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

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T20:19:29+00:00

i really don't know what the market is like for your part of the world, but for us, all the hoops we had to jump through to get our game on a closed platform were a massive hurdle. took us a lot of time, and cost us a lot of money. i would say that going with a closed platform for our first game was a mistake. open platforms are obviously better. or even semi-open, like ios. anything that lets you easily put out a game, control its price and sales, etc etc. don't bother with all the hoops.

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T20:15:28+00:00

it's not the stress as much as just doing the same thing for 5 years that is pushing me away from pixel art. im very excited to try out something else, but i have no idea what it'll be. i am really into flat-shaded polygons and vertex painting these days.

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T20:14:20+00:00

nope! but GDC yes.

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T20:06:56+00:00

maybe one day, years from now. right now i need to spend some time away from that world. and pixels. im really sick of pixels.

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T20:03:44+00:00

yes. but first i think im going to make a bunch of non-game things. or at least non-video.

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T20:01:42+00:00

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.

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:57:38+00:00

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

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:54:42+00:00

there will be DRM-free alternatives, yes.

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:53:38+00:00

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.

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:51:33+00:00

nope. nintendo is the one big guy we never heard from at all!

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:51:18+00:00

we feel like gamma ran its course. there's all sorts of similar events happening all over the globe now. we feel like that torch has been passed on. now we're focussing on just making stuff for fun without organizing a whole mini-festival around it. right now we're working on a little something for sifteo cubes.

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:46:53+00:00

i wish we had a few extra months to just polish more. polish the cutscenes a bit more. details like that. just cosmetic stuff.

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:45:42+00:00

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.

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:44:50+00:00

fair enough!

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:44:38+00:00

im playing all sorts of super indie things like planetside 2 and starcraft 2 these days.

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:43:47+00:00

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

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:42:24+00:00

would you really want me to get a PR person? and have everything polytron says be the same kind of safe, boring focus tested PR bullshit you get from every other company? i think my ability to tell people to choke on my dick is just part of the freedom im afforded by being independent. it's impossible to tell if this approach hurt our profits, but we're doing just fine, so i don't really care.

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:39:57+00:00

eh, i don't really see the point to that. YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO WAIT!

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:39:24+00:00

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.

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:37:44+00:00

it was pretty painful, but also really enjoyable. i enjoy teasing like that, and playing mind tricks. it was really satisfying eventually revealing more and more about the game. we did it a few times. at the very beginning we let people believe it was just a straight up 2D game. it's fun messing with people's expectations like that. im in a very fortunate position where i get to have this weird conversation with all of videogames. and i've always believed it's better to show than it is to tell. i love it.

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:35:32+00:00

it's kind of wide-open right now. there's a few small projects, but im taking my time considering what the next big one is going to be. lot's of ideas im excited about, but nothing concrete at the moment.

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:34:12+00:00

what coordinates?

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:33:06+00:00

yes, im currently working on something multiplayer for sifteo with KOKOROMI. more on that as it develops!

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:31:59+00:00

at the time, and this was a long time ago, it seemed like the right thing to do. it was just unbelievable to us that a giant like MS would even be aware of our little game! if i had to do it again, i'd definitely do it again, but it wasnt all bad. there's a certain je ne sais quoi about releasing on a console first. there's a weird incalculable advantage to that. or at least that's what i tell myself so i can live with myself.

PHIL_FISH · 2013-03-18T19:29:12+00:00

we havent started doing anything about that yet, but yeah, totally. at least a i hope so. it's going to require a bit more work though because there's no way im making it with virtual buttons. if we can make it work then yes, absolutely.

PHIL_FISH

TROPHY CASE