The film crew spent half a year filming in real time, telling the audience the stories of three independent games and four producers. In the film, these three parties have no intersection in their respective lives and are independent of each other, but they echo each other logically.
Phil Fish belongs to the present continuous tense of this group of game producers and producers, and he is probably the most paranoid and fanatical of the protagonists. In order to satisfy his perfectionism, he overthrew the game and reworked the game three times. The release date was repeatedly bounced from 2010 to 2012. Behind this number is something we can't see, but he has suffered enough to make any ordinary person suffer. All sluggish blows, as the shooting time progressed, the sense of powerlessness and mental exhaustion gradually climbed up his slovenly face. At the end of the film, Phil completed the first exhibition of his game in a state of panic in a state of half collapse. Success was still an unpredictable unknown to him at the time (of course, last year FEZ bounced a few times after the votes. After all, it was released on schedule, and the ending was a happy ending.)
Tommy Refenes and Edmund McMillen were much luckier than Phil, living together in a quiet seaside town, and the common goal was to complete Super Meat Boy - a game they Pour into the works of all my life experiences so far. We see Tommy having dinner with his family, Edmund proudly recounts the game he made for his niece; Tommy's childhood bedroom, video of Edmund proposing to his wife; Tommy's pride, neuroticism, and the responsibilities that come from the family; Edmund's Optimism and love for his wife... These two characters are much more three-dimensional and intimate than Phil, and maybe everyone who watches the movie can see their own shadow from them. In the end, the pair had a far more exaggerated success than they had imagined, with Edmund choking on camera like a sincere child.
Jonathan Blow is portrayed as a middle-aged man with a hint of mystery. His face always maintains an expression between a smile and a dull expression, and there are few emotional fluctuations between his words. Jon talks about it throughout the film. Only his game, we know nothing about him and his life. After more than 20 years of game production career, he made a milestone work of independent game - Braid, but it is quite surprising that such success did not bring him too much joy in fame and fortune On the contrary, it is the trouble of negative public opinion, and the disappointment caused by the superficial and wrong understanding of others for his finely crafted works. But even the negative thoughts that we're still feeling down are just a flash in the pan for him, and Jon says the goal at the moment is another indie that's in the works. He is like the future tense of these young producers. He is fully immersed in the world he has created, and even seems to be superimposed with the game characters in it.
The film's creators are acutely aware of the lonely side of these indie producers and amplify it. The creators of these virtual worlds have more than once sat alone in a darkened room, their still silhouettes illuminated by the light source outside the window. Sometimes we can see a gamepad or computer accessory in our hands, but most of the time the camera doesn't even make them appear in the same frame as everyone else, either maintaining a natural sense of distance or The narration of the sound and picture is handled as if they are not on the same frequency as the others. Their lives are imprinted in their works, and in the same way, the game is their entire social life. No matter what tense you are in, these two different dimensions of life will inevitably refer to each other, and the so-called success has become a complex illusion. The longer you stay in this circle, the more you have to learn to integrate with your own work to make up for each other's shortcomings and improve both sides - in Jonathan's words, this is "Things that are personal have flaws , They have vulnerabilties everything has flaws, they all have weaknesses).” So Edmund touched me deeply when he told the origin of Meat Boy's girlfriend Bandage Gir - whether it is cold programming code or turbulent and unknowable real life, there will always be some kind of immutable constant, whether it is old The Mac is still a childhood painting that has been squeezed for years.
The neat structure, elegant photography, sound and video processing make it hard to believe that the entire film was made by only two young people who were just starting out, and all the funds spent on shooting this film were made on the famous fundraising website Kickstarter. Raised above. The paranoid story has to be done by other paranoids, of course, but that's another movie.
Text/I'M (reprint please indicate the source)
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