Across several digital store fronts for home consoles and PC’s, a long line of weird and quirky games developed by independent developers exist. Gamers today not only get to bask in the high production values of AAA-games, but they also get to experience the types of games they never even knew they wanted. GameLoading: Rise Of The Indies documents the world of independent gaming and the creative individuals who put their lives into making them.
This video game centered documentary follows a select number of indie designers and developers as they produce their works of art. Viewers are introduced to indie devs who’s games have become surprising success stories – Davey Wreden (The Stanley Parable), Lucas Pope (Papers, Please), Alex Preston (Hyper Light Drifter) etc. These indie game developers and more speak on the many positives and negatives that come with creating a product with no major publisher funding. It’s fun to see how these devs test their games, demo them at huge gaming conventions, work alongside development team members and hope for critical acclaim. Following the start of The Stanley Parable’s development up until it’s official release is an entertaining story that gives you hope for other indie game designers.
Some of the more interesting aspects of indie gaming this documentary covers provide plenty of introspection into such a growing field. Legendary game designers, journalists and several other members of the indie gaming community provide their thoughts on several key areas – learning to code from an early age, the importance of marketing one’s game, properly setting up game demos at expo’s, online harassment and more. It’s interesting to see how the indie gaming community at large deals with the more negative issues at hand. What’s even more interesting is how they explain what it takes to deal with those issues and the many ways in which future game designers should handle them.
With such a large cast of individuals from the gaming community, there’s a ton of info to take in from each one. At times, you’ll wish that you could get more personal thoughts on a certain aspect of indie gaming from someone. It’s great to see so many gaming luminaries speak on the pros and cons of indie gaming. But you’ll find yourself wanting to hear more from those who don’t get much screen time. Nevertheless, GameLoading: Rise Of The Indies is a wonderful piece on a subset of gaming that’s constantly growing. Getting to see such brilliant minds at work creating the products they risk everything for feels fulfilling. And watching them at their highs and lows is an intriguing piece of storytelling that you won’t want to pass up.
Score: 4/5
Watch GameLoading: Rise of the Indies here.