Indie Game: The Movie Page #4

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... that I had drawn of me in space.

Floating.

And it says ...

This is Edmund floating in space.

And my friend too is space...

Or something like that.

'Space is my friend.

And my friend too is me.'

It was validating to find that box.

And see those things and be like ...

Wow.

This is just like the game.

[Sounds of children playing]

I have a very precise story of the

exact moment it started.

I was four.

It was Christmas, 1988.

And for Christmas I got

a Nintendo with:

'Mario', 'Zelda' and 'Tetris'

Which is perfect.

The 'Trifecta' of video games.

To this day, you can't really get

a better three games together.

It was clear at that moment.

That this is what I wanted

to do with my life.

I've known since I was four.

There was never any doubt about it.

I wanted to make games.

What that entailed wasn't

always clear.

You're four and you want to

make games...

It just seems like:

'Oh, you come up with ideas'

'And then you have a game. Awesome.'

There she is.

What a beauty.

[Computer starts up]

So this is the game me and my Dad made

back in 1993.

Based on art I would make in 'Kid Pix'

He would take that, and turn it into

these simple 'Find the Object' games.

So I would come home from school ...

... and levels would be

added to the game.

Based on stuff I made in the days

before.

At first, they were really

simple 'Where's Waldo' type things.

Where's the letter 'V'?

Oh, there it is.

It's so completely abstract.

Because it's all my art. And it made

no sense.

OH! 'Cyber Vision'

This is the best one.

This is a piece of software...

"Software"

That I made.

It's the stupidest thing...

It's just patterns that I designed.

And I made it invert the colors.

Really really quickly.

You pick your pattern and

the number of flashes.

And then you're supposed

stick your face in it...

And stare at it.

Like this...

For a long time.

And I swear to God, you start

to see stuff.

Oh my God.

What was wrong with me?!?

This is still awesome!

[Sound of keyboard typing]

So, the way that I approach

design ...

... is really kind of experiential.

I'm thinking about ...

... when the player comes on the

screen. What's happening?

Not quite in the same way as a movie.

But sort of.

You have to put your mind in the

viewpoint of the player....

Thinking about

what's going to happen.

There's an excitement about ideas

unfolding ...

... that I try to put into it.

It's a stream of communication between

designer and player.

And the design of a level like this,

is sort of a dialogue...

... or at least a monologue ...

Where it's like:

'Hey! Check this out...'

'Did you realize you we're going to

have a problem with that ladder?'

'Isn't it weird, but cool, that you

could have such a problem...'

'...just because this ladder was a bit

to the left'

'If it was over here or here, you

wouldn't have that problem.'

That is the interesting part,

the important part.

It's not important that it's a tricky

puzzle ...

...that takes some thinking to solve.

That's a little cool.

But any puzzle game can give you that.

But what a special game can give you

is details.

Interesting insights into particular

situations.

And I think when a game realizes that.

Seizing that way of doing things.

And runs with it.

It can do some really special things.

I'm very visual.

As a person. I like pretty things.

I like aesthetics.

A big part of FEZ is the aesthetic.

That kind of pleasant,

blue sky, green grass, fresh air -

obviously, there's no fresh air

in the game.

This is how art works in the game.

I make these little strips for the

four sides that you see in the game.

And the top and bottom of every cube.

And Renaud made a Photoshop script

that crops them, and saves them...

And feeds them to the game.

And the game wraps

these textures around a cube.

And projects the art on each side.

You can see the different sides

of the texture strip.

I can then take the cube and carve in

details.

You can barely see it in the game. You

only really feel it in the rotation.

I use the 'Tetris' pattern a lot.

It's kind of a pain. Because I have

to go in there and paint it.

And reorient the tiles by hand.

So, here:

I don't like this big straight line.

It's kind of awkward.

I'm going to make it a 'T' shape.

I spend a lot of time doing this.

I build these elaborate structures.

And eventually, I spend an afternoon

going over everything.

I guess I've been staring at it

for too long.

I obsess over the tiniest details.

One thing that happened.

I never did pixel art before FEZ.

So I had to learn.

You do that for three years.

Then at the end...

... you're better than

you used to be.

And all the art you made

three years ago...

Isn't as good as

what you're making now.

And there's a divide.

So I had to retouch a lot of old stuff

I do everything three times.

And it takes me three and a half years

to make a video game.

Level design.

So, the basic formula of

level design go..

When you start out, you want to teach

the player how to play.

Making sure they understand

every mechanic of the game.

So every level in the first chapter

needs to force to player...

...to do something they will need

further in the game.

For example, on level three,

there's just a gap.

The only way to get over that gap

is to hold 'run' and press 'jump'

You can't get it any other way.

You won't jump far enough.

And that's makes sure the player

understands...

... in order to get over

big gaps.

You need to hold 'run'

and press 'Jump'

It's simple.

It sounds like a 'no-brainer'.

Usually, games would just say:

'Hold run to jump far'

Most people would just skip the text

and forget.

Now, just in case somebody didn't

play that level.

A couple levels later...

I reiterate and give another section

requiring them to run and jump.

To make sure they know.

Because it's important.

All these mechanics are very important

Each early level is a level

that pushes that...

Like, there's a level where you need

to continuously jump up one wall.

Because there is no other wall

to jump to.

That's me teaching the player that:

'You can do this'.

Everybody in the world will see a

problem and want to solve it.

If you see something that's

just a wall.

And you don't realize that you can

keep jumping up.

You're going to try it. And once

you try it, you've taught yourself.

Not only do you feel smart.

But you now, for sure ...

... know how to do that for the

rest of the game.

So, you go through everything in the

early 'introduction' levels.

Once you've covered all the things

you can do with Meat Boy...

...then you introduce new mechanics.

With Meat Boy, it's not like Mario.

Lots of Mario games introduce

mechanics in forms of 'suits'....

... that change Mario's properties.

That's something I wanted to avoid.

I wanted to make it really pure.

Meat Boy never gets better

or gets a 'Power Up'

It's the levels that change .

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