Indie Game: The Movie

Wow. So so so good. I left the theater inspired. As documentaries go, this one is quite good. Quite a lot more drama, and life journey/development than one might expect from a film following a bunch of developers around. You’d think there would be a bunch of shots of a stack of coke cans, while a dirty bearded hunched-over guy stares at a screen. There is some of that, but really it’s much more about the personal journeys these guys go through while trying to follow their passion in the face of quite a few obstacles. Many of them quite a bit more dramatic than you would expect from some guys just making a game.

I guess you just forget or are ignorant of just how much blood, sweat and tears goes into something like this. And just how many people or circumstances out there are against you. But what is amazing is that in spite of all that they succeed! It is a documentary so not all is well and good, but overall their journeys are inspiring.

The film is 94 minutes long, and that may seem like a lot for a documentary for some people, but I really wished it was longer, not because the arc of the story felt unfinished, it did, but because I wished they had time to follow more people. Each of the teams they follow has such a unique story to tell, that I just wanted more. Fortunately the website has more footage, they did film more people they just didn’t make the theatrical release. And they will soon be selling a DVD, and a special edition DVD with even more content. So I might just get my wish.

Get more info, including when and where the film will be playing on their website – www.indiegamethemovie.com

Oh, and another thing. The whole thing is a kickstarter project. Which just makes the whole thing that much more awesome. I wish I had known about it when they were collecting $$, I would have contributed.

Quote

“It’s an unexpectedly expansive view for New York. New Yorkers don’t sentimentalize, though. They simply note the sight with appropriately jaded detachment.”

— Sodium Dreams

Chicago!

I’m always posting nostalgia inducing videos of nyc,
but Chicago has some amazing architecture, and
an amazing lake, that combo is hard to compete with.

Quote

“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”

— Aristotle

Digital Performance

I’ve often thought about how to bring digital effects to a live performance. What are the characteristics of something being digital and how to translate those ideas to something in front of a live audience. I think this certainly shows some of the possibilities. Really nicely done in that regard.

At Home – Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson does it again. This book is chock full of interesting tidbits. Just endlessly fascinating and covers a wide range history as usual. There are just so many things in here I’d never heard of, but am now fascinated by, things like Skara Brae, the Crystal Palace, Addison Mizner, Edison’s concrete houses, coade stone.

Even things I knew about I have completely new appreciation for now. Things like the Erie Canal, the Monadnock in Chicago, the salt and pepper on our tables, even rats! This man cannot contain himself. He set out to simply write about the things around his home, but each knew item opens a pandora’s box of history behind it, and I’m glad for it and Bill is there to explain it all.

We go from room to room in a Victorian parsonage in the English countryside and wind up learning about the entire world. Even the introduction where I side with Bill on his guestimate of how many people are buried in the Church graveyard, only to find out that the Church is literally buried in the sheer numbers of people who have lived and died in this little “un-interesting” area of England, instantly captivated me.

The book is sub-titled “A short history…” thought that must be only by Bill’s standards. I’m sure he could have written a multi-volume work, for me it was just long enough at 512 pages.

Quote

“Today it takes the average citizen of Tanzania almost a year to produce the same volume of carbon emissions as is effortlessly generated every two and a half days by a European, or every twenty-eight hours by an American.”

— Bill Bryson (from At Home)

Daybreak

The best zombie themed graphic novel I’ve ever read. Uniquely for this genre you are immediately thrust into the action, and the story unfolds from there. A Natural progression and journey with a few surprises here an there.

This book borrows freely from the mechanics of a first-person shooter video game, especially the good one’s like Half LIfe which additionally are excellent at telling a story. Some of the themes and and the story arc borrow almost too much, enough to make me possibly uncofortable in the copyright department.

Brian Ralph’s offering could have been extremely boring if it was indeed just a video game in graphic novel form, the lack of interactivity would have doomed it. Instead it offers an extremely engaging story that pulls you along to the end with a few haunting images in between and implicating you in an action that you yourself the reader may or may not have taken.