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The Binding of Isaac turns 2, celebrates with sale and documentary
The Binding of Isaac has turned 2 years old, but it's gamers that get the birthday presents. For one day, The Binding of Isaac is $1 on Steam, an 80 percent cut from its usual $5 price tag. In addition, the creators of Indie Game: The Movie have released on YouTube a 30-minute excerpt from their documentary in which Isaac designer Edmund McMillen details the origins of his game. McMillen explained Isaac was originally conceived as a game to be made in a week, while his friend and co-designer of Super Meat Boy, Tommy Refenes, went on vacation. "I didn't really have any idea of what I wanted to do, but I definitely wanted to do something risky," McMillen said. "I wanted to do something exciting, because I wanted something to replace that danger of running out of money, and the danger was, maybe I was going to do something that could hurt my career in some way." Two years and 2 million sales later, it seems the game-in-a-week experiment worked.
Special Edition of Indie Game: The Movie spooled up for July 24
A new version of Indie Game: The Movie, the 2012 documentary chronicling the lives of indie video game developers chasing their dreams, will be released on July 24. This special edition will include 300+ minutes of footage, including over 100 minutes of never-before-seen film that will include epilogues for some of the developers featured in the film. The Team Meat fellers, prominently featured in the film, also provide some new commentary tracks, as do directors James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot. The special Indie Game: The Movie will be available through Steam and the official site for $15, or for $5 if you already own the first version. If you pre-order now, a DVD boxed set is available for $59 (regularly $69), while the Blu-ray version is down to $69 from $89. Boxed sets won't ship until August, at which point they'll revert to their full prices. Both DVD and Blu-ray special editions will be signed by the directors, include exclusive artwork from Edmund McMillen, and offer a code for the digital special edition. Indie Game: The Movie is currently available for streaming on Netflix Instant, as a rental or purchase on YouTube and, until July 22, a $2.99 purchase on Steam, thanks to the Steam Summer Sale.
Basement Collection retail edition bundles in Indie Game: The Movie, out March 8
Team Meat's beardier half and Super Meat Boy creator Edmund McMillen is bringing out a retail version of his gaming anthology, The Basement Collection, which Merge Games is releasing on March 8. The retail bundle includes a copy of the excellent Indie Game: The Movie, which chronicled Team Meat's journey to bring Super Meat Boy to XBLA.The bundle also includes a DRM-free disc with PC, Mac, and Linux versions of The Basement Collection, a Steam code for an additional version of it, a 36-page booklet of McMillen's 'The Box' art (as featured in Indie Game: The Movie), full soundtracks for each of TBC's games, and a sure-to-get-you-noticed sticker of Steven from Time Fcuk. As for TBC, the games in it are Aether, Time Fcuk, Spewer, Meat Boy, Grey Matter, Coil, and Triachnid.The retail edition is priced at $19.99, although Merge Games is offering a variety of pre-order offers to knock assorted percentages off that.
Indie Game: The Movie is streaming on Netflix
Go to your Netflix account and add Indie Game: The Movie to your Instant Queue right now, because you totally can. Indie Game: The Movie won a Sundance award for editing, was an official SXSW selection and was the first feature-length film to ever launch on Steam. How inspirational.
PSA: Watch Indie Game: The Movie now on Steam, other places
Indie Game: The Movie has come full circle, first covering games as they limped their way to their first platform launches, only to end up on one of those very platforms itself. Indie Game: The Movie is available on Steam for $10 as the first feature-length film to ever be hosted on Valve's service.The full documentary is also now available via iTunes and on its official site.
Indie Game: The Movie available digitally on June 12
Steam has proven to be a boon for indie games like Super Meat Boy. Now we'll see if it's similarly helpful for movies about Super Meat Boy. Following its limited theatrical run, Indie Game: The Movie will be released digitally through Steam on June 12. Pre-orders are open for $9; normal price is $10. It'll also be streamable or downloadable from iTunes and the movie's own site the same day.If you want it on a disc (remember those?) you can pre-order that, as well.
Indie Game: The Movie: The Soundtrack: The Pre-order offers
You might have seen Indie Game: The Movie. But have you heard it? Without all the pictures, and the talking? If you'd like to experience the soundtrack to the movie (by Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP composer Jim Guthrie) in isolation, you can now pre-order it from Bandcamp and iTunes, due on May 15.If you'd like something tangible with your audible goods, you can opt for the double LP vinyl release, or pick up a t-shirt with your digital or vinyl album. Both the LP and the t-shirt feature new artwork by designer Cory Schmitz, whose work you may be wearing right now! And if you have yet to see the movie, you can find out here if a screening is coming up near you.
Indie Game: The Movie heads to NYC on May 17
We've already seen the maximum thrills version of Indie Game: The Movie. Next month, you'll get a chance to sit down and soak in the more serious, real-life version of the film -- if you live in or around New York, that is.On May 17, Indie Game: The Movie will have two screenings in New York City: a 7:30pm showing and a 9:45pm showing, both at the IFC Center. Filmmakers Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky will also be in attendance and plan on conducting a post-screening Q&A session with attendees. Tickets are available for purchase right now.
Mega64 recuts Indie Game: The Movie for maximum thrills
Using some clever cuts and additional dialogue, Mega64 has turned Indie Game: The Movie into a fast-paced action movie. Wait, it wasn't already an action movie? We really need to sit down and watch this thing again.
Fezes are cool: An afternoon with Phil Fish
Amidst the gridlocked, city-wide pandemonium that is SXSW Interactive, I was able to rescue Fez's lead designer and artist Phil Fish from a pack of ravenous, business-card waving fans long enough for an interview. We set up at the quiet end of the Palmer Events Center's glass-lined second floor, standing at a chest high, sidewalk cafe-esque table overlooking Zilker Park. It had been raining for two days straight, but that morning the clouds had parted and festival attendees were treated to one of the few gorgeous spring afternoons Texas will get this year.Fez has missed its most recently announced release window of Q1 2012, but the fact that the game is undergoing Microsoft certification means that it'll be out relatively soon. "We almost made it to Q1," Fish said. "We entered certification like two weeks ago, but we actually just failed it, which is kinda standard. Pretty much everybody fails their first cert."Microsoft has a two-month window in which it can release Fez once it has gone gold, and Fish wants to make sure it happens as quickly as possible. "We're trying to put pressure on them to release it as soon as possible because the zeitgeist is really good right now, with the movie starting to get a lot of play and the award. And, also, it's been five years. I don't want to wait another two months after that."
Indie Game: The Movie adds Raleigh, Atlanta, Palo Alto screenings
Indie Game: The Movie is taking its show on the road to three more venues. If you'd like to see how the metaphorical sausage is made in a selection of high-profile indie games (and, we suppose, in the case of Super Meat Boy, virtual sausage), you can now buy tickets for showings in Raleigh, NC (March 16), Atlanta, GA (March 20), and Palo Alto, CA (March 29).Previously announced screenings include dates in San Francisco (during GDC), Austin (during SXSW), and several other dates, all listed here.
Indie Game: The Movie is an official SXSW selection
Indie Game: The Movie is leaving the screens of Sundance for the wider world's consumption, and one of its first stops will be at SXSW as an official festival selection. Indie Game: The Movie has been chosen on its value as a film, not being shown as a "Documentary Feature Competition" or a "Documentary Spotlight," but as a "Festival Favorite."Indie Game was previously part of SXSW's ScreenBurn Arcade series, and directors / everything else James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot are scheduled to host a panel with Fez's Phil Fish.SXSW runs from March 9-18 in Austin, Texas, with festival film badges starting at $550 (yes, those are the cheapest) before February 10. This may not be the "public" screening most of us are hoping for, but Indie Game: The Movie will post showings as they come up, such as the Santa Cruz screening it lists now.
See Indie Game: The Movie, listen to filmmakers at GDC
Unless you were at Sundance or are Jonathan Blow, you're probably still waiting for a chance to see Indie Game: The Movie. Your next potential opportunity will be at GDC, where it's accompanied by a panel discussion featuring all the involved game developers, and filmmakers Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky.The screening will be free to all GDC pass holders, and will occur March 5 at 6PM. This information is, once again, redundant for those of you who are Jonathan Blow. Sorry, Jonathan! We have lots of other posts that should be of more use to you.
'Everything's happening now:' Indie Game: The Movie at Sundance
In many ways, documentaries are not truly tools for documenting events. Instead, many documentaries choose to delve into the minds of their subjects, presenting not documentation, but something else entirely -- an up-close trip into the human psyche.During one such moment from Indie Game: The Movie, which I caught at a screening at the Sundance film festival, game designer Phil Fish states that if he couldn't finish his long-awaited game Fez, he would commit suicide. The camera remains on him for an awkward moment, and the line draws a number of uncomfortable chuckles from the audience. He seems to rethink his outrageous statement and then states once more: "I will kill myself."This attitude for the most part represents the majority of the film. Focusing primarily on the development and production of Fez and Super Meat Boy, Indie Game is really the story of obsessed developers pouring their insecurities and hearts and souls into a game, without leaving much, if anything, for themselves.%Gallery-145969%
Indie Game: The Movie wins big at Sundance
Indie Game: The Movie is really good, apparently -- writers, directors, producers, editors and camera crew James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot won Best Editing in the Sundance World Cinema Documentary Competition last night. We offer a sincere, hearty congratulations to Swirsky and Pajot, and anything else that gets Indie Game: The Movie closer to a widespread release (and we mean anything).Swirsky and Pajot reflected on the overwhelming sensations in winning the award on the Indie Game: The Movie blog: "We can not tell you how much this means to us and how completely and utterly our minds are blown. We shot over 300 hours of footage in making this film, and the edit was, by far, the most difficult aspect of the process. We couldn't be more proud to receive this award."More screenings are sure to come -- keep an eye here for updates.
Indie Game: The Movie: The HBO series, produced by Scott Rudin [Update]
Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky's Indie Game: The Movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this weekend, and already it's gaining mainstream attention. High-profile producer Scott Rudin (The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and HBO have optioned for the rights to Indie Game: The Movie, with plans to develop it as a half-hour fictional series, with Rudin as executive producer, Deadline New York reports. We picture Super Meat Boy's Edmund McMillen and FEZ's Phil Fish as a hilariously unfit buddy-cop duo patrolling the mean streets of Hoboken, New Jersey with an 8-bit-animated talking-dog sidekick. We picture that, but we really hope it's not the case -- the trailers for Indie Game: The Movie suggest a classier vibe, although if Trent Reznor signs on to compose the HBO series' soundtrack, we may expect to see a very different side indie development, indeed. Update: Pajot and Swirsky have clarified the original report, which stated the possible HBO show would be a comedy series, and apparently the joke's on us. "HBO has optioned IGTM for the basis of a (fictional) series," Pajot and Swirsky write on the Indie Game: The Movie Facebook page. "It is NOT a comedy. It is NOT a sitcom." We're all sleeping better tonight.
Indie Game: The Movie premieres tomorrow at Sundance, here's a Fish
Indie Game: The Movie is preparing for its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, which begins tomorrow in Park City, Utah, and runs through the 29th. Indie Game: The Movie has five screenings at Sundance, and it's offering a glimpse at developer Phil Fish's own premiere of Fez right here.
Indie Game: The Movie showing at SXSW, creators hosting panel
Can't make it out to the Sundance film festival to check out the world premiere of the crowdsource-funded documentary Indie Game: The Movie? There's no need to worry, assuming you can score passes to SXSW instead; the film will have a showing at the SXSW ScreenBurn Arcade (March 9 - 11) and SXSW Film (March 9 - 17) next year (clap, clap, clap, clap) deep in the heart of Austin, Texas. The conference will also host a panel presented by IG:TM creators James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot, along with Phil Fish, the creator of Fez, one of the titular indie games. The whole thing is so full-circular, we might just faint.
Indie Game: The Movie making its debut at the Sundance Film Festival
Good news, everyone! Indie Game: The Movie -- which you may have helped fund at some point or another during the last year and a half -- will finally make its debut in late January 2012. We know, we know; you're worried about how that's going to conflict with your scheduled attendance of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. There's no need to worry, silly goose: That's exactly where it's making its debut. Crazy, right? The crowdsource-funded film's official blog announced that the movie had earned an official selection in the World Documentary Category of the festival. If you can't make the trip to Utah, don't worry: You can also request a screening of the film in your hometown, or wait until the movie hits DVDs following its initial screening tour. Us? We don't have to see it, Dottie. We lived it.
Indie Game: The Movie has new trailer, new music, and new Kickstarter
The two-person team behind Indie Game: The Movie just released a new trailer for the increasingly epic project, featuring developers Team Meat, Phil Fish, and Jonathan Blow as they pour their lives into their games. If you want to see how a film can draw genuinely interesting visuals out of "people talking about making games," look no further than the trailer after the break. Those visuals will also be accompanied by interesting sounds: filmmakers James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot announced today that Sword & Sworcery EP composer Jim Guthrie is creating the music for the film. Now, in order to finish that movie, the duo has initiated a second Kickstarter campaign. Basically, they need to bring more people in: "We're looking for help with the finishing costs of the feature film (audio, colour, and mastering) in order to make this movie the best possible version of itself." Available rewards for helping them reach the $35,000 goal include digital, DVD, or extended Special Edition copies of Indie Game: The Movie, t-shirts, and credits in the film. Go help out! We want to see this movie!
