ONE SHOT: POLYTRON’S FEZ, DECONSTRUCTED
From Polyton programmer Renaud Bédard’s explanation of Fez‘s “non-interpolated ortographic voxels,” or, trixels (c)(tm). [via Polytron]
Previously:
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, One Shot, Polytron
INDIE GAMES SUMMIT: POLYTRON DEBUT NEW FEZ TRAILER
If you weren’t in Kyle Gabler and Phil Fish’s early morning indie games promotion session, a special treat for you: Polytron’s second Fez trailer showing off its newly updated mechanics and art.
The limited palette CGA-esque cave is fantastic.
FEZ TRAILER 2 [Polytron]
Previously:
Polytron affirm essential awesomeness – Offworld
Poly-amory: Polytron's Polyshop v0.1 offers Fez, Portable Pro …
Happiness is a warm Fez: prepare for wonderful – Offworld
Happy pills: Fez, Aquaria devs collaborating on new iPhone game …
Polytron affirm essential awesomeness – Offworld
Only on Offworld: Polytron/Kokoromi's Anaglyphic super HYPERCUBE …
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Polytron
INDIE GAMES SUMMIT: 2D BOY/POLYTRON’S TOP 10 WAYS TO MARKET YOUR INDIE GAME
As two of indie gaming’s best known figures (least of all for their consecutive Indie Games Fest wins), 2D Boy‘s Kyle Gabler and Polytron head/Fez creator Phil Fish kicked off the second day of the Independent Games Summit with a tag-team session on how other aspiring devs can smartly promote both themselves and their games.
Quick facts from Gabler: Valve’s Left 4 Dead marketing budget was $10 million, Spore‘s $35 million (compared to its $50 million development budget) and Wii Fit‘s was $40 million, a figure Gabler reckoned could buy 21,917 indie devs a burrito every day for a year.
What to do with World of Goo‘s marketing budget of zero, then? Three quick tips from Gabler’s “self promotion jelly bag”: absolutely run a blog, enter the IGF, Penny Arcade, and as many other indie competitions as you can, and rather than paying a marketing firm to measure how well word is spreading around the net on your game, set up a Google Alert.
#10: Do PR, not marketing
“Get yourself out there as much as your game,” the duo said. “Marketing is mostly bullshit: lies, statues as EB Games of your game characters.” Don’t spend money buying banners or google ads, talk to people: talk to blogs, do interviews/podcasts, all things that are free and get you insane exposure, they advised.
#9: Learn how the press works
Where the traditional media operates on a cycle of company announcements, first game announcements, first screenshots, etc., there are a number of sites (say, for example, Offworld.com) that actually care about and want to be interested in your game, and word from those blogs trickles up to more mainstream outlets, though, paradoxically, it’s the biggest outlets (the CNNs and the like) that drive the least amount of traffic your way.
#8: Make a good trailer
This is a good trailer. It’s 2009 and we have no idea if the game exists, and it doesn’t even really matter.
#7: Journalists are humans, too
Be friends with them, because friends help friends. Fish gave 1UP a thumbstick with exclusive direct footage of Fez‘s debut, which fostered a beneficial mutual relationship: “throw them a bone: they want to help you, and they understand you have no money.”
#6: Your game actually matters
Speaking from their experience with large companies, marketing people traditionally look down at developers because they make licensed products and are therefore irrelevant because the games could sell on their license alone.
For example, Ubisoft employed friends of Fish’s working on Splinter Cell 4 were especially proud of a level where Sam Fisher was jailed and had to escape with no gadgets or weapons. One of the marketing team took a screenshot from the level and photoshopped in a knife in his hand, which was released to the press. When the horrified team complained that there were no weapons in the level, the marketer said, “well, there is now.”
For better or worse, as an indie, you can’t rely on any of that, your game “has to be easy to describe and easy to love,” like Jon Mak’s Everyday Shooter and its instantly recognizable hook as “an album of shooters.”
On the other hand, “don’t be a dick,” said Fish. “It’s nice to find a way to be engaging, but show respect, don’t treat everybody like you’re letting them in on your secret. Be nice.”
#5: It goes both ways
When Gabler noted that everybody in the press were using the same nearly identical screenshot from the early demo of World of Goo, he realized it was because none of the other levels had that same visual appeal and included more character-based elements elsewhere in the game — subsequently, the coverage diversified and showed off more of the game than just one of its earliest levels.
#4: Participate in the community
This one’s simple: go to GDC, Global Game Jam, IGDA, Pecha Kucha, Barcamp, speak everywhere.
#3: A PR crisis is good for business
When the PC port of Xbox Live Arcade hit Braid was announced for PC at a price $5 higher than its XBLA counterpart, the internet “set on fire” because of that price discrepancy and kicked off a wave of promotion about the game. When creator Jon Blow made the decision five days later to lower the price, it kicked off a second wave.
Gabler saw similar results with an early round of European press when it was announced that World of Goo would be released as a retail game in the region rather than a WiiWare downloadable, and got the same second round of “redemption” press when they reversed the decision.
#2: Manage your hype
Essentially, said Fish, “don’t show stuff too early.”
With Spore, he said, everybody remembers the amazing 2005 demo, the game looked finished and everyone wanted it then, but in the intervening three years until its actual release, the hype surrounding the game took on impossible to meet expectations.
The same went for Fez, which saw a small backlash after he showed off its newly updated artwork following its IGF debut.
And finally:
#1: Wear silly hats
“Be lovable as an indie,” said Fish. The IGF site still uses a photo of him in his trademark fez, Crayon Physics creator Petri Purho went to magician school, Flashbang’s Steve and Matt are the mommy and daddy of the indie scene, etc.
The human interest story is important to the press, and indie developers, especially small/one-person teams, are in the unique position of strongly playing that angle.
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Polytron
POLY-AMORY: POLYTRON’S POLYSHOP V0.1 OFFERS FEZ, PORTABLE PRO SHIRTS
Taking a break from the teasing for something a bit more tangible, Fez and Power Pill creators Polytron have just opened their 0.1 web store, offering five variations of its Gomez shirt featuring a sequential sprite rip of the Fez star, and three of the Polytron Portable Pro, their Mobira-esque Game Boy straight out of 1982’s imagined future.
Polyshop v0.1 [Polytron]
Previously:
Polytron/Infinite Ammo collaborating on Power Pill for iPhone …
Happiness is a warm Fez: prepare for wonderful – Offworld
Annabelle Kennedy joins Fez creators Polytron – Offworld
Only on Offworld: Polytron/Kokoromi's Anaglyphic super HYPERCUBE …
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Polytron
WHAT HAVE WE HERE: ANOTHER TEASER FOR FEZ/AQUARIA DEVS’ IPHONE GAME?
Sometimes I wonder if they do it just to torture me: former Aquaria devs Infinite Ammo, currently at work on the iPhone’s Heroes & Villains, have posted a new image to flickr simply labeled ‘??? modeling.’
I’ll take a wild stab now and presume the image is a full level map of Power Pill, their iPhone collaboration with Fez developer Polytron that was just teased yesterday — it certainly looks the part of a twisted cavern without the layered-paper rendering.
I wouldn’t hazard many more guesses, but on a night’s reflection on that first teaser and combined with the above image, I’m wondering how much the game might have in common with under-rated Game Boy Advance/GameCube import Kuru Kuru Kururin (YouTube gameplay): I certainly wouldn’t mind a touch enabled version done up in Polytron’s signature retro-futurist styling.
??? modeling [Flickr, Infinite Ammo]
Previously:
Happy pills: Fez, Aquaria devs collaborating on new iPhone game – Offworld
Polytron affirm essential awesomeness – Offworld
Happiness is a warm Fez: prepare for wonderful – Offworld
The latest look at Infinite Ammo's iPhone puzzler Heroes …
We could be thrilled: in-depth with Infinite Ammo iPhone puzzler …
See more posts about: Infinite Ammo, Offworld Originals, Polytron
HAPPY PILLS: FEZ, AQUARIA DEVS COLLABORATING ON NEW IPHONE GAME
As everyone gears up to touch down at next week’s Game Developers Conference, Heroes & Villains creators Infinite Ammo are showing off their promotional wares for the show a– hold on, what’s this?
Peeking out ever so innocently from their studio lineup brochure is Power Pill, an iPhone collaboration with Fez creator Phil Fish, accompanied by an image identical to the layered-paper-caverns in his Polytron studio’s own upcoming game teaser, which I so brilliantly deduced might be titled “PP”.
More Polytron love to look forward to at the show, then, just slightly edging out the multi-rainbow flavors of their new Fez buttons.
Previously:
Polytron affirm essential awesomeness – Offworld
Happiness is a warm Fez: prepare for wonderful – Offworld
Annabelle Kennedy joins Fez creators Polytron – Offworld
The latest look at Infinite Ammo's iPhone puzzler Heroes …
We could be thrilled: in-depth with Infinite Ammo iPhone puzzler …
Infinite Ammo tease iPhone puzzler Heroes and Villains – Offworld
See more posts about: Infinite Ammo, Offworld Originals, Polytron
HAPPINESS IS A WARM FEZ: PREPARE FOR WONDERFUL
What kind of wonderful is about to happy with Polytron’s Fez? Speculation is running rampant that the key is in that ‘A’: specifically, that the image is tipping us off to an imminent announcement from Microsoft that the game is headed to the Xbox Live Arcade.
To test that theory, I pulled out my early IGF 2008 build of the game (as I do every few weeks when I need a re-up on sunshine) and found that– ah, wait, the ‘A’s been there from the start (that Fez is being created in Microsoft’s XNA and prefers an Xbox 360/Windows pad for optimal play has never been a secret).
That’s not to say that it’s not the trick up Polytron’s sleeve, anyway, but I suppose we’d just be as well off trying to strip hints off the hieroglyphics hiding in the preview shot from earlier this month. Wait, should we?
SOMETHING AWESOME THIS WAY COMES [Polytron]
Previously:
Annabelle Kennedy joins Fez creators Polytron – Offworld
Polytron affirm essential awesomeness – Offworld
Only on Offworld: Polytron/Kokoromi's Anaglyphic super HYPERCUBE …
Bringing Gamma home to you – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Polytron
ANNABELLE KENNEDY JOINS FEZ CREATORS POLYTRON
In other good indie staff-up news, Fez creators Polytron send word that Annabelle Kennedy will join the short-list of Fez devs as the game’s animator (alongside designer Phil Fish, programmer Renaud Bédard and musician Jason ‘6955‘ DeGroot).
Kennedy might not yet be the most familiar name, but indie followers will surely have seen her work, if not from the ridiculously adorable “cover art” for Rescue: The Beagles, then likely the various Fez (above) and Cave Story fan illustrations she’s done over the past few years.
Attractmo.de recently ran an excellent feature on Kennedy, where she also talked more at length about Tiny Survival Horror, her “candy coated survival horror” that she’s producing entirely on her own, and from the feature’s included screenshots and character art looks like it’s coming together quite well (though presumably Fez may preclude progress on that) — she’s definitely one to keep a close eye on from here on out.
EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH [Polytron]
Previously:
Polytron affirm essential awesomeness – Offworld
Only on Offworld: Polytron/Kokoromi's Anaglyphic super HYPERCUBE …
Gimme Indie Game: Rescue: The Beagles – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Polytron
POLYTRON AFFIRM ESSENTIAL AWESOMENESS
Normally the simple opening of a website wouldn’t be much in the way of newsworthy, but Fez creator Polytron’s new site offers too much to not mention.
Apart from the new Fez images — looking fantastically more intricate than its last IGF-winning showing — and a link to a more conceptual look behind the making of the Offworld-debuted super HYPERCUBE, the site earns my new latest What’re They Building In There Award for the cropped shot of their upcoming iPhone game (abbreviated ‘PP,’ it seems), and the super hyper lens-flared project ‘Z’.
All in due time, I suppose: it seems focus #1 is pushing Fez into our hot hands in 2009, and I’m equally excited to see what sort of futurist design ephemera might come out of its currently greyed-out store.
Previously:
Only on Offworld: Polytron/Kokoromi's Anaglyphic super HYPERCUBE …
Bringing Gamma home to you – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Polytron
ONLY ON OFFWORLD: POLYTRON & KOKOROMI’S ANAGLYPHIC SUPER HYPERCUBE
Montreal collective Kokoromi‘s GAMMA games and music events are quickly becoming the top neo-future salons for art/game curation (last year’s event saw the release of Jason Rohrer’s low-res memento mori Passage, which quickly circulated as one of the most thought provoking games of the year), and it’s easy to understand why they’ve made 3D the subject of this year’s show: Kokoromi co-founder Phil Fish has spent the majority of the past few years playing with that dimension as one of the minds behind the forthcoming indie platformer Fez.
If you haven’t yet been exposed to Fez, a quick recap. Starting off as an otherwise innocently and nostalgically charming low-res 2D pixel platformer, Fez‘s central conceit revolves (no pun intended) around giving the player control of an otherwise hidden axis that fwoom‘s the world into the third dimension, re-aligning the position of 2D element and letting you venture deeper into its levels. It’s a difficult mechanic to put properly into words, but one that is genuinely jaw-dropping the first time it’s performed, and utilized to a more logical and involving extent than seen in the Wii’s similarly dimensionally screwy Super Paper Mario.
For this year’s GAMMA, then, the collective invited the indie developer community to get just as playful with the third dimension, only, in true retro-futurist Kokoromi style, limited developers to using only red/blue stereoscopy and explore, as they put it, “alternative depth and location cues” and the “ability to hide information in separate viewing channels.”
Kokoromi themselves — consisting of programmer Damien Di Fede, Fish, creative director and researcher Heather Kelley (who you might remember from her “magical pet adventure and stealthy primer on female sexual pleasure,” Lapis, and digital media theorist Cindy Poremba — together with Polytron programmer Renaud Bédard, set out to up their own 3D ante and have created, Offworld can exclusively reveal ahead of the event, super HYPERCUBE.
Kelley explains, “The gameplay of super HYPERCUBE is kind of like that “human Tetris” event on those Japanese game shows… but with cubes. You have a cluster of procedurally generated cubes right in front of you, and your goal is to quickly line it up to fit through the hole in the wall that’s moving toward you, by rotating the cluster with the controller.”
“To see the hole in the wall on the other side of the cluster (and thus figure out what direction to rotate the cube to line it up) you have to lean,” Kelley continues, “The better you play, the bigger the cluster gets, and so the further you need to lean in order to see the wall behind.” Simple enough, but — and here’s where their true innovation comes into play — to implement that leaning, Polytron’s Bédard took a cue from Carnegie Mellon researcher Johnny Lee’s famous Wii-mote head tracking concept, and hacked together a pair of stereoscope glasses that lets players literally lean to navigate their way around the space.
The short videos we’ve seen of the experience appear just the tiniest bit magical — the combination of anaglyph 3D with movement-based perspective, on top of the game’s slickly minimalist style reminiscent of nothing so much as early PlayStation puzzler Intelligent Qube perfectly fits that Kokoromi retro future vision. It’s not hard to imagine the 70’s early game pioneers predicting that this would be the shape of games to come.
The ‘super’ version of super HYPERCUBE will be playable one night only at tonight’s event, but, Kelley says, a version simply called HYPERCUBE which uses the Xbox 360 controller to lean will be released after the show, as will the games from its other selected developers, including Infinite Ammo’s Paper Moon, Lee Byron and Joannie Wu’s Fireflies, Tim Winsky and Johanna Arcand’s AltiToad, Jim McGinley’s The Depths To Which I Sink, and Antony Blackett, Corie Geerders, and James Everett’s BlottoBrace.
GAMMA 3D takes place tonight at 9pm EST, at Montreal’s Society for Arts and Technology (the SAT).
See more posts about: Kokoromi, Offworld Originals, Polytron
