I AM PHIL FISH, CO-CREATOR OF FEZ, ASK ME ANYTHING

Let's hang at GDC?

i don't know.... im a bit of an elitist and only hang with people who have worked on BIG games.

Let's hang at GDC?

there's this small, casual party on thursday night that i might attend. let's have a quiet conversation then!

FEZ is an amazing game, and it's one of my biggest inspirations. I've been developing a game myself, and since you and your game are big inspirations of mine, I was wondering if you could give your general opinion on this:

http://i.imgur.com/nX1JafW.png

I've been focusing a lot on the environment, and making it more and more dynamic. All kinds of wildlife, particles (Pine needles falling off of the trees, godrays, etc.). It's the thing I loved most about FEZ, and it's something I want to see more developers do.

that looks lush! very nice color work.

PHIL! All of us at Gaijin enjoyed Fez, so we threw a little something special into Runner 2.

http://gaijingames.com/media/913

XXOO, see you soon. Gaijin Games

HAHAHAHAHAHA. YOU GUYS! check out the nards on him! SEE YOU ALL IN MERE DAYS

If PC's are made for spreedsheets, why are you porting Fez then?

for profit.

How is this quote taken seriously. It's almost guaranteed to be a joke. Like why is that even an issue, even if he was serious.

So:

“Fez is a console game, not a PC game,” he states, emphatically. “It’s made to be played with a controller, on a couch, on a Saturday morning. To me, that matters; that’s part of the medium.” I get so many comments shouting at me that I’m an idiot for not making a PC version. ‘You’d make so much more money! Can’t you see? Meatboy sold more on Steam!’ Good for them. But this matters more to me than sales or revenue. It’s a console game on a console. End of story.”

source

I just want to know why he changed his mind so drastically.

i just want as many people to play the game as possible. also, money.

Are there any secrets in Fez that no one has discovered / figured out completely yet?

yes.

Please for the love of the Metatron answer this question! I swear we found images in the soundtrack, and still haven't figured out what they mean.

nobody's even come close to figuring out the soundtrack images, i can't just spoil it all right now!

What are your thoughts on spreadsheets?

they are for PCs.

Do you feel that Indie game Movie gave a fair representation of the situation you faced re: Fez Development?

yes, but only for that small chunk of time they were following us around. and that part was maybe the worst part. but yes, it was a prettyyyy accurate representation of a worst case scenario. it just sucks that it only showed that part. because it wasn't all bad.

Will it be available on The Pirate Bay?

gua-ran-teed!

What on earth were you thinking making code changes the night before a demo? ;)

Seriously though, I hope you make more things as wonderful as Fez.

we were young and stupid and out of our minds with stress.

Tell us your opinions on Japanese games.

i love them. i grew up on them, they've influenced me my whole life and they still do. i have a huge amount of reverence for the classics, which should be made super painfully obvious just by looking at fez.

Why are you yelling at us?

im kind of deaf.

On the documentary, Jonatan Blow talked about how, even though his game was widely well accepted, he wasn't satisfied since it wasn't understood in the "right" way. Has something similar happened to you? How do you feel about the way your game is viewed by the public?

i didn't get that. i think most people who spent enough time with fez to discover its "true nature" got it. i can't say that everybody 100% understands everything about it, a lot of it is pretty opaque by design, but in general, it was well received.

You met my friend when you were in Nottingham, England last year. You two were talking until you told him to stop talking to you and go fuck a girl. Do you remember that at all?

absolutely not. but it sounds like something i'd say!

I hate you but I will buy your game. Thanks.

that's the spirit! i hate a lot of artists i love too.

I don't blame you for saying what you did in the documentary, you were under a lot of stress. Are you doing better now?

im doing great, thank you! a bit frustrated creatively, but generally happy and relaxed. playing a lot of videogames. it's good!

How was working with Disasterpeace? I think the soundtrack was one of the best things about Fez, and completely made the experience for me. How much input did both of you have on the music?

it was a pleasure. out first composer didnt work out, and i was getting frustrated. i had a very clear idea of what i wanted. when we started talking and he asked me what i was thinking of, i said something like "chiptune vangelis". and 24 hours later rich came back with what ended up being the main theme of the game. and it was exactly what i'd been hearing in my head for years. it was almost creepy. after that, we'd just let him know what the different zones were about, and he'd go in the game and put the music there himself for us to find next time we checked out that level. it was pretty amazing to compile the game, start running around a level you've seen a thousand times, and then all of sudden this beautiful music starts playing and it totally captures the mood and it just MAKES the level. it was great.

Any chance on a PS Vita port?

i can't really 100% confirm that yet, but im working with sony trying to figure something out.

Do you feel that you burned a lot of bridges to make FEZ happen? If so, was it worth it?

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltzynsmUCl1ql8hmpo1_500.jpg

What are you doing nowadays? Porting Fez; that's all?

pretty much, yeah. taking care of business, etc etc.

What's the status on the Mac version of Fez?

yes! it's coming! we're doing PC first, but mac will eventually follow. we don't have any date for that yet, though.

Who has been programming since Renaud left?

renaud! he's a real trooper. he's basically been working two jobs the last while.

Would you ever develop another Xbox timed-exclusive?

no.

If you could go back in time, would you have released Fez exclusively on Xbox 360?

noooope.

Will you be working with Disasterpeace on your future endeavours? As a lover of both artforms I sincerely do hope so.

i sure hope so! rich's music is my favorite thing about the game.

Will FEZ on PC be written using MonoGame or XNA?

it's monogame! renaud took all the XNA bits out.

So if it is MonoGame, there is no reason it can't come to Linux. Do you have any plans?

we have plans! vague plans, but plans none the less. fez should eventually be out on pretty much everything.

How has life been since you launched Fez?

a lot of non-creative work. i havent really "made" anything since the game came out. a necessary evil i suppose. but life has generally been really good!

Does PC Fez have any new or unique content?

no. there were a few things we had to adapt. but other than that, it's essentially the exact same game.

Will the game avaible via HumbleStore ?

most probably, yes. we like what those guys are doing a lot.

The Japanese guy who was the recipient of your language actually said that it inspired him and the industry to do better. What's your response to him?

im glad he turned it into a positive thing. it certainly wasnt my intention to insult or ridicule him. he seems like a really nice guy.

If you were to give an aspiring Game Developer tips on creating their first game, what would you say and why?

start small! think of something small, then, think of something even smaller! don't do what i did!

0, 4, 9 glyph on the tombs and boiler room. Crazy hexahedron diagrams. The number 13 and the Fez religion. The many are one. Concentric circles, and 1 as the womb, the origin.

You are a genius.

totally!

How much time was spent on developing tools (level editor, etc) vs. actual gameplay? It seems to me that the tools would be a good investment, but probably required a lot of iteration. Also, how do you think being both the artist and designer for the game effected the end product?

renaud did all the code work. so most of his time was spent either working on the engine, tools, or game features, while i did all the art, game and level design. it worked out really well for the most part. i think having one person be responsible for all the art and design definitely helps keeping things coherent. i mean, it was just me, i didnt even really have to communicate most of my ideas to anybody. that kind of singular vision is why im attracted to other indie games in the first place. i think that's what we do best.

How much of FEZ follows your original vision, and how much of FEZ changed because of various feedback from other developers/users ?

i stuck pretty close to my original ideas. of course the whole thing evolved organically over time, but there were a couple of times where i just ended up listening to what everybody was telling me. good examples of that would be DOT, and the map. originally i wanted no map at all, i wanted people to draw their own maps! but then i realized that the way the world of fez is structured makes it really hard to "graph" it. that was confirmed when we finally decided to give making the map a go. im not 100% happy with how it turned out. it's probably one of the weakest aspect of the game. but DOT, on the other hand, turned out pretty great, and ended up playing a huge role in the game's mythology.

What was the thing that made you never give up on making this game?

the lack of alternatives? what else was i going to do? i have very few applicable skills outside of what i do. fear, i guess.

Is FEZ coming to 3DS?

we don;t have any plans for that, no. people keep assuming fez would be a no-brainer on 3DS, but in truth it would be kind of pointless. the game is practically always shown in isometric 3D, there's never any perspective there. i don't think it would work.

Silly question, but it's been bothering me since the PC port was announced. How will the PC version handle the parts of Fez that vibrate the controller? Will there be some other indicator for people not playing with a controller? Any other weird tweaks you had to do?

that stuff will be handled with sound.

[deleted]

i actually don't really remember anymore. feels like james and lisanne have just always been around at this point. but at first it was a totally different movie. they were going to interview 30-something developers, and it was going to be all these talking heads the whole time. that's what i thought i was signing up for. but one day i got an email basically saying "it's just you team meat and jon now". and that was that.

What's your favorite book?

fear and loathing in las vegas is the only book i've read more than once so i guess it wins.

I took a lot of personal meaning from my playthrough of Fez, and I felt very much that Gomez represented you growing up through troubled times when the reality of situations were not always clear. I could even relate to game through my own past experiences of dealing with changes. And this was even before I watched Indie Game: The Movie.

With that, two questions: Can you explain if my reading is accurate (re: being based on your own personal experiences)? Why or why not?

Creating and releasing the game seemed to be a personal, emotional experience in itself. Do you feel fulfilled now that the game has been out for nearly a year? And if you could elaborate on the answer.

Thank you, Phil!

it doesn't really matter if you "got it right" or not. im glad you found some deeper meaning in there that resonated with you. im afraid if i just told you what i meant it might ruin that for you. so let's keep it a mystery!

it felt really good to be done with it. even though, we're still not done with it. but having it go out into the world and become part of this greater videogame conversation was a thrill. im extremely proud of the work we did.

How did you designed the game engine and will it ever go open source?

renaud did all the engine work. and the editor. i don;t think we'll ever release it to the public. it's a bit of a mess. features were implemented kind of haphazardly, and it would be a pain to support it. and really, the only thing you could make with those tools of more fez.

What's a big "mistake" that you constantly see indie devs doing that you wish they would stop doing?

a mistake i did, too: announcing too early. it's REALLY hard to sustain hype and interest for long periods of time. you need to show more and more of your game, and have all these aspects to reveal drop by drop. i think a lot of indie devs get excited right away, and want to show off their work as soon as possible. this can be great for feedback, but often i think it ends up hurting you in the long run. it's harder to work in secret, but i think it's worth it just for the surprise at the end.

What made you leave Ubisoft? Would you ever go back into large AAA development?

i was fired from ubisoft.

Probably one of the best things which happened in your life.

definitely an important turning point yes. but im not blaming them. i just wasn't made for that kind of work process.

What made you decide against your "Fez is a console game" philosophy?

i havent. it's still a console game. now it will just be both!

Hey, Phil. What conditions would it take for you to port Fez to OUYA?

Or, alternately, what would push you away from OUYA development?

we're working with OUYA on a port.

If you could create a new game to restore a former great IP back to its glory days, what IP would you choose?

gunstar heroes.

no wait, WIPEOUT. i want to bring back wipeout.

How do you get your hair to look so great?

i don't use any shampoo or hair product at all. just water. for 3-4 years now. shampoo is a scam.

Can I speak to you in french ?

baby i love it when you speak to me in french.

what are your thoughts about oculus rift?

I AM SO FUCKING EXCITED ABOUT IT YOU HAVE NO IDEA. i have the dev kit coming in the mail any week now and yeah, im super psyched. i've been dreaming of virtual reality actually happening since i was a kid and now it's actually happening while i happen to be a game developer! i reaaaaaly hope it catches on.

Is FEZ coming to any platforms besides PC? Who in the industry do you look up to?

yes! eventually, fez should be out on pretty much everything. or at least at hope. PC is first, but many more ports will follow.

tim schafer and the other heroes at double fine are kind of doing everything right all the time.

In your opinion, how realistic is it for someone with no programming experiance and is only ok at art to learn teach themselves how to make a reasonably simple game? I never seem to know where to start. Keep up the great work.

i STILL don't know the first thing about programming. that was all renaud. so i guess it's totally possible, you just need the right partner.

What is your work process meaning how do you get work done on a regular day?

i fuck around for hours not doing much of anything until the wee hours of the morning when i enter a kind of sleep/work trance. only then do i manage to get anything done. it's a bitch.

FAVORITE CHAIR????

-breuer's wassily chair -vitsoe's 620 -eero's ball chair -anything eames

What is the best community for people who wants to create indie games?

the one you make for yourself.

What was your funding arrangement with the Telefilm grant (now CMF)? In Indie Game you allude to "losing funding", what was that about? Anything you would have done differently on that front?

(I'm an indie game artist in Vancouver and we're gearing up to go after CMF in the Spring so any advice is welcome)

telefilm was another thing. we "lost" that too, early on, but what i referred to in the movie was a kind of proto-indie-fund group that helped us out for a while. private investors, friends and colleagues. what is known today as the indie fund evolved from that first group. we had to find development money from a lot of different sources over the years. it was a huge massive hurdle and time sink.

i have no idea how the CMF operates. it was all still telefilm the last time we dealt with them. anyway good luck with that. you're pretty lucky to be a canadian indie. it's a little bit easier here.

Is Fez going to be a steamplay title (ie, all the platforms) or just for Windows?

windows first. everything else eventually.

What's the last japanese game you really enjoyed ?

ni no kuni is magical and precious.

Super awesome you are getting Fez out to Steam, any chances we will see it on PSN? :)

we're working on that with sony. can't say more than that right now, though.

Odd question but... Do you make time for exercise / running working out? Desk life is brutal on the body. Looking forward to Steam!

i did standing desk for a few months, and that was good, but then i started getting back pain. i find the best thing is to alternate. if you can, get a motorized desk that can rise up to work standing, and alternate a few times a day. sitting is REALLY bad for you, as it turns out.

What's been your favorite hand in Cards Against Humanity?

ah fuck....i forget the exact wording, but the black card was some guy's porn name. with a black in the middle for his porn nickname. let's say "Johnny BLANK Mcgurt, and my girlfriend played "emotions". and that was the greatest CAH hand ever played. we were all in tears and struggling to breathe.

Have you found a new office yet? The one in indie game the movie looked a little dill!

no office anymore! it's just me and my girlfriend working out of the same room in our tiny apartment! kind of in a transitional period right now. but it's weird not having a location B to go work at. i miss it.

Who designed the polytron corp website? It's amazing. Also, you created the trixel for Fez. Will we see you do something similar for your next game?

thanks! i do all the graphic design stuff myself. hopefully my next game is going to be something completely different. im done with pixels and trixels for a while.

Are you coming to GameCity again this year?

i would love to! gamecity is always a fantastic time and the people who run it are all lovely.

Is there any reason you go by Phil Fish and not Philippe Poisson, other than the easier pronunciation? (I'm taking French and I chuckled when I made the connection).

i had to make a differentiation at one point in my career when i was still working for the man but doing indie stuff on the side. they weren't comfortable with me talking to the media without going through them first. so i just started telling the media that my name was Phil Fish, which is what everybody's always called me my whole life anyways.

Are you still suicidal now that Fez has been released and has been a success? Also, how is it being a French Canadian?

im doing fine now thank you. being french canadian is great. you're born bilingual and you get free health care for life!

[deleted]

kokoromi is making a thing for sifteo cubes. that's kind of it right now.

Kill, Fuck, Marry.
Edmund Mcmillen, Jonathan Blow, Kyle Gabler

kill blow to absorb his power. marry ed. (and danielle?) fuck kyle gabler because he's so cute.

Hi Phil! Are there any (even if distant) plans to releasing FEZ soundtrack on CD/LP?

yup! we're working on that! that soundtrack definitely deserves to be pressed on vinyl.

How long did it take you/Renaud to port fez?

a year, i guess! it was kind of an on and off process. the actual porting was done by renaud just as he was starting to work at capy. i don't know how he did it.

Tell me more about DJ Philippe Lemarchand.

he's totally just one guy, who is from france. he's a single french dude who DJs.

Are you still planning to make power pill* eventually?

*http://infiniteammo.ca/blog/phil-fish-on-powerpill/

i really hope so. it's kind of on hold right now. im having a really hard time getting back on the saddle creativity-wise amidst all this porting business. but hey if history teaches us anything is that it takes me a while to make a game so maybe don't hold your breath.

What is the financial ownership breakdown of FEZ at the end of the day? I know you sought out at least one funding partnership, and I'm curious if Renaud/Disasterpeace received a stake. How did you front what ever burden you took on? (ie was there a lot of saving, hoping to do this one day?)

I would imagine just contracting a talented programmer for five years alone as an indie would cause immense debt, excluding your own cost of living.

without getting into specific, me and renaud split whatever's left 50/50. other collaborators worked as contractors.

Hello Phil. I'm curious what you think of all the damage that has been caused to your game and your company? Are you worried about your future as an indie developer?

not really. you win some, you lose some.

How did you and renaud come to work together? It sounds like that partnership and how well you two fit together was integral to Fez being possible.

i posted a note on deviantart (of all places) saying i was looking for a programmer to make this game happen. renaud was the only guy to reply to it. the rest was history. working with renaud was ideal. he was the right brain to my left. or whichever is the smart half to my creative half.

Do you have plans for future games after Fez?

Have you and Edmund McMillen talked much after you had that sort of falling out?

Best of luck on your steam release!

when did me and ed ever have a falling out?

In an ideal world, is there any particular type of game you'd start working on next?

something something virtual reality...

You were a total douchebag in that documentary which made me dislike you and I didn't enjoy fez, yet you have my full respect for sticking with your dream even after everything went wrong. You have shown us all that if we stick with a dream we can achieve anything so for that I thank you Phil Fish and well done.

haha, thanks!

Will you suck my dick and choke on it?

will you buy me a drink first?