New documentary series Let’s Play! portrays the art of indie development

Sometimes we’re flooded by the massive wave of indie games that come out everyday and are published by the media, but it’s essential to take a break from time to time to think deeply about what independent development is doing for the video game industry in general. The new 5-episode documentary Let’s Play!, from journalist Laurent Checola and filmmaker Thomas Kimmerlin, will show how indies are making changes to old video game concepts while creating innovative games.

The series will go live through the European ARTE Creative website weekly, and the first episode was just released. (Complete with a run time of 9 minutes.) The approach taken with the documentary is to show that independent developers are constantly redefining the industry’s standards, in an effort to prove that games can serve as a valid source of culture and experience.

As an introduction to what might come in the next few chapters, the episode New Playgrounds presents developers, journalists, and curators talking about the main challenges and benefits of making games independently, and also covers how crowdfunding is affecting the way players buy games and developers gather funds. In addition to that, it shows unconventional and experimental games that are made and presented at some festivals.

Laurent Checola, the journalist and co-director of Let’s Play!, confirmed that the next episode will come out next week on ARTE’s website. Click here to watch the first part (or just watch the video embedded above), or click here to follow along for future updates on this documentary.