Gaming history has always been a pursuit for me, whether its looking up old interviews, past advertisements, or reviews from long gone publications. In the past couple years though, I’ve discovered a new way to fuel my hunger for video game history, documentaries. While there are already some excellent productions out there, many of which I have covered before, I was delighted to find Gameumentary.
Gameumentary was driven into action by the recent success of the Noclip series of films that grew in popularity when covering DOOM and Rocket League. This, to them, was proof that the interest for these types of stories was out there and big enough to make a move on it. With no budget, Gameumentary set out to Runic Games’ studio and filmed the story of their games with a big focus on their new title Hob. Hob was the winner of our Best of Show for PAX East back in March and seeing such care put into that game’s story really warms our hearts. Best of all, Gameumentary is giving these documentaries to fans for free on their Youtube channel, with the first already available.
Now that Runic Games’ story has been told, Gameumentary is heading to Boston to film the story of Perception by the Deep End Games. Even though the game has been receiving mixed reviews, including our own review by Josh, the story and development of that title is wildly interesting and I can’t wait to see what new details emerge from a new documentary. There are plenty more projects in the pipeline as well, including Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Battle Chasers: Nightwar and the Darksiders franchise. Judging by Gameumetary’s first production, each of these games are going to have a high quality film created just for them, highlighting just how important a game’s history is with every frame and sound clip.
These sort of projects are some of my favorite things to watch in my downtime. As I’ve grown older, I have gained the tendency to study the people behind each game in tandem with my studies on the title itself. This can open up all sorts of connections that couldn’t have been made otherwise. I have a deep love for classic Doom games and iD Software’s story, even though I’ve never completed one of their games, just because of the wealth of content created about that studio and that development cycle. Therefore, projects like Gameumentary will likely give a deeper connection to these games, which could enhance our overall experience with those titles.
This Blu-Ray mock up shows what to expect for physical media.
After this Kickstarter campaign, Gameumentary plans on launching a Patreon to continue working on these films. To support their work, check out the full Kickstarter page. They also have a website with even more content like podcasts and reviews. Personally, I’d love to have some of these films on blu-ray, ready to be shared with my friends.
From the depths of my heart, I wish Gameumentary the best of luck.
