a group of seven at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology in Malaysia.

In Awakened: The Search For Memories, you play as a 16 year old boy who is lost in his dreams. To awaken, you must help him find his lost memories. An intriguing concept but not unlike many plots we’ve heard before. The part that really matters is the gameplay of course. You’ll be commanding the elements in this sidescrolling puzzle platformer. Ice, wind, fire, earth and water seem to be the line up – each of which can be used to directly affect the environment to your will.

While Awakened is visually pleasing, we have to say that the puzzle and platforming elements look fairly basic. For a student game this is a pretty remarkable effort though. Ideally, we’ll be proven wrong if we even get to lay our hands on the game. Unfortunately all we have for now is a trailer to admire, so feel free to do so:

Jonathan Blow, creator of Braid, had a little sit down discussion with Gamespot which, as with most things he says, is worth listening to if you’re in the field of game design.

The first four minutes of this video interview with Blow are definitely the more interesting – the rest of it discusses the state of modern Japanese games which, to be honest, is a moot point but it does feed into Blow’s mentioning of “the joy of discovery”.

So, for those interested in some more interesting game design ideas from Blow, you’ll want to pay attention to the first four minutes. An interesting point from Blow is how indie games, he argues, started getting a little bit more validity in the grand scale of the industry in 2008 as they weren’t just small hobby projects, but interesting exciting other experiences.

He then moves on to the idea of having fun, seeming to evaluate that there are two types of fun – one being fun in the literal sense, a game that is just designed to be fun. The other being that games such as Counter Strike and Braid are fun, but are designed to be grueling for the player – giving them tough challenges to overcome. Blow then says that game designers have only just really started exploring the different emotional experiences that games can deliver, going further to imply that the AAA industry focuses too much on delivering only one type of these experiences, or perhaps a handful at most.

So, like we said, the rest of the video feeds into that discussion that Phil Fish ignited with his blunt discretion of the modern Japanese games industry during GDC. Blow seems to think the same way, that being that the Japanese games of today often don’t feed into that “joy of discovery” – as in they don’t allow the player to feel their way around the game and simply tell them exactly what to do. Now before you get all heated, he does mention the same of the AAA industry in the Western part of the world too.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the video for you to watch yourself:

Jonathan Blow is still in development of his next game The Witness, of which you can find more information over on the official website.

Game developer Jonathan Blow is a busy man. So we found ourselves scrambling about in a panic when we were given the chance to get an update on what’s going on these days with his hotly anticipated adventure title The Witness, and the team behind it, straight from the horse’s mouth. Weeks were spent attempting to scratch out a few decent questions regarding his upcoming game, development style, and some habitual leisure activities (weeks may have also been spent on holiday break as well), and now you can find those inquiries below, along (happily) with his responses.

I know well enough by now not to prod about specific dates, but how is everything coming along with The Witness? As far as your development style goes: what stage is the title’s gameplay currently in?

Jonathan Blow: Yeah, the release date really is “When it’s done”. Things are coming along. We have now staffed up (which is kind of scary!) and we are cranking on production kinds of things (location design, modeling and texturing, audio).

As for what stage the gameplay is in, well, this is a really big and complicated project so it is not traveling linear through those kinds of phases. It is more that different parts of the game are in different phases at any one time. Most of the game has been figured out, in a basic way, in terms of what the puzzles are and how they work, such that I would be happy shipping the game as such. But there is a lot of benefit to be gained after things are done to this first-pass level, just letting things simmer and looking for opportunities to make the design better.

I think this is a difference that a lot of the more successful indie games have with the ones that languish and you only hear about on tigsource or whatever. With the really successful ones, usually they didn’t just ship the first thing they got together that was playable. Things have really been refined and thought about, and there’s been a lot of attention to detail — not just in terms of obvious things like graphical polish, but also relatively intangible gameplay details. So that’s what we are doing right now.

That said, though, the game is not playable right now; it’d be a substantial amount of work just to tie it up and ship exactly what we have. So the rest of development will be a sort of managed chaos where we keep things loose enough that we can make opportunistic improvements, but also ensure that the game is solidifying such that it will really ship.

From what I’ve read and seen so far, the game carries themes of exploration, isolation, and perhaps even some otherworldly stuff. Without giving too much away, can you talk on these or any other themes, motifs, or basic concepts included in the game?

JB: The theme is heavily inspired by Myst: you are alone, on an island, the island is a bit surreal, and you are learning about your situation as you explore. I would say that identity is a big question: who are you, and who are the people who stuck you here? The game is grounded in a certain kind of existentialism: what is the point of being here, in a place, walking around and seeing things and thinking about them?

What are some of the differences/similarities you have encountered in the general design/development process going from a 2D puzzle platformer like Braid to a 3D exploration-puzzler that maybe surprised you or you didn’t anticipate?

JB: There aren’t too many fundamental differences that I didn’t anticipate. I have done 3D stuff before (almost everything I have done since 1996 has been 3D) so the tech, art, etc are not a surprise. However, I have never done a very detail-oriented 3D game like this before, with as big a team. So there were a few surprises. At the beginning I figured, “hey, I should get a concept artist to design the locations and buildings and stuff, because that is just how stuff is done in the game industry on bigger games,” and for the first year we did that and it was very helpful. It helped us get on track in terms of thinking about the look of the game, but at the same time, I eventually felt that in order to really get what we wanted, we needed to bring in some people with domain knowledge. That’s how we ended up bringing on architects to design the buildings and landscape in the specific areas.

How did you form your way of game development? Was it something that happened naturally, or have you had to sort of tweak and improve the process over time? For instance: At what point did you conclude that fully exploring a mechanic is beneficial but using everything you find is not because it lacks truth?

JB: It happened naturally as I developed game after game learning from each game; but also, I think I made a lucky choice when making Braid, in terms of choosing to follow the way the game wanted to go, rather than imposing my original top-down ideas. That allowed me to learn in a high-density way.

Some folks may still carry the notion that you’re a one-man operation, but that isn’t at all the case. What’s the team member count currently?

JB: It’s a lot! Right now we have 5 full-time people who are actually employees (soon to be 6). There are another 8 people working on the game as contractors or external companies we are working with (such as the architects). Maybe I am forgetting someone in there, so it’s about 14 or 15 individual people right now.

Can you tell us about some of the differences, challenges, and benefits of working with a team on The Witness after taking on the development of Braid (except for the art) entirely on your own?

JB: It’s just a bigger team, with a lot more to organize, but I knew that going into it so it’s not that big a deal. The good part of this is there’s more momentum, things get done without you having to do them personally. The bad part is that there’s more momentum, so it is harder to change tactics or respond to small opportunities, and it requires substantial effort to keep everything that everyone builds tied together and feeling like a coherent, personal work. (AAA games tend not to have this problem because they don’t care about being personal or about being tightly-tied-together in the same way).

You’ve been working on The Witness for quite a while now and have already expressed to me your hope to see this game launch in 2012. Understanding your thoughts are still on your current project, I have to ask: what (if anything) you have lined up once the game has been released? Immediately a well earned break I should hope, but after that where do you see yourself? Hoping back into development of your next project, getting further involved with IndieFund, caving to Braid 2 demands…Well probably not the last one, but anything in mind?

JB: I have a lot of ideas for what we could do next, but right now our focus is entirely on completing The Witness and making it as good as possible. Braid 2 is extremely unlikely. More than that I really can’t say; there are about 10 different games that I could plausibly see us doing next.

Anybody who has followed along with your efforts in the industry the past few years can see the passion you have for what you do. What other passions or interests do you have outside of your work?

JB: I go out dancing a lot! I do tai chi as well.

Thanks to Jonathan for taking time out of his schedule and responding to our questions. The Witness is currently slated for a 2012 release for PC and other platforms.

[Photo taken at IndieCade 2011 by Kevin Harland. In-game screens taken from this Witness devblog update (with higher resolution shots).]

So here’s some interesting, non-bundle related news for you. Over on the official Playstation blog Sony has released the top 10 best selling PSN indie games for the entire year and, well, I wouldn’t call it too surprising although the way they have it broken down can be a bit confusing.

Essentially what they’ve done is broken it down into three different sections:

• Top 10 best selling third party/self-published indies
• Top 10 best selling SCEA published indies (not really indie)
• Top 5 best selling Pub Fund titles (sort of a hybrid between the two)

Also it appears that this list is just for the US and Canada as it was released by Sony Computer Entertainment America. Europe and Japan (or Asia) have their own metrics, I’m assuming.

Anyway, here you guys go:

Top 10 best selling third party/self published titles

1. Limbo (Playdead)
2. Castle Crashers (The Behemoth)
3. TestYourself Psychology (Creat Studios)
4. Marvel Pinball (Zen Studios)
5. Worms 2 Armageddon (Team 17)
6. Dungeon Defenders (Trendy Entertainment)
7. Armageddon Riders (Targem Games)
8. Braid (Number None Inc.)
9. UnderSiege (Seed Studios)
10. Hamsterball (TikGames)

No big surprises here. Limbo was obviously a huge game on XBLA as was Castle Crashers so it makes sense. Surprising to see Braid so high up after being available for so long, but it’s a testament to how good the game is.

One game I hadn’t even heard of was TestYourself Psychology. I’ll have to take a look at that sometime today.

Top 10 best selling SCEA-published titles

1. PixelJunk Shooter 2 (Q-Games)
2. Fat Princess (Titan Studios)
3. Flower (thatgamecompany)
4. Aquatopia (Playlogic Entertainment)
5. Hustle Kings (VooFoo Sudios)
6. Eat Them! (FluffyLogic)
7. Top Darts (Devil’s Details)
8. Super Stardust HD (Housemarque)
9. Linger in Shadows (Plastic)
10. Rag Doll Kung Fu (Qi Studios)

Again I’m not sure I would qualify these as “indie” given their relationship with Sony, but, what the hell? The more the merrier! Also I was a huge fan of Fat Princess when it came out.

Top 5 best selling Pub Fund titles

1. Hoard (Big Sandwich Games)
2. Tales From Space: About a Blob (DrinkBox)
3. Joe Danger (Hello Games)
4. Eufloria (Omni Systems Limited)
5. Explodemon! (Curve Studios)

Very happy to see Tales From Space: About a Blob up there as I was originally worried that it would end up becoming an undiscovered gem. Also a little surprising that it sold better than Joe Danger which, admittedly, had more of a marketing push at least from our perspective.

Any surprises here? Any games you think were deserving but didn’t make it?

Personally, I’m a little disappointed they don’t give actual sales data but that’s understandable. Also where’s our PSN Minis metric? There are some great indies there.

[via Playstation blog]

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DIYGamer Holiday Give Away! For each and every article we post we’re giving away an indie game.

This article’s game is Tidalis for the PC/Steam, by Arcen Games!

Leave a meaningful comment below to enter into the drawing.

Big news coming from the filmmaking fellows of Indie Game: The Movie, as they announce their unique documentary will be on display (and competition) at Sundance next month. The film has earned a selection in the World Documentary Competition portion of the festival and will make its world premiere there in January.

Those indie game indie movie boys will be up against a dozen or so other films in their specific category, and were plucked from literally thousands of submissions–so this kind of recognition is already something amazing to take in, especially for the filmmakers themselves. It’s also really cool for the indie games industry in general if you ask me. Best of luck to them.

The competition runs January 19-29 next year (which, conveniently, is almost this year.) For anyone interested in attending, head over to the Sundance website for ticket info and such. If you can’t make it over to Utah but really want to see the movie, request a local screening. That way you can check out Super Meat Boy devs Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, Braid creator Jon Blow, and Fez commander Phil Fish in action from the comfort of your own hometown.

[Indie Game: The Movie]

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DIYGamer Holiday Give Away! For each and every article we post we’re giving away an indie game.

This article’s game is PLATFORMANCE: Temple Death for the Xbox 360.

Leave a meaningful comment below to enter into the drawing.

Braid is still considered by many to be one of the best XBLA games to ever get released. It’s combination of challenging time puzzles mixed with an intriguing plat structure and wonderful art easily made it an instant classic. Causality Flux is similar to Braid with regards to the time puzzles.

Causality Flux is a time puzzle platformer. What I mean by that is, essentially, the game is similar to Braid. You control a character who has to solve various time-related puzzles to reach complete. The semantics are different, however, in Causality Flux it doesn’t really appear that you’re simply trying to get to the other level, rather you’re trying to complete a task. One of the examples in the trailer is retrieving a girls kitten from the other side of a spike pit.

The game has a lot to live up to being a time puzzle platformer as Braid set the bar really high. Currently Causality Flux’s graphics look bland and the lack of audio in the trailer really hampers the experience. But the puzzles do look solid and since the game is still in development it has a ways to go before its finished.

I’ll try and dig up more info on the game but since the official site is practically empty I’m not too optimistic. I’ll update when I get something though!

[Causality Flux]

Trailer