Indie Game: The Movie Page #5

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Changing the mechanics.

So right away, you introduce 'Saws'.

And they're saws that spin in place.

And you have to avoid these saws.

And then later, those same saws -

You know that they kill you.

Those same saws will start moving

back and forth.

So you got moving saws.

Then later, you have saws on spinners

That act like Windmills.

And they go around in a circle.

Now it's the same saw that you jumped

over a million times before.

But it's in a different way.

Making it different and more enjoyable

As a designer, you want to explore

each mechanic...

...making sure it can be used

at least 3 or 4 different ways.

If it's only got one use...

...then it's pointless.

Because you need to be able to

'juice it'

You have to figure out new ways

to use it.

[FEZ sound effects can be heard]

The game has become

a bit of a reflection of me over time.

It certainly wasn't the intention

at first.

I started noticing a few things...

That kind of reflect

my experience of working on the game.

It's a game about games.

And the world is very much

a computer world.

It's a world within a computer.

There's a lot of computer logic to it.

Every now and then,

the universe becomes unstable...

... and has to defragment itself

and reboot.

That's the goal of the game.

In FEZ, you're putting these pieces

of the universe back together.

And try to make it stable again.

I basically feel like ...

... the entire world is falling apart

around me these days.

Here's a recap of the last two years

or so...

So, we moved into our first office.

We had our funding.

That was great.

Everything was coming along.

Then my Dad was diagnosed with

leukemia

We were told he had a 50-50 chance

of dying within weeks.

He was a test subject for this

new treatment.

'Well, you're going to die anyways'

'You might want to give this crazy

treatment a shot. You might live'

So he lived.

Shortly after that, my parents

divorced ... Which is never fun.

I had to move my dad into

a new apartment.

Shortly after that,

my girlfriend left me.

About a year ago.

Some time after that, there started

being a lot of tension between me ...

... and the guy who owned

the other half of the company.

Eventually, he left.

And that was a big blow.

All of a sudden I had to take care of

every aspect of the company.

Almost immediately after that,

we lost our funding.

And now we're here.

We don't have any money.

I'm overworked and over-stressed.

I'm on the line.

Me. My name ... My career.

If this fails.

I'm done.

I don't think I'll work in games again

And it's not just a game.

I'm so closely attached to it.

It's me.

It's my Ego, my perception of myself.

Is at risk. This is my identity: FEZ.

... I'm guy making FEZ

That's about it.

If that doesn't work out then...

Interviewer:

What would happen if you personally...

[INTERVIEWER]:

If you couldn't finish the game?

I would kill myself.

I would kill myself.

That's my incentive to finish it.

Because then I get to not kill myself.

A typical day at this point in

development...

Usually, I wake up

at 4:
00 or 4:30 in the afternoon.

Because I've gone to bed at...

... 9 or 10 a.m. the night / morning

before.

I check emails.

There's usually something there from

'localization'.

Or from Kevin, our Microsoft producer.

Or any number of Microsoft people;

asking for different things.

I make my breakfast. Which consists of

a microwaved sandwich.

It's pretty good.

I take insulin for that.

And then, I just work on ...

...whatever's on the list.

I have a couple of lists ...

...I retire a list once I spill

food on it.

These are actually surprisingly clean.

This was a big one.

This was 'code complete'

But you can see the grease stains.

Where you can see through it.

That's when I retired that one.

Me and Ed are handling a lot of stuff

for two people.

But we're right there at the end...

... so we just sort of do it.

We're both very very tired

But at the same time...

We're tired. Not so much from work.

But from not being able to sleep.

Because of thinking about work.

I'm like in

a f***ing concentration camp.

Like, I'm not allowed out

and I'm stuck.

I have to work until it's done.

And if it doesn't get done ...

I'm f***ed.

No pressure.

If you can't get the work done...

...then the past two years are

basically worth nothing.

No pressure.

We got a call from Microsoft saying...

We're going to do this thing called:

'The Game Feast'

An Xbox promotion.

They said:
If you want to get in...

...you have to have the game done

in a month.

And we're like:
'whoa'

Because we weren't anywhere close to

being ready ... at all.

They asked:

'Do you think it's possible?'

And Tommy said:

'Well, we shoot for it.'

'And if we miss it, we miss it.'

And they said:
'If you miss it,

we can't launch until February'

Tommy doesn't have any money.

I'm running out of money.

It's just like:

We HAVE to do this now.

We HAVE to do this.

There were at least five times...

...where I totally broke down.

I just didn't want to do it anymore.

I couldn't escape in any way.

So I would just go into the bathtub...

And I'd turn on the hot water shower.

And I'd lay down on my back.

and wait until the water went cold.

That was all I had.

That was all I had to try

to relax myself.

and not worry about anything.

I was actually worried that either

Tommy or I would die...

... in the process of making this.

And Tommy talked about it too...

As long as he could finish this game.

He would be Okay with dying.

Because at least he finished the game.

It was f***ing weird.

You go crazy when you're like this.

That's why I obviously grew this

mustache.

It is the 'Reclusive Cowboy'.

I need everybody to know

how crazy I feel...

... on the outside.

Edmund and I talk all the time.

About everything. We're best friends.

But we were talking about

if the game does well.

He was reading some quotes on success.

It was something like...

The hardest part of success is finding

people that will be happy for you.

I know, for sure, I have three people

that are going to be happy for me.

Forever, my parents have been

supportive of whatever I wanted to do.

They've done, everything they could

to make sure ...

... that I'm alright.

They've seen some hard times,

with the economy and stuff like that.

After our last president

messed everything up.

They were four years from paying off

this house.

This house ...

My Dad, and my Mom, built this house.

It was completed right before

I was born.

And they were four years from paying

it off and had to re-finance it.

I'm hoping if a lot of people

buy the game...

... I can slap a bow on the top

of the roof. And say:

'Here you go!'

'This is what you get for

being awesome parents my entire life.'

So Meat Boy is a boy made of meat.

But when designing him,

it wasn't a thought of...

...he's made of steak or whatever else

It was:
'Hey, he doesn't have skin'

He's a boy without skin.

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