Adventure Game Studio

Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: Igor Hardy on Sat 30/03/2013 10:02:35

Title: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: Igor Hardy on Sat 30/03/2013 10:02:35
My friend and adamant indie dev meetups organizer Tomasz Kaczmarek - who some of you may have personally met (or even listened to his talk) at the recent AdventureX - needs survey data for research papers. Big thanks to anyone that participates!

Why: Research materials and variety of perspectives for mine final essay “How does ‘Indie Game: The Movie' represent games and game culture” on Theory at Brunel University West London - Digital Games Theory and Design MA.
How: Survey monkey with 9 comment questions and 1 graded.
How long: Till Mid April
Rewards: My gratitude, putting your nicknames/names in my Final Work, interest in collaboration on some game projects
Who: Tomasz “Fanotherpg” Kaczmarek, indie trying to find himself in academia world. Organizing indie and gamedev related talks and events in Poland.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DTD8J9X

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=32062.0
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: Radiant on Sat 30/03/2013 10:34:06
So what is indie game: the movie?
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: Stupot on Sat 30/03/2013 12:41:35
I bought the film on steam ages ago but still haven't got around to watching it.  This might be a good excuse to finally watch it. :D
@Radiant http://www.indiegamethemovie.com/about/
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: Mati256 on Sat 30/03/2013 17:16:40
It's a great documentary, but you have to put with Phil Fish at some bits. I recommend watching it, specially if you have played Braid, Super Meat Boy (or anything from Edmund McMillen) or Fez.
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: Igor Hardy on Sat 06/04/2013 16:28:03
So... Anyone here did this? Anyone still needs a pirate copy of the movie or some other form of encouragement?
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: Cerno on Sun 07/04/2013 00:10:45
I got it a few months ago via HumbleBundle.
For me it was a very intense experience, especially the little tragedies that can befall an indie project.

I just did the survey. Hope it helps.
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: Armageddon on Sun 07/04/2013 07:50:39
Quote from: Mati256 on Sat 30/03/2013 17:16:40
It's a great documentary, but you have to put with Phil Fish at some bits. I recommend watching it, specially if you have played Braid, Super Meat Boy (or anything from Edmund McMillen) or Fez.
Yah Phil Fish is an arsehat.
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: Igor Hardy on Sun 07/04/2013 08:30:21
Thanks Cerno!
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: Fitz on Sun 07/04/2013 09:59:40
Filled it out just now, too. Would've done it sooner, but I was superbusy with updating Gray. Anyway, good survey. The one question I felt was missing from it is the question of bending the reality a little by omitting facts -- whether to steer the viewers' sympathy in one direction or the other, or to add some thrill to the story -- which is a very common practice in maaaany documentaries. Case in point: "Catfish" and "Sugarman".
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: frenzykitty on Sun 07/04/2013 13:10:02
Great doccie! Pity about the Fish character.
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: Cerno on Sun 07/04/2013 17:15:05
Just out of curiosity: Why the hate for Phil Fish? Was it his endless droning on about his former partner or just his personality?
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: frenzykitty on Mon 08/04/2013 16:51:16
For me, he was very self-obsessed and sulky.
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: Fitz on Mon 08/04/2013 18:22:13
Yeah, he is a loudmouth, has an ego, is erratic at times, and he talks before he thinks -- but he made Fez, so somewhere deep inside there has to be some good in him, right? And despite what he said about PC's only being good for spreadsheets, I knew he'd come around. And it happened -- mostly because he got screwed over by M$ (which was painfully predictable), but still - and Fez is now heading for Steam. So yeah, he might be the Axl Rose/Fred Durst of indie games industry -- but he cared about the game, you could see how obsessed with the tiniest details he was. You gotta give him credit for that.
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: Igor Hardy on Mon 08/04/2013 18:45:01
I mostly don't like him because of the drama he put on concerning the production of Fez. Including claims he'll kill himself if he doesn't get to finish the game. And the terrible TRAGEDY of having the game overhyped. So much that he felt he deserved a 2nd go in the IGF.

Also, for telling with a straight face that being good friends with the organizer of IGF and a good number of the judges doesn't give him any advantages in the competition.
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: Cerno on Tue 09/04/2013 05:21:42
Okay, thanks for the insight.

Some of the things you mentioned were not in the documentary (e.g. the IGF stuff), and others I can relate to after having seen the movie.
Although I can understand the pressure one must be under when your game hangs by a thread, I guess he was overreacting at times.

One thing I found fishy (hur hur) was when he went to PAX with only one bleeding edge, untested version of the game without a backup and was surprised when it contained a game breaking bug. Ah, the folly of youth ;)
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: Armageddon on Tue 09/04/2013 06:33:59
I don't care about his personality at all, I don't like him because he released FEZ with lots of game breaking bugs and refuses to update it because Microsoft has an update fee that he didn't want to pay, it's a very small fee so I didn't see the problem.
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: KBlaney on Tue 09/04/2013 06:45:08
Quote from: Cerno on Sun 07/04/2013 17:15:05
Just out of curiosity: Why the hate for Phil Fish? Was it his endless droning on about his former partner or just his personality?

He's also come under some fire for some comments he made about Japanese games "just sucking" and being "joyless husks".
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: amateurhour on Tue 09/04/2013 19:49:02
Took the survey. I saw the doco a couple of months ago (it's on netflix now too btw) and it's a really well done movie.
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: fred on Sat 13/04/2013 23:04:48
I think it's a great movie. I recently helped with the Danish subtitles for the May 1st release, so might be slightly biased ;)
Took the survey as well and would be very interested in reading the final essay.

There's also a documentary about Newgrounds in production (think it has been for some years) which I'm looking forward to: http://www.everything-by-everyone.com/
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: Cerno on Sat 13/04/2013 23:33:44
fred, this looks really interesting, but I just realized the Kickstarter ended in September 2010.
So, are they still in production or is the project dead? At least IMDB mentions a 2013 release (as of 2012).
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: fred on Sun 14/04/2013 10:51:57
Cerno, last time I heard from the producer, back in May 2012, he said the project was still alive. Although one can speculate how dead the project would have to be for him not to accept my 20 dollar preorder :)
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: EchosofNezhyt on Fri 26/04/2013 06:55:38
Quote from: Armageddon on Tue 09/04/2013 06:33:59
I don't care about his personality at all, I don't like him because he released FEZ with lots of game breaking bugs and refuses to update it because Microsoft has an update fee that he didn't want to pay, it's a very small fee so I didn't see the problem.

Wasn't it like 50k or something after one update?
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: Armageddon on Fri 26/04/2013 10:55:37
Quote from: Frito Master on Fri 26/04/2013 06:55:38
Quote from: Armageddon on Tue 09/04/2013 06:33:59
I don't care about his personality at all, I don't like him because he released FEZ with lots of game breaking bugs and refuses to update it because Microsoft has an update fee that he didn't want to pay, it's a very small fee so I didn't see the problem.

Wasn't it like 50k or something after one update?
Just 2k, which is stupid yes but I'm sure he had plenty enough from how well it sold. He vowed to never come to PC and it's coming to Steam in a week...
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: EchosofNezhyt on Fri 26/04/2013 20:29:05
QuoteMicrosoft's XBLA policy only allows for one free patch, with subsequent patches requiring the game to go through a recertification process at a cost of $40,000.

Is see a ton of stuff about it costing 40k for a recert process on the interwebs was it not true? It seems he wasn't the only one who said that it to costy.

QuoteHe vowed to never come to PC and it's coming to Steam in a week...

Until he thought about the profits :P It could fund another game.

I don't like him but he could/did make something interesting.
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: flyyyspeck on Sat 27/04/2013 03:55:53
I did the survey!...but am I too late? It's really late in mid-April.

About the documentary, it was really well done. It had good production value. I was also a bit disenchanting; there was negativity abound. In the beginning, I was gleefully curious about what I could learn about the indie scene. By the end of it, Fish had worn me down and it was a bit depressing.
On the plus side, I have a new-found respect and appreciation for all things indie.
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: amateurhour on Mon 29/04/2013 20:26:35
I found a kind of "follow up" interview about XBLA and Microsoft with some commentary from some of the Indie Game teams as well as other and the problem isn't necessarily the issues with being an indie game studio, but Microsoft itself.

From what I read they like to find a game coming out with a lot of appeal, and they press hard for exclusivity deals. I don't remember which game it was but one of the bigger indie Steam/PS3 games approached MS and were told "no" because they couldn't give them Xbox360 exclusivity since their game was already on two other platforms. There's also apparently a shit-ton of contract stuff wherein you can't release your games to other platforms for a set number of years.

I'm not trying to MS bash because I personally LOVE my 360 but they do pull the leash quite a bit tighter than their competitors which drives a lot of people away.

Also they require a lot of stupid crap. The meat boy team was saying that MS wouldn't finish checking out their game during one of the last rounds of dev until they delivered the avatar marketplace apparel for the little 360 avatars first which the meat boy team felt was a HUGE waste of time especially since they didn't get much in the way of profits from those sales.

I'd love to see a follow up to Indie Game focusing on the Steam/PS3 marketplaces.     
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: EchosofNezhyt on Mon 29/04/2013 20:41:06
PS3 support for indie titles specially the vita is really crap imo.

Specially the SDK thing for vita... Shame on them it woulda been a cool feature if they supported it more.
Title: Re: Survey about Indie Game: The Movie - for my friend's research paper
Post by: Dave Gilbert on Mon 20/05/2013 16:36:49
One thing I will say about Indie Game: The Movie.

Taking a break from crunching on a game project to watch a movie about people crunching on their game projects... extremely bad idea.