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Super Meat Boy co-creator announces The End Is Nigh. Alice O'Connor. 3 years ago. 10 Edmund McMillen, the co-creator of Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac, has announced a deadly new platformer. The End Is Nigh official site is its name, and coming out in July is its game. A third game for mobile devices, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, Super Meat Boy Forever, will be released in 2020, where instead of playing as Meat Boy trying to save Bandage Girl, you instead play as either Meat Boy or Bandage Girl trying to save their baby daughter Nugget who has been kidnapped by Dr. Fetus, who also makes a return as the Big Bad.

Mario and Link, racing kart-to-kart on Hyrule Circuit. Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton, solving court cases. Gaming is full of popular characters invading other stars’ worlds — and if that breaks continuity or some fragile timeline, who really cares?

Step down from the big leagues and you’ll find that indie games are doing the same thing. The spelunker from Derek Yu’s cave-exploration game Spelunky appears in the blood-splattered land of Super Meat Boy, and then they trade places, with Meat Boy joining the fedora-wearing adventurer on his home turf.

These cameos are everywhere in indie games. So why are developers in one of the most creatively fertile spaces in video games lifting characters from each other’s work?

GamesBeat turned to five studios to find out why.

Making it happen: from email to code

Guacamelee’s Juan Aguacate pummeled his way through the land of the dead and back to the world of the living, but his journey isn’t over. He’s set to appear again in Prismatic Games’ real-time strategy game Hex Heroes and Paperbound, a multiplayer battle arena from developer Dissident Logic.

“On occasion, developers will reach out to us about the possibility of including some aspect of our game in theirs,” Chris McQuinn, a designer at Guacamelee creator Drinkbox Studios, told GamesBeat in an email. “Sometimes, we pass on the offer; sometimes, we take the offer. Often it comes down to if we’ve met them in person at an expo or some other type of event. It’s important to have a personal feel to it.

“If the inclusion of one of our characters is pretty minimal — some reference in the background, a skin which doesn’t change the abilities of the character — then it’s a pretty straightforward process. We say basically ‘OK’ in an email.”

Above: Spotted: Juan from Guacamelee and the Locksmith from Monaco.

The legality is simple. “I think being a smaller developer makes it a lot easier,” said McQuinn. “We don’t have to worry too much about our intellectual property being misrepresented, we have no shareholders to account to if something goes wrong.”

Dan Holbert, the founder of Dissident Logic, told us that he had never even met anyone from Drinkbox before the PlayStation Experience event in November. But Juan Aguacate fit Paperbound perfectly — he’s a well-liked 2D character that would work well in a fast-paced 2D action game. The inclusion of him and other indie game characters (such as Captain Viridian from VVVVVV) meant writing all-new code.

“Paperbound’s original characters are all animated much like a character in a 3D game — the images were attached to a skeletal rig and animated in a [3D modeling and animation] program like Maya,” Holbert said. “However, the assets I received for the cameos were mostly just single images or sprite sheets. Juan, in particular, was challenging because I had to figure out how to get a Flash file into Paperbound. I ended up exporting every single frame to a separate PNG image [a format short for “portable network graphics”] and then writing a little program to combine the ones I wanted into a sprite sheet.”

Above: The spelunker in Super Meat Boy.

That process sounds a lot more complicated than an “OK” to an email, but Holbert said all that developers have to do to make a crossover happen is send him an email or tweet. According to Edmund McMillen, one of the creators of the frantically hard platformer Super Meat Boy, the trend had similarly humble beginnings.

“It didn’t really exist till we did it in Meat Boy and Super Meat Boy,” McMillen told us. “Once we got the ball rolling, people just took it and ran with it. … I guess we just kinda opened Pandora’s Box when it came to indie game character crossovers.”

The little guys — and one big community

Making crossovers happen in indie games isn’t so hard, especially when you’re friends with the developers.

“Bit.Trip and Spelunky [developers] both allowed us to use their characters in our game long before Meat Boy was released,” said McMillen, “and the devs are also close friends of ours — as were most of the cameos we included in Super Meat Boy.”

Spelunky developer Derek Yu said much the same — he liked McMillen and he liked Meat Boy, and that’s what makes these partnerships happen. It’s also a nice chance for a little cross-promotion.

“For me, it’s mostly for fun, though — I had a good time drawing Meat Boy in my own style and putting him in the game,” Yu told GamesBeat. “And players seem to enjoy the references. … Meat Boy was a good fit for Spelunky as a hidden character. There’s a level in Spelunky called ‘The Worm’ that takes place inside a giant sandworm, which seemed like the perfect place to rescue him!”

Above: A scene from notoriously difficult indie game 1001 Spikes.

For Nicalis, the developer behind the trap-riddled platformer 1001 Spikes, cameos were also a way to support fellow indie developers, including someone who gave a lot back.

“Through the course of development, we gave the updates, including how their character(s) would look and play,” Nicalis president Tyrone Rodriguez told GamesBeat. “In the case of El Testigo, it was intended to be a surprise. Jonathan [Blow] had always been a huge supporter and fan of the game and literally the first person to be asked to be put on the beta when it was made available. During development, he gave a lot of his time for playtesting and feedback, so we wanted to do something special and create a character based around him.”

The character, El Testigo, translates to “The Witness” in Spanish, the same name as Blow’s massive upcoming puzzle game. The cameo was a thank you — a sign of acknowledgement from one developer to another.

“I think indies inspire other indies,” McQuinn said. “I know that is the case with us. So, for us, it’s an homage to other indies that we really respect.”

Above: Spelunky Man and Meat Boy, hand in … err, hand.

That boost of support is extra welcome in the indie space, where you’re competing against each month’s triple-A releases for visibility and player attention.

“The biggest problem for any indie game is being known,” Holbert said. “Some games that absolutely huge in terms of the indie world — Braid, Super Meat Boy, Monaco — are still unknown to the average person you talk to in a GameStop. There’s always a bigger audience to reach. So putting your characters and someone else’s game is just one more way to let people know about yours. I don’t think I ever heard of Bit.Trip Runner until I played Super Meat Boy. And there’s also just the cool factor of seeing your character running around in someone else’s world.”

It’s a trend that likely won’t go away any time soon.

“We all still play games, and to be able to see Commander Video, Nyx, and Curly Brace next to President Thompson or Aban is great,” said Rodriguez. “But, really, I think the value is for players who ‘get it’ when they see all these characters together.”

“It’s probably about a lot of things, but in the end it’s mainly about friendship and trust,” said McQuinn. “It’s us saying to another dev, ‘Ya, you know what, we trust you to respect and properly represent our characters, that we deeply love.’ It’s a nice nod to each other in an industry that can be a bit ruthless at times.”

Indie Game: The Movie is a 2012 documentary film made by Canadian filmmakers James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot. The film is about the struggles of independent game developers Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes during the development of Super Meat Boy, Phil Fish during the development of Fez, and also Jonathan Blow, who reflects on the success of Braid.^[1]

After two successful Kickstarter funds,^[2][3] interviews were conducted with prominent indie developers within the community. After recording over 300 hours of footage, Swirsky and Pajot decided to cut the movie down to follow the four developers selected.^[4] Their reasoning behind this was to show game development in the 'past, present and future' tenses through each individual's story.^[5]

Synopsis[edit]

The film shows the high level of personal expression that typically goes into independent games, through the story of three games: Braid was released in 2008, Super Meat Boy was preparing for its 2011 release, while Fez was struggling with development hell for several years.

Braid developer Jonathan Blow recounts his thought process for the game: how he wished to put his 'deepest flaws and vulnerabilities' into it and how his initial design experience quickly turned from experimentation to discovery. He also talks about the aftermath of the game: When Braid comes out, it receives widespread critical acclaim, but Blow is disillusioned, when a large portion of players don't 'get' the underlying message and themes of the game. He makes attempts to influence the audience's impression of the game through forum posts and blog comments, but this eventually turns him into something of a comic figure, which he feels uncomfortable with. The game remains a commercial and critical success.

Super Meat Boy developers Team Meat (Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes) set out to do a platform game that harkens back to their own childhood video game experiences. McMillen talks about his lifelong goal of communicating to others through his work. He goes on to talk about his 2008 game Aether that chronicles his childhood feelings of loneliness, nervousness, and fear of abandonment. He also sheds light on the level design techniques he uses, on how he teaches players to play without extensive tutorials.

About a year into development, Microsoft offers Team Meat a chance to take part in an Xbox Live Arcade promotion called 'Game Feast', under the condition that they finish the game in a month, which they reluctantly accept because of their dire financial situation. The development goes into crunch time, and takes its toll on McMillen's marriage, and on the health of Refenes, who bears the brunt of the work. Refenes also laments how he sacrificed his social life to get the game done, but expresses gratitude for his family being supportive of his goal. The team successfully delivers the game, but come release day, the game is nowhere to be found on Xbox Live, which greatly upsets Refenes, who predicts low sales as a result. The game does eventually appear on the marketplace, and doubles Braid's sales, selling 20,000 units in the first 24 hours. McMillen is surprised by both the sales and touched by the fan reaction, and although Refenes, exhausted and cynical, is less enthusiastic, his joy shows through when he sees videos of people enjoying the game. The game eventually goes on to sell a million copies, providing a level of financial security to both developers.

Fez developer Polytron (Phil Fish and Renaud Bédard) is in the fourth year of the game's development: the game was first announced at Independent Games Festival 2008, which thrust Fish into the limelight as an 'indie developer celebrity', but little was heard of the game since. The development is troubled casting doubt on the future of the project. Fish himself admits to his perfectionism protracting the development, as well as losing perspective over time about how good the game really is. Similar to Refenes, Fish also notes that he does not see himself doing anything else other than indie games, saying that Fez has become his identity over time.

Polytron prepares to present Fez at Penny Arcade Expo, despite the possibility of a lawsuit lingering: Fish's original business partner (Jason DeGroot,^[6][7] who does not participate in the film) is yet to sign his side of a final separation deal, and as such, he could potentially block Polytron from presenting at PAX. This causes Fish to suffer anxiety attacks over the course of the preparation. The Fez kiosk is set up nevertheless, but the show runs into problems, when last minute changes in the build cause the game to often hang up or crash, forcing Fish to occasionally restart the game. The players are unfazed and continue to enjoy the game nevertheless; Fish gives a number of interviews, and Jerry Holkins expresses his excitement about the product as well. Towards the closing of the show, Fish's new partner Ken Schachter announces that he and the former business partner had a meeting and have come to an agreement, which relieves Fish, who in the end is satisfied with the results of the show, and vows to continue working on the game and releasing it in 2012.

The film bookends itself with Jonathan Blow's opening monologue about how indie gaming differs by offering flaws and vulnerabilities, making the games more personal. During the closing credits, videos of other upcoming indie games are interspersed.

Reception[edit]

Indie Game: The Movie received a high level of interest from the gaming community almost from its inception.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}Rotten Tomatoes reports 93% approval based on reviews from 26 critics, with an average rating of 7.7/10.^[13] The film also holds a 73/100 average on Metacritic.^[14]G4 TV praised the film saying 'Indie Game: The Movie is definitely worth your time, and should be seen by everyone in the video game industry on the publisher, developer, and consumer sides.'^[15]Ain't It Cool News echoed these statements, stating that 'there are victories, defeats, tears and smiles. Indie Game: The Movie is a must-see doc for anybody that fancies themselves a gamer or for anyone who gets sucked into a good underdog story.'^[16]

The film was criticized for its one-sided portrayal of Phil Fish's ex-business partner, Jason DeGroot, who was portrayed by Fish as trying to sabotage Fez.^[7] DeGroot was neither interviewed nor shown in the film, and the film's credits originally stated that he 'asked not to participate' in the film. Shawn McGrath, who worked with DeGroot on Dyad, said on Twitter that the disclaimer was 'bullshit,' calling the filmmakers 'liars.'^[17] Ken Schachter, Fish's new business partner shown later in the film, was also the executive producer of the film.^[6] Several days later, the message in the credits was silently revised to state DeGroot 'was not asked' to be in the film.^[17]

Accolades[edit]

The film won the World Cinema Documentary Editing Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.^[18]

Indie Game: The Movie was also named 'Best Documentary' by the Utah Film Critics Association^[19] and nominated for a Canadian Screen Award at the 1st Canadian Screen Awards in the category of 'Best Feature Length Documentary'.^[20]

Release[edit]

The producers chose a non-traditional distribution method for the film, coupling the usual film festival circuit with a focused theater tour and aggressive online distribution. Online distribution was initially via iTunes and the gaming platform Steam with a DRM free release, expanded later to other online distribution services and direct downloads from the producers' website. The result of their distribution experiment has been documented by the directors online.^[21] Over 50% of gross revenue came from online distribution.^[21] The film premiered on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on 30 November 2013, and was preceded by the documentary How Video Games Changed the World.^[22]

Special Edition[edit]

On July 24, 2013, Indie Game: The Movie was rereleased with a special edition.^[23] Buyers of the new physical copy would receive a hand signed three-DVD box set including posters of the movie's logo and additional packaging artwork designed by Edmund McMillen.^[24] The announcement of additional content being released as pre-purchasable downloadable content (DLC) for Steam users^[25] and as a new physical version for collectors was met with mixed reactions some of which questioning the uncommonness of DLC for a movie.^[26] Both the original and the Special Edition continue to rate positively on Steam. It features over 100 minutes of additional short documentary content to the original film, also created by James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot, including epilogues for Fish, McMillen, and Refenes two years after the film's conclusion.^[27]

Epilogues[edit]

Phil's epilogue picks up ten months later as FEZ is nearing release, having been in its development cycle for five years. He discusses the game's growth, improvement, and closure after the events in IG:TM. It also features Polytron’s win at the Independent Game Festival for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize in 2012.^[28]

Edmund reflects on the “life-changing” experience following the release and subsequent success of Super Meat Boy. Discussing how he continues to strive to remain working hard towards game development and seeks creative inspiration for new projects.

Tommy talks about the success of Super Meat Boy on Xbox Live and Steam pushing them into a level of financial security. Tommy and Edmund say how happy they are to be able to support their respective families following the financial success of 'Super Meat Boy'.

The special edition also includes additional shorts regarding other independent game developer's experiences such as Jason Rohrer’s Passage, Derek Yu’s Spelunky, and Steph Thirion’s Eliss, as well as two shorts regarding visual artist David Hellman’s thematic choices for the aesthetic of Braid and multiple others regarding McMillen's and Refenes' earlier works (Tri-achnid, AVGM, and Coil) including lessons learned and their experiences and influences in development. In many of the shorts, emphasis is placed on how each of the developer’s work was received and their experiences in dealing with the problems that their newfound notoriety brought. Short documentaries entitled “Edmund & Teh Internets”, “Tommy & Teh Internets”, and “Phil + Japan” all focus on each developer’s struggle with maintaining a professional presence online as newly established and critically acclaimed independent developers, similar to Braid developer Jonathan Blow’s struggles with popularity and presence on the internet in the original film.

Also featured is the trailer for the Special Edition, Phil Fish’s first impression of the original IG:TM, Edmund McMillen showing their collection of official Super Meat Boy merchandise as well as the different kinds of fan-made submitted gifts they’ve received, and Tommy Refenes’ reflections the immediate day following the release of Super Meat Boy.

Dedicated to its own short entitled 'GameJam' is a documentary about the “TIGJam” (The Indie Game Jam) hosted in Mountain View, California by Spelunky creator Derek Yu and other indie game developers in 2013. It focuses on the community around independent games development, in particular the “TIGSource” online community and participants talking about their passions and inspirations for game design.

References[edit]

1. ^'Indie Game: The Movie About'. Indiegamethemovie.com. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
2. ^'Indie Game: The Movie by BlinkWorks'. Kickstarter. 20 July 2010. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
3. ^'Indie Game: The Movie - The Final Push by BlinkWorks'. Kickstarter. 23 July 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
4. ^Kelly, Kevin (16 February 2012). 'Indie Game: The Movie - The Interview'. G4 TV. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
5. ^Munro, Shaun (19 June 2012). 'Indie Game: The Movie Review: Informative, Emotional Documentary'. WhatCulture.com. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
6. ^ ^ab'Indie Game: The Movie's new credits put end to conflict'. Destructoid. Retrieved 17 August 2013.
7. ^ ^abRougeau, Michael (30 July 2013). 'The rise, and completely predictable fall of game developer Phil Fish'. Digital Trends.
8. ^Klepeck, Patrick (21 June 2011). 'Indie Game: The Movie Trailer Likely to Make You Tear Up'. Giant Bomb. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
9. ^'Check out Indie Game: The Movie'. IGN. 8 August 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
10. ^'Support, Money Wanted For Spectacular Looking Indie Game: The Movie'. G4 TV. 18 May 2010. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
11. ^McElroy, Griffin (19 May 2010). 'Be a big Hollywood producer by funding Indie Game: The Movie'. Engadget. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
12. ^Devore, Jordan (12 January 2011). 'Indie Game: The Movie bound for Sundance'. Destructoid. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
13. ^'Indie Game: The Movie (2012)'. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
14. ^Indie Game: The Movie, retrieved 9 November 2019
15. ^Kelly, Kevin (2 February 2012). 'Indie Game: The Movie - The Review'. G4 TV. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
16. ^'Quint says Indie Game: The Movie is a must watch, whether you're a gamer or just like good documentaries! Sundance 2012!'. Ain't It Cool News. 9 January 2012. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
17. ^ ^abSarkar, Samit (15 June 2012). ''Indie Game: The Movie' filmmakers resolve dispute by revising end credits'. Polygon.
18. ^Bradford, Matt (30 January 2012). 'Indie Game: The Movie wins at Sundance Film Festival'. GamesRadar. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
19. ^'Utah Film Critics Association Awards: Awards for 2012'. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
20. ^'Genie Awards: Awards for 2013'. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
21. ^ ^ab'Indie Game: The Movie: The Case Study'. Indiegamethemovie.com. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
22. ^Peel, Jeremy (29 November 2013). 'Minecraft's going to be honoured on British telly tomorrow'. PCGamesN. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
23. ^'Special Edition DVD, Indie Game: The Movie'. IndieGameTheMovie Shop. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
24. ^'Indie Game: The Movie Special Edition runs to three discs, available as DLC'. VG247.com. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
25. ^'Indie Game: The Movie Special Edition DLC on Steam'. store.steampowered.com. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
26. ^TechnoBuffalo. 'Indie Game: The Movie - Special Edition Coming This Month'. TechnoBuffalo. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
27. ^'Special Edition of Indie Game: The Movie spooled up for July 24'. Engadget. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
28. ^'The 17th Annual Independent Games Festival'. igf.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 February 2016.

External links[edit]

Super Meat Boy Type Games Online

• Indie Game: The Movie on IMDb

Super Meat Boy Game