Where's the remote?
Is the remote over there?
7 months from now
Super Meat Boy
Xbox Release Day
What the Hell?
Are you fucking kidding me?
Are you fucking kidding me?
I've got plenty of information...
It's not here.
...I know on our launch day...
Where is it?
...Which is our biggest sales day...
What the FUCK is that!?!
...that...
...we're not even featured anywhere...
I know on our launch day,
at this point
We're going to do worse than
all of them.
Indie Game: The Movie
Part of it...
...is about not trying to be...
...professional.
A lot of people come in
to indie games...
...trying to be like a big company.
What those companies do...
...is create highly polished things...
...that serve as large
of an audience as possible.
The way that you do that is by...
...filing off all the bumps
on something.
If there's a sharp corner,
you make sure it's not going to
hurt anybody.
If they bump into it or whatever.
That creation of this highly glossy,
commercial product
Is the opposite of
making something personal.
I am determined to make video games...
...and I make video games
because I can.
I'm very, very good at programing.
I can still make something that
expresses myself.
Like a movie or something
that I wrote.
I can make that as a video game.
And I have the full ability
to do that.
Things that are personal...
...have flaws.
They have vulnerabilities.
To me, games
are the ultimate art form.
It's just the ultimate medium.
It's the sum total of every
expressive medium of all time...
...made interactive.
How is that not...
It's AWESOME!
I want to be part of it.
I want to have a say
in what becomes of video games.
If you don't see a
vulnerability in somebody...
You're probably not relating with them
on a very personal level.
So it's the same with a game design.
My whole career has been me,
trying to find new ways...
...to communicate with people.
Because, I desperately want to
communicate with people.
But I don't want the
messy interaction of having to...
...make friends and talk to people.
Because I probably don't like them.
When you make games.
And you put stuff up online.
And people like your stuff
or don't like your stuff.
Either way, they're going to give you
some kind of feedback.
And you have this conversation.
It's why a writer writes I guess.
Because they can.
It's the most effective way to
express themselves.
And a video game is the most
effective way I can express myself.
Making it was about...
Let me take my deepest flaws
and vulnerabilities...
...and put them in the game.
And let's see what happens.
The generation indie game
developers are coming from,
and I'm part of this generation also,
we're the first generation that
grew up with video games.
But not as
an active purchasing choice.
Since I was part of
that generation...
I feel an ownership of it.
Games are mine.
For anyone that grew up
after 1975; 1980 or so...
...we were the first generation
to grow up with our parents
...giving us games.
And for us to grow up with games...
...as a natural, and relevant part of
our everyday existence.
This is not a
weird kid activity for me.
This is not like
some strange nerdy pastime.
This has been a part of my life.
There's been a tendency...
...over the past couple decades in
mainstream games...
...to make everything bigger
and more realistic.
To 'Amp Up'
everything.
[GUS]
Big games have other goals.
They want to entertain you.
They want to get 10 million people
playing at the same time.
But with Indie Games,
it's often 1 person
Who says:
I want a game to be like this.
I want a game to be about
this special thing.
Independent games are any game
that a small team...
...or individual worked on
to their own vision.
Something that they felt like making,
coding and finishing.
The major thing that made
this possible...
...is the rise of
digital distribution.
Retailers used to have
a lot of power...
...over every game creation company.
Because that was
the only way to sell games.
Nobody was willing to start
distributing games digitally.
Because WalMart would get upset
at them.
And take their products off the shelf.
And nothing would happen.
But Valve changed that,
when they came out with Steam.
They had no loyalties to retail.
So they just did it.
After that everyone else said:
'Well, we have to compete with them'
And there was this whole flood of:
XBox Live Arcade...
...Playstation network...
...and WiiWare followed suit.
2008 was the first year that
indie games started to do really well.
Audiosurf came out on Steam.
Then Castle Crashers...
...and Braid and World of Goo.
Osmos did really well in 2009, 2010.
Then Limbo came out and broke records.
And Minecraft came out as well-
Actually, it came out much earlier,
but then it really built up...
...and blew those records away.
And when we're talking about
'really well' ...
...we're talking about
millions of dollars in revenue.
So for teams of 200,
millions of dollars...
...doesn't really count for much.
But for a team of 2, 3 people...
... that's really significant money.
Hey Everybody,
Welcome to 'Elder Speak'...
The official podcast of
ElderGeek.com
With me I've got Gavin from the
news...
And special guests:
Edmund and Tommy from 'Team Meat'
Who are making 'Super Meat Boy'
So, with us today is Team Meat...
Team Meat
Everybody in the indie scene...
...is raving about this...
Meat Boy's Coming!
Meat Boy's Coming!
It was all over the place.
This is our biggest interview ever!
? If you've been living
under a rock...
...most anticipated releases
this Fall...
...it is looking AMAZING!
I can not wait to see it done...
We both
approached Super Meat Boy...
...where our goal was to
make a game...
...that our 13 yr. old selves would be
super fan boys of.
Super Meat Boy has been
in development for 11 months.
I know that
13 yr. old Edmund...
...would hear about Meat Boy
right now.
He'd be following us on Twitter.
He'd be that annoying kid
that was like...
Hey, send me a build!
My name is 'Super Meat Boy Fan Boy'
I've registered it; I haven't even
played the game yet.
Get me a demo!?! Co'mon!!!
I'd totally be that.
Because this game is very... me.
And Tommy would say the same.
I want it to be one of those games
that kids would...
...go crazy for on the school yard...
...and passionately argue that
'this game is better than this game'
This is my room...where I grew up.
As a child
Yeah, forever this has been my room.
I have a bunch of posters from
'Nintendo Power'
Way back in the day.
Yeah, this room IS my childhood.
And that's basically
what Super Meat Boy is.
It's my and Edmund's childhood,
put into game form...
By ... seemingly ... adult males.
Super Meat Boy is an upcoming
PC and console game...
... based on a Flash game.
This incredibly hard Flash game that
was super super popular.
It's a game that looks like it's going
to be traditional in a way.
It's a 'Platformer'
This very well know thing.
But it's got a real distinct art style
And a very quirky
point of view.
Super Meat Boy is a retro Platformer.
Where you play as a boy with no skin.
Who's just Meat, basically.
He's trying to rescue his girlfriend,
who is made of bandages...
From an evil doctor,
that's a fetus in a jar...
... wearing a top hat and a monocle.
Dressed in a tuxedo.
During my early years.
Going through school and everything...
It was all 'Mega Man', 'Mario'
and 'Metroid'
Older, very very difficult games.
Every game on this wall...
... 'F Zero' was hard ...
... 'Mega Man' was very difficult.
'Spy Hunter' was stupidly difficult.
In Super Meat Boy,
we get to do whatever we want.
We don't have a publisher.
Or investors.
We don't answer to anybody.
A lot of that is shown in the game.
We get away with a lot of stuff.
We can have Dr. Fetus
give the middle finger.
Because he only has 3 fingers. So it's
not technically his middle finger.
We can put in any sort of humor
or parody that we want.
We have parodies of 'Street Fighter'
and 'Castlevania'...
... 'Mega Man' intros
... 'Bubble Bobble'
'Super Meat Boy' will release
on Xbox in 7 months.
People want to know:
Is this game going to be substantial?
Or is it just all the quirk
and character?
A lot of people think it's
going to be ...
... along the lines of Castle Crashers
In 2008, 'Castle Crashers' and 'Braid'
were the 2 games that...
... really made people look at go:
'Oh, I can download games on my Xbox.'
People are expecting this game to be
the next big thing on 'XBLA'.
As long as it comes out
and does something ...
Even if it made me $ 20,000
over the next 2 years or something...
That would be enough
to make the next game.
Based on
what I'm living off right now.
And I'd have to do that, because...
I'm not going
to go work at 'EA' or 'Epic'.
That sounds horrible.
That sounds like Hell to me.
So, if it comes out
and people don't like it.
And people hate it.
And it has a Metacritic score
of, like, 20.
And everyone thinks its awful...
It doesn't make a difference
because ...
Even though it's a game
that people are supposed to buy ...
... it's not a game
that I made 'for people'.
I made it for myself.
Ed and I made it as a reflection
of ourselves.
And we tried to make it as fun
and as accessible as possible.
Whatever. If people want
'Modern Warfare' or 'Halo Reach'...
...that's fine because I think
those games are shit.
If that's what people want.
Then they don't want my games.
Because I don't make shit games.
If you follow Indie Games...
... even remotely ...
'FEZ' is one of the projects that
you've been hearing about for a while.
It's been several years in development
FEZ has been in development
for the past 3 years.
FEZ will be memorable for
it's release ....
... or for never coming out.
And the winner is...
FEZ!
So FEZ wins an award at the IGF...
It was hardly finished.
It won on the back of small tech demo.
In the clear blue sky ...
... an awards ceremony ...
Within a week, I saw it on
EVERY major gaming website.
My name is Phil.
I'm an independent game developer.
It's mostly about this little 2D guy.
Who lives in a 2D world.
And then one day realizes that
the world is 3D.
All of a sudden, Phil,
who is making this game on his own...
... with a grant from
the Canadian government.
Is some Indie Gaming Rock-star.
This is fucking awesome.
Phil is trying to walk around
in a Cubist painting.
That's what FEZ is ...
... you're walking around
a cubist painting.
2D characters in a 3D rotating world.
At any point, you're only
seeing one side of the world.
And everybody is clamoring.
They want to see the game.
"When do we get the game..."
"When can we play the game..."
There's been so much speculation about
When? Where? ... How?
If EVER this game is going to come out
FINISH THE GOD DAMN GAME!
I'm working on it.
As hard as I can.
All the time.
"What's taking so long"
"What the fuck are you doing Phil?"
I'm doing the best I can here!
I don't hear people bitch about
Valve taking-
Well, no, they do bitch about Valve
and Episode 3.
BUT NOT AS MUCH AS FEZ!!
And there's hundreds of people
working there!
ICO took five years...
Red Dead Redemption:
A thousand people. Five years.
GTA4:
A thousand people. Five years.
Nobody bitches about that-
A THOUSAND PEOPLE!!
There's two of us here
"It's taking too long"
FUCK OFF!
JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!
Like...
It really gets to me.
I guess, that's the price you pay
for being indie.
And being the one guy that
people know is making the game.
You open yourself up to
these kinds of personal attacks.
That I wasn't ... uh ...
That's not something I was expecting,
when dreaming about being independent.
Not this Army of Assholes online ...
... to, not ruin my life,
but to make it that more ...
...hard to enjoy.
It's a complicated game also.
It was ridiculously over ambitious.
For my first indie game.
It's a classic mistake.
And we didn't realize
we were making it.
We thought it was going to take a year
We thought it was going to be
a simple game.
And it became a completely
different game many times.
[Phil & Renaud converse in French]
My name is Renaud.
I've been programming FEZ
since the beginning.
Since three years ago.
Day to day, it's just coding stuff.
Adding features. Fixing bugs.
That's what I do.
There's a lot of
personal pressure to ...
... finish what you've been working on
for so long.
And there's a lot of people
expecting it to be really awesome.
And much bigger than we've shown.
Because, every time we show something.
We say: 'oh that's nothing'.
'that's just a small part'
'you'll see how much better it gets'
The personal pressure is bigger to me
than the outside world pressure.
I really need to get this done.
It's a learning experience
I've made games before. But I've never
produced an entire game from A to Z.
For commercial release
On a real platform.
With Microsoft.
I've never done that before.
It's terrifying.
It's really really really scary.
Especially when you lose funding.
Or something like that ...
There's just no safety net there.
There's nothing to fall back on.
There's always the threat of
everything falling apart.
Any day now.
FEZ is now scheduled
to release in 2011
13 months left.
It was very difficult to make the game
But in some ways,
it was less difficult...
... than what I had
been doing until then.
Having a lot of big ideas about
what I wanted to do in games.
And not finishing anything that had
the impact I wanted to have.
[Jonathan has been making
games for 22 years]
I think as one ages
and establishes a pattern of that.
It becomes a little bit demoralizing.
You start to look at things and say:
"Maybe I'm never going to do the
things I thought I would."
Then one day, I said: I'm going to
actually finish something.
And that became 'Braid'.
It took three years, but I finished it
One of the biggest breakout
games would have to be Braid.
Braid is an interesting game ...
... I was surprised it was as
successful as it is.
It was a big hit for
the independent community.
Generating a lot of money for
Jonathan.
It's a very odd setting and a lot of
people aren't quite sure what it means
Nobody had played a game that was like
Braid.
That did what Braid did
with time before.
Really what made Braid work was that
'Rewind' mechanic ...
... obviously, from a gameplay
perspective was a lot of fun.
But it also had a metaphorical
relevance as well.
It's telling this strange,
out of order love story
... not something you normally see
in a game.
It's about this little preppy boy.
He always looks like a preppy to me.
He's lost something and is working
through memories ...
... that change as he keeps playing.
The fictional world
and the game world mechanic ...
... those two work hand-in-hand
very very well.
So Braid came out of the confluence
of a couple of different ideas.
I was on a mailing list with
some friends. And one friend...
... was looking at
'Prince of Persia: Sands of Time'
And it had this ability to 'rewind'.
But it was limited.
You had a certain number of charges.
When you ran out, if you got
killed, you couldn't rewind anymore.
You had to reload the game.
Which was this painful process.
So one of my friends said:
Why not do it like a VCR?
And rewind anytime you want.
But nobody ever tried it.
So I said:
'Okay, I'm feeling inspired.'
'Let me start this idea for this game
I've been kicking around.'
And I spent about a week working on it
And I had a prototype.
That is really kind of amazing.
In that...
... if you look at the prototype,
and the final game ...
... a lot of the ideas from
the final game and in that prototype.
So I had the first three worlds.
I mean not fully built out worlds.
But the game mechanics were there.
For rewinding ...
And for rewinding with things that are
immune to rewind.
And for time and space
being tied together.
So that time changes as you move.
I had a number of puzzles.
Probably half of them are in
the final game, in recognizable form.
It was very low effort, on my part,
to do something very interesting
in the system.
And I was like: 'Wow'
It started as experimentation.
but then it quickly became
a process of discovery.
It's like sitting on a gold mine.
But you don't even have to dig.
You just scoop some dirt and
there's a little chunk of gold.
Then you scoop a little more ...
The hardest part of the process is
picking up these heavy chunks of gold.
So that was
an amazing design experience.
[Braid is one of the top rated
video games of all time.]
Most of the time, Tommy's
in North Carolina. Working remotely.
And I'm here working from my computer.
The way this game developed...
... has been very different from
other games I've worked on.
[Edmund has designed
25 Flash games in the past 10 years.]
[Super Meat Boy will be
his first major release.]
We bounce ideas off each other.
Not just gameplay ideas.
More like jokes.
Jokes that get out of control ...
... and push their way into the game.
It says:
'Code. Code. Code. Durrrrr!'
My Adams's Apple is not that big!
Stop it!
What if I put a knife in it ...
... look at that.
It's totally injected all the way in.
See the needle? And then a hammer hits
the needle in deeper.
I've always been trying to
find where boundaries are.
And see how far I can push them
before I get in trouble.
That's what I'm doing now.
If I'm not doing that, I'm bored.
And if I'm bored.
I'm not being creative.
I make games that center around my
life. The things I think, say and do.
I make games to express myself.
I guess.
It's hard for me to talk about
Santa Cruz.
I never lived anywhere else.
It's just 'normal'.
I grew up here.
My mom was obsessed with the beach.
It was always her dream to live in
Santa Cruz.
So, that's where she ...
... forced us to live.
It was like a skate and surf town.
I never got into either.
I stayed in the house,
played video games and drew.
Monsters.
I only drew monsters.
I drew weird shit.
There's a drawing of a kid,
with a demon inside of him.
Scratching to get out.
In third grade, my teacher
recommended that I be evaluated.
Psychologically evaluated.
She thought I was
mentally disturbed.
My mom said: 'No, he's just an artist.
He like's to draw.'
And she said: 'That's not art.
That's a cry for help.'
I basically grew up with my Grandma.
I didn't get along with my Step Dad.
When there was a problem,
I would stay with my Grandma.
Or we would all stay with my Grandma.
My Grandma was extremely supportive.
To the point of annoying my mom
and my sister.
To her, I was the Golden Boy
who could do anything.
She made me feel like
I could do anything.
When she said:
'You're going to be a success'
It wasn't like she was just saying it.
It was like, a FACT.
Like, that was going to happen.
That was that.
Aether was based on my niece.
She reminded me of myself.
She didn't like
playing with other kids.
She liked to do things by herself.
And explore by herself.
She was very imaginative.
And she really liked monsters
So, that brought me back to
when I was little. And I thought...
How cool would it be to make a game.
That could put people inside my mind
when I was 5, 6, 7?
And that became 'Aether'
So this kid gets on
the back of a monster.
And the monster goes around in space.
And he explores all
these other planets.
He can't connect to anybody
on earth. So he goes to find friends.
But all these other planets are
inhabited by...
... weird or sad or nervous creatures.
And he tries to solve their problems.
And succeeds...
But they don't become happy.
And he keeps going around
all these planets.
But each time he solves a problem,
the Earth gets smaller.
When he comes back. It's so
small that when he touches it...
...it breaks.
And he's lost in space.
It was about the idea of...
It's really cool to be a creative kid.
But there's dangers of isolating,
and becoming obsessed with things.
And having phobias.
Each of those planets was
a phobia of mine when I was little.
And when I was little, before bed,
I would obsess about these things.
Because I thought I could fix them.
But in the end,
I would just make them worse.
They wouldn't be fixed.
But I'd be so obsessed with them ...
... I'd have stomach aches and have to
go home from school.
A lot of the imagery,
I'm still very happy with.
To me it speaks perfectly of
how I felt when I was little.
When I play that game. It's exactly
how I remember it feeling.
Shortly after Aether,
my Grandma passed away.
And she had a box of my drawings
that she saved.
From when I was little.
That's when I found this picture ...
... 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 .
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 fucking 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 fucked.
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 fucking 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.
That's why they call him Meat Boy.
So he's exposed to the elements.
Maybe he's always in pain.
But he just deals with it.
But he has to be very careful with
everything.
Because anything can kill him.
The smallest little thing - like salt
Could totally destroy him.
I wanted to have his girlfriend be
more than a love interest.
And I wanted to play with the idea
that he needs her ...
... that she's what completes him.
Not just emotionally, but physically
as well.
And that's why she's 'Bandage Girl'.
She's kind of the outer shell over
Meat Boy.
That protects him.
And that's why he needs her.
He needs her back.
Not only because he loves her,
but because...
That's what completes him.
The Seumas McNally Grand Prize ...
... in the 'Open Category'
Goes to Chronic Logic for 'Gish'!
Thank you everybody.
Okay, I'd like to take this
opportunity to...
...propose to my girlfriend, Danielle.
Okay, Okay, I have to do it. Co'mon
guys, I have to actually say it.
Danielle.
Will you marry me?
People probably don't know that
he's an amazing husband.
That's ... huge.
He does all this stuff and he's still
an amazing partner.
The development process was long.
A lot of work.
It was hard to adapt
our relationship.
To go from spending 24/7 together ...
... eating meals together.
Leaving the house,
to not doing that at all.
I heard a lot of this:
'I only see your back'
It was like:
'I know we're in the same room ...'
'... but I only see your back'
We're never sitting and
looking at each other.
Many times, I had to ask her:
'Are you happy here?'
'Is this worth it?'
'Because I worry that this is just
horribly boring for you'
'And that this might be something you
regret getting into as well.'
This is the lady I like.
Not th- This is a Cat.
This website. I think I'm going to go
with this breeder.
I've wanted one of these since
I was little.
I asked for it. When the game's done.
And we move to a house.
If I could get a cat.
And he said 'yes'.
And this is my dream cat.
It's like having a baby.
Except better.
We can't have another cat
in this house.
Oh, it'd be some warm. OOOH My God!
That's the thing...
Available, AVAILABLE
... Winter's coming.
This one belongs
to 'Jennifer and Robert'.
They're probably way happier than us.
Right at this moment.
Because they have the cat.
I ... sacrificed having a life.
It's kind of weird.
I don't ...
I don't go out.
I don't really socialize.
I can't spend money.
Because I don't have any money.
So I can't go out...
If I were to go on a date...
I have no car to pick them up in.
I have no way to buy meals
or anything.
I mean, I can buy my own meal, but..
... the things you sacrifice are ...
... the things I've sacrificed are ...
... social.
You kind of have to give up something.
To have something great.
I'm depressed now ...
... because I'm on the
brink of something huge.
It's a different kind of depression.
It's not a 'stuck' depression.
It's a 'Holy Shit' depression.
It's an 'unknown' depression.
Which is kind of weird.
But, it'll fade.
Because once it's out. It's out.
And that's it.
[Super Meat Boy will be
released in 3 days.]
I'm really curious to see what the
basic reaction is.
Because, the only people who have
seen the game so far...
Have been people close to me.
[FEZ has been in
development for 4 years]
Feedback has been good.
But I can't trust that feedback
I don't know if my friends would
tell me if FEZ sucked.
Knowing that I've spent most
of my adult life on it.
Because, I don't even know what
I think about it anymore.
I really can't tell
if it's good or not.
Sometimes I manage to convince myself
that it's good and I did a good job.
But then I have a flash of lucidity.
'But you can't trust yourself!'
All you've been doing for 4 years
is look at it. Like, this close.
You can't see anything else.
You don't even see the mistakes
anymore.
I'm looking forward to that kind of
brutal honesty.
That we're going to get from
the average gamer.
We're here for PAX: Penny Arcade Expo
It's not for developers.
It's for gamers.
They're expecting like 65,000 people.
We're going to be showing off FEZ
for the first time since 2008.
Which was the unveiling of the game.
We haven't shown it since.
In four years.
So ... I'm a bit nervous.
But this is kind of like the
big blow out. The confirmation that:
Yes. FEZ is real. It's exists.
It's going to come out, and you'll be
able to buy it and play it one day.
Hopefully interest will build up again
Because I feel that over the years,
people have stopped caring.
They may need to be reminded
that we exist.
And for the first time,
I've feel like:
This is FEZ.
This is the game I wanted to make.
There's a mood here,
that I've achieved.
It's not done yet.
But it's really starting to feel
like a game ...
That has a beginning, middle
and an end.
It remains to be seen if the game's
going to be good.
But I'm pretty damn happy with it ...
... today.
Interviewer: What's the worst case
scenario for you?
None of this happens.
We don't get to show the game at PAX.
Or do anything with it.
For very complicated legal reasons.
My former business partner with whom
I started the company...
Left the company.
About six months ago.
And we've been in
a nasty divorce ever since.
And if everything isn't settled.
We can't do anything.
We can't show it. We can't be at PAX.
Just a final signature.
This last signature, to close the deal
So, at the moment...
We drove all the way here.
We printed banners.
We designed a booth.
I made a demo just for PAX.
There's still a chance that ...
... I'm just going to stay in
my hotel room.
And not be able to do any of this.
It's pretty stressful.
It feels like waiting.
Everything feels longer.
It feels like I'm about to throw up.
It's stage fright.
I have a hard time sleeping.
I can't think of anything else.
It's constantly running through
my head.
And it's such a big deal.
There are going to be so many people.
I'm not in a head space right now...
...where I want to be exposing myself.
And being a public figure.
And talking to people.
I'm so in my own little world.
Just working on FEZ.
Trying to finish it.
I don't do anything else.
Every other aspect
of my life is suffering.
Because I'm just trying to finish
this fucking game.
Because right now.
It can go either way.
It could be a nightmare
... I don't know.
[Ha! Ahhh, Man!]
[Hey, This is Souja Boy]
[They got this game right?
This shit called 'Braid']
[Watch this Shit!]
[You're this little guy
in a business suit
[It look like Mario
... in the future]
[And he's just walking around,
jumping on shit]
[But the funny part is:
You can do this, watch this...]
[Now, if you didn't catch that.
I just went back in time.]
On release day, you start seeing
reactions of people on the Internet.
And for me, it was
a very addictive thing.
Because I've spent several years
working on this thing in isolation.
And then suddenly it gets out.
And a lot of people...
... like tens of thousands of people
play it in the first few days.
You see that all over the Internet.
And, for me,
that was a very negative experience.
When Braid was coming out.
People would talk about it online.
And this was around the birth of
serious video game blog commentary
Lots of people writing really good
stuff about games.
Every time you mentioned his name.
He would show up in your comments.
Almost instantly.
He must have something even better
than 'Google Alerts'
So he'd pop up and reply to things.
Or correct people on things.
And became sort of famous for it.
Penny Arcade even cracked about it.
John:
I found that there was this...
Perception of me on the Internet ...
...that was running away, very quickly
from who I think I am
And that was ... kind of ...
disturbing.
And there didn't seem to be much that
I could do about that.
So that was actually a pretty negative
experience.
I was actually seriously depressed for
about 3-4 months after Braid came out
When you work a long time on something
really intricate like that.
There's a hope that ...
... people are going to understand
the things that you did.
And that you'll have some line of
communication with your audience.
And actually, some of the most
demoralizing things...
Were actually positive reviews
of the game.
People would say
'Oh, this game's great!'
'9 out of 10!'
'10 out of 10!'
And they'd say what's good
about the game...
And in many cases it would be just a
very surface understanding of the game
That didn't even see what I thought
was most special about it.
Not that many people understood.
And that was heartbreaking.
In a way.
I visualized I was going to have some
kind of connection with people.
... through this game.
And they think it's great,
but the connection isn't there.
Because, they're kind of living
in a different world still.
So they think it's great ...
for some of the reasons I do, but...
... but not for other ...
...
[There's no point to the game!]
[You just walk around jumping on shit]
... they're not seeing the most
important thing.
[This shit's stupid as hell man...]
Today is Monday.
And that's the 'Embargo' Date.
Do you know what an 'Embargo' is?
I didn't.
And I got in trouble for not knowing.
An Embargo is: You set a date
when press can review your game.
So, midnite rolls around. And I start
refreshing 'Twitter mentions'
You can search who's talking about
Super Meat Boy.
And reviews just start popping out.
So, I just start grabbing quotes
and posting them.
So we got:
'A great experience 4 out of 5'
'Super Meat Boy
revels in driving you crazy...'
'...but you end up
crazy in love.'
'... 9 out of 10'
'Brutal and hilarious'
'5 out of 5'
'I've never felt so challenged
and rewarded...
... in all my years playing with meat'
I don't know who that is.
But I posted it.
All these reviews keep coming in.
And the whole time, I'm thinking...
...I'm waiting for the really bad one.
Some one has to hate it.
'Super Meat Boy
can stand confidently ...
... next to Mario
and the platforming elite.
'It's the best game on XBLA'
'This game is wonderful: 10 out of 10'
It's a love letter to
everything great about video games.
'This is nothing short of greatness.'
'Buy it now! '
'5 out of 5!'
They just kept coming and kept coming.
I did not expect this. At all.
I honestly
did not expect these reviews.
'Get this game now!'
'10 out of 10''
'4.5 out of 5'
'9 out of 10', '9.5 out of 10'
It's weird to be launching the same
time as 'Fallout'...
... and be getting reviews that are
almost better.
That's weird. Especially since it's
a game I'm going to be buying.
It's pretty fucking awesome.
I don't know if you guys realize
how frustrating it is.
I don't think you understand
what's weird about it.
I don't care...
I really don't care what any
of the reviews say.
It's just weird that they're there.
Positive or negative.
It doesn't matter that we get
nines and tens...
... it doesn't matter.
Yeah, but, I've been weird all my life
about stuff.
It's kind of weird to have people say:
'Hey, you're going to be rich.
You can buy me a car...'
You know, just joking kind of stuff.
But they're not joking.
I mean, they're joking about
me buying them a car.
Because I'm totally not buying anyone
a car.
Except my parents, if they want one.
But, to hear that ...
...
To hear that everything that I dreamed
about for years and years and years...
... is going to basically come true,
in like two days.
And has already started to ...
is very...odd.
I cry at the idea of crying about it.
That's weird.
I cried when we submitted
the game to certification.
I cried because it was like...
It was like sending
your kid off to school.
And we just had to wait.
We worked on it so hard.
We were non-stop for, like, two months
Doing ungodly amounts of work.
Then we send it off to certification.
And its like:
'OK, we'll let you know in two weeks'
It's like: 'Aarrghh!'
Is it going to pass?
Is it not going to pass?
Am I going to have to fix bugs?
And then when I would play the game.
And I would see bugs.
And then I'd panic and I'd email
Microsoft. And I'd go:
'Oh God! The game doesn't show
PEGI ratings ...'
'... if it's run in European regions.'
'Is that going to be a problem?'
And they're like: 'Oh no, it's fine'
And it's like: 'Oh? Okay then.'
[laughs]
I can't shake the idea that...
...even though they're good reviews.
That we'll still fail.
Is that weird?
Is that weird to feel that way?
Because it feels normal to me.
And I know it feels normal to Tommy.
But, there's still a part of me
that says:
'Even though we have the highest rated
game on Xbox Live...'
'...we're still going to fail.'
Tommy, Do you feel the same way?
There's still a part of me that
worries we can fail.
Yeah, it is there
It's there. It's a real thing.
The only way I could see it failing...
...is if the first 1,000 people
download the game...
...and get the game save error...
... and then get online
and trash the shit out of the game.
Yeah... those are different worries
for you.
I know that, yeah, people may
lose their save.
But they'll still enjoy the game
and we're going to fix it.
Ouch!
So this is press contacts to
578 people.
So I'll send out the press release.
Update the website. Update my blog.
Update my Facebook,
and call it a night.
What are you going to do Tommy?
Uhh... What happened?
I just fell asleep.
Really?
Yeah... uh...uh...
What, what did you say?
Um, nothing.
This morning I got an email
from Renaud saying that...
...my ex-associate was on his way
to PAX...
...for some other game
he's working on.
He still hasn't signed.
He's going to be on the road most of
the day...
...and then he's going to be at
the show.
And, I'm having a panic-attack.
I feel like i'm going to cry, throw up
and pass out all at once.
My breathing is weird.
I'm going to lose my shit.
And, I'm going to kill him, I'm going
to fucking murder that guy.
And, it's going to get everybody in
trouble.
We're going to get kicked out of PAX,
a horrible disaster like that.
I can even begin to figure out
how I'm going to hande this.
If he doesn't sign, we can't do the
show.
He can. He's going to do his own show,
and prevent me from doing mine.
It starts today. The show is tomorrow
morning.
We have one day to set everything up.
And, it's still not signed.
And, he's coming. He's going to be
there and check out the game.
And, I'm going to cold-blood fucking
murder him. Fuck that guy! Seriously!
Have to set-up for the show, while not
even knowing...
...building a booth at the show, while
not even knowing.
We going to have to fucking
disassemble it.
We going to have to take apart the FEZ
kiosk.
And, put it away. Build it up. Tear it
down.
Why? Why is he doing this? What's the
point of this?
It just doesn't make any sense.
He should just fuck off. Let me finish
the game.
Not interfere in any way because he
stands to gain so much.
If he just lets me to do my work.
He's going to be a millionaire for
nothing.
He won't have done anything.
He will be fucking millionaire
because of me.
And, somehow he's trying to fucking
sabatoge that. He trying to ruin that.
Or just playing mind games?
What is he stupid or cruel or both?
It's too much.
There's too much at stake.
I feel like this is just going
to end horribly.
For everybody involved.
Where's the remote?
Is the remote over there?
What the Hell?
Are you fucking kidding me?
Are you fucking kidding me?
Where is it?
It's not here.
What the fuck is that?
This is fucking bullshit.
We are nothing.
We are nothing to them.
We're being fucked.
They don't care. They so don't care.
We have no....
...we have no placement on the
marketplace...
...which is the entire point of doing
the sale...
and doing this stupid promotion.
And, fucking killing myself to get
this game out in time.
[Interviewer]
What did they promise you?
We'd get a spot on the front of
Xbox...
...like all the other shitty games do.
[Interviewer]
How important is placement?
Pretty fucking important.
It's like going to the store...
and having to ask if they have game in
the back...
...because they
don't have it on the shelf.
You know, how often do people do that.
I'm not going to look at sales.
Nah, I'm not going to look at sales.
There's no point in
looking at sales...
...because there's no way of me
estimating how it's doing...
...within the first couple hours.
There's no point in me downloading it
and checking the leaderboards.
It would freak me out and make me OCD.
I'd just constantly refresh it.
I'll just wait for Microsoft to call.
That's how you do it.
First day is very very important...
...because it sort of. It sets. It's
like a pace car.
If you sell 20-30 thousand copies in
the first day....
....well, then you can expect to sort
of staircase down.
Now that we're going to start
very low...
...it's going to be the same graph but
just at much smaller scale.
...and there's just nothing we can do
about it.
Because the day's half over...
We'll get half of what we had.
If we have to get on Twitter, and tell
people how to find the game...
...to buy it. That's awful.
Especially since, it's not like 'go to
marketplace and we're right there'...
No, we have say a five-step systems
of events, series of commands...
...to actually buy the game and that's
awful. That's dumb.
There's nothing we can do except blame
Microsoft...
and then, never ever work with them
again.
It's so dumb. I don't want to do
games anymore.
I'll work on cars.
I don't want to work on cars.
I don't want to do anything.
Can I be a bum?
[Four hours into release day, the
game's ad is not on Xbox.]
It's Friday. It's the first day of
PAX.
It's 7:20 in the morning,
right now.
The show opens at 9.
Still no signature.
It's scary.
I really don't like it.
Everyone is telling me just do it.
And, everything is set-up.
And, it's not like I'm just going to
say no and stay in my hotel room.
I'm going to tag along and go to the
convention center with everybody...
and do the show.
Yeah, I guess I'm pretty nervous.
It's the first time
we've shown the game...
...since we first showed it.
Pre-success before you ever released
is not a guarantee that...
...that the world will be there for
you.
And, the worry I certainly have for
FEZ is that...
By the time that game ever comes
out...
...we will have moved on to some other
thing.
I'm hoping that it kind of has a
Phoenix rising moment.
Like oh yeah, FEZ is back.
That people will take us a bit more
seriously and...
...not treat like some vaporware joke.
Establish that...
Everything is real.
Doors are opening in like 5 mins.
There's a million people outside.
I did release the trailer about an
hour ago.
It's starting to spread already.
This is real. This is happening now.
It's out in the open.
It's really a nerve-wrecking
experience...
....to look at somebody play my
unfinished game.
Because it's not done.
Somebody will get stuck somewhere....
...or there's a part they don't get or
they don't like.
Yeah, but it's not done. I'll fix
it later.
Yeah, it feels like too...
...too personal.
It's too close.
Yeah, we'll see what happens.
I think that's a bug.
I think you're stuck now.
Yeah, I don't know what that was...
but he's suppose to keep talking and
then something happens.
If you don't mind starting over.
First player...
...game breaking bug right away,
right away.
Ah, God damn it, it's completely
broken.
That's not good.
Ah, I need to restart this thing.
Keys, keys.
There's a game breaking right away,
right away. You can't play it.
The game keeps crashing all the time.
It's completely unstable.
There are game breaking bugs, right
at the beginning.
Damn it!
Even like the 'Start New Game'
doesn't work.
I need to restart the computer
everytime.
It's a disaster. It's a complete
fucking disaster.
What happened? Where were you at?
[PLAYER]
Ah nothing. Just start new game.
And, it just stayed in the sky.
One moment.
Everytime it crashes it feels like a
personal failure.
Like a deep personal failure.
I need to actually kill the game and
restart it.
Like I should apologize, 'Sorry I
wasted your time...
...you can start again, if you want'.
We made too many changes last
night.
And, now we have an unstable build on
our hands.
Someone just sent me sales stats and
we're at 9500 copies
So, 500 hundred more sales and we hit
10 which is considered a success...
...for first day and it's 2pm.
[Dancing]
There's a chance we can get between
15-20 thousand sales...
...today, which will be a huge, huge
success...
...Not record-breaking but still
really amazing.
[Holy Shit]
In the past 10 hours, Super Meat Boy
has grossed...
...more than I've made in the past 6
years combined.
That's a bit interesting.
I don't know, it's just surreal...
I wish Tommy was here. I wish Tommy
was here.
Things are going okay.
The game has alot of game-breaking
bugs and crashes so far...
...and I need to constantly restart,
quit the computer and start it again.
But, people are enjoying it. A lot of
people are playing for 15-20 mins.
This is really, really a very good
play-test session so far.
I wanted to create a nice place, a
pleasant place to be in.
I want people to feel a sense of
openness and adventure...
...but in a really simple, almost
child-like way.
I really want to people to just enter
that world and enjoy their time in it.
That's what the game is. It's a nice
place to spend time in.
I'm trying to recreate that experience
of playing games as a kid...
...before the Internet existed and
hearing these kind of urban legends...
..."Hey, I hear if you go stand in the
corner for 5 seconds and press down...
..."and then, you jump two times and
it warps you somewhere."
Yeah, like it was when I started
gaming.
That's kinda what the game is about.
So nice to see new Fez.
This is bascially FEZ 4 at this point.
We've scrapped 3 games.
But I think we got it.
I love that fucking art.
Ken just introduced me to Tycho from
Penny Arcade...
...who was very, very much into the
game.
That is sick as soon as you see the
side of the drum kit...
Like when you see that pixel art.
You assume, it's pixel art.
This is a powerful figure in the game
industry.
He fucking runs this entire
gigantic show!
I like this part.
Where it's like: Whooooooop
Now, it's pixel art.
Fuck yes.
I was really happy to meet the dude...
...and that he liked my game and me so
much.
I just got a ping back from
Destructoid...
...who posted about the trailer.
And, only for the post from
Destructoid, that one post...
...already got 11 thousands 'Likes' on
Facebook and 209 retweets.
Wait, that's in 2 hours.
In 2 hours.
But yeah, people enjoy FEZ.
Almost universally it seems.
[INTERVIEWER
How does that feel?]
Feels pretty good.
What game is this, Brad?
Super Fuck Fuck.
This seems like a hardest part.
What are you supposed to do?
Seeing people play the game is crazy.
The reviews and stuff we're getting is
really neat but...
...but seeing people play and hearing
the reactions...
...is so much more beyond that.
It's just so genuine and heartfelt.
You can hear it their voice
that they enjoy it.
And, that makes me feel so good.
If you had one thing to say
to the dude that designed this level?
Fuck you.
Groan - Why did you hit the spike?
You're going to feel satisfaction...
or a profound sense of loss...
...when you finally complete this.
[Sigh] Fucking hell, Dude.
How are you feeling are you all right?
Tommy?
Tommy?
Uh-huh
Okay, email from Jon.
Braid sold 10k the first day.
Oh, cool.
We're closing in on 15k very soon.
That's pretty awesome.
Hey Tommy,
remember that game Braid?
Yeah.
I think we might get 20k.
I think we might.
That means
that on the first day that...
...we might sell double what one of
the most successful...
...indie games of all-time has sold.
We're really going
one thousand people an hour.
Mmm...
It's crazy. You should be very happy
about this Tommy.
I am happy. I'm also very tired.
Very, very tired.
That's fucking crazy.
15 thousand copies, Tommy.
15 thousand?
Oh, Tommy, if you want to get even
more happy...
...go to Youtube, search
Super Meat Boy, look at most recent.
There's one guy that just posted
his 'unwrapping'.
He wanted to have
an unwrapping of the game.
So, he went out and bought points.
It shows him getting the points,
redeeming the points...
...putting it into the game,
downloading the game.
Then, it's just him reacting to
playing the game.
[Swearing]
[Laugh]
Oh my God, oh my God! Ah!
Love this shirt. Oh so awesome. Yes.
Regardless of how the game did...
I would think that I'd like to always
remember that I'm proud of it.
And, I think it's awesome that I can
look at of video of the game...
...And still see magic in it.
Even though, I spent all that time
looking at it....
....as a buggy piece of software
that I had to fix.
I think it's still awesome that
when I looked at that...
...Giant Bomb video and it hit the
'Glitch level'...
...that that was the coolest thing
I've ever seen.
What's going on?
Dude, we got really awesome fan art.
Really awesome fan art.
This is a really good drawing.
That's crazy. I used to draw Mario. I
used to draw Mario obsessively.
[Video Review] It's an extraordinary
platformer that makes you work for...
...every inch you gain.
It all begins with the controls.
It's apparent that the controls are
just an extension of your thoughts.
This is an amazingly well designed
game...
...because it seamlessly avoids the
frustration of dying...
...by shielding you from your own
aggravation.
You can spend as much time
as you want....
...getting lost in this incredible
world.
But, the rush of winning, it what
defines this excellent game.
Video reviews, man.
What are you doing?
What are you doing over there?
To see somebody like really get it.
You look at it,
and think it's effortless...
Like you just made a game but you
really put everything into it.
But you knew what you were doing. It's
not easy. Not everybody could do that.
Well, I think people get it.
It's just so crazy.
It's nice to hear that people get it,
and I have to tell them.
Yeah, that was an awesome,
an awesome review.
What a fucking crazy year...
Starting to feel worth it.
A little.
Starting to feel worth it.
You want to be liked.
You want to be appreciated.
You want people
to approve of your work.
It's just that you know, you work on a
project so long in semi-secrecy.
You can't really show it. You can that
much, or any feedback really.
You just want to any little morsel of
appreciation.
Well, I do, anyway.
It's like people "oh, I don't care
what people think about this and that"
It's like I care what people think.
I wish I didn't. But, I do.
It's kinda silly.
I'm a little bit annoyed about how
much I care that stuff.
Yeah, I wish I didn't care that much.
It is like I need any kind of
love and feedback that I can get.
Last night,
Destructoid posted about it.
And, they have the little 'Retweet'
and 'Like' thing.
Its said we had 200 Retweets
and 11 thousand Likes on Facebook.
Oh my god, 11 thousand likes!
And, that really kind of
gave me a huge boost.
And, then later I went back to the
hotel and checked it again...
And, realized that is was a fluke and
actually we had zero 'Likes'.
Why do I care so much about this? How
many likes I get on a stupid website?
Why do I let these things affect
me at all?
But, they do. Like I do want to have a
fucking million views on my trailer.
I want everybody to be talking about
the game.
It can get to you.
Because it's like...
...they tell you what you want to hear
basically...
...well, not what you want to hear
but...
You know, sometimes I think the game
sucks, and I suck....
...and that it's not going to work.
Then, this one guy comes along
"yeah this game's stupid....
...Nothing happens in it".
And, I'm like, oh Fuck you're right.
Nothing happens in FEZ.
I don't feel like...
...as relieved and happy about things
as I wished I was gonna.
I'm still worried that I might end up
making a shitty game
That's going to be remembered as
shitty game...
that was in development for too long,
and end up dissapointing everybody.
I have news for you, too.
Hopefully, it will take
a bit of the edge off.
Hit me.
We had a meeting.
We sat down. We talked about all the
grievances, all the issues.
We agreed, we shook on it and
we came to an understanding....
And, he's going to sign and it's all
going to be taken care of.
Wonderful.
Yeah? Alright man.
It isn't signed, yet. But, it's huge
weight lifted off my shoulders.
Like I can breath easier.
[INTERVIEWER]
I'm getting a Knytt Stories vibe.
Yes!
[INTERVIEWER]
A bit of Cave Story.
No!
No, Cave Story, I meant say.
Why does he wear a little Fez hat?
Because that's where
he get his 3D power from.
Because the Fez is a cube.
Well, that's it really.
That's my logic for that.
Did I see the entirity of the
mechanic?
Basically, you don't get
anymore more powers than that.
There's no boss fights,
or penalties for dying....
So, it's meant to be played slowly and
carefully like enjoy the world.
It's stop and smell the flowers
kind of game.
When I explained to people what the
game was about...
...and how it was slow and passive and
relaxing...
...alot of people understood what I
was going for with that.
People enjoyed what we showed them....
...which is just the beginning of game
that we've been polishing like crazy.
The game is still not done. It's still
not a cohesive whole.
I still have a lot of work to do.
So I can't just like, take it all
to the bank, right now.
I can't just like "Oh yeah, I did
great job. FEZ is fantastic."
I need to still
be afraid of failure, I think.
The game came out.
It was ...
... highly praised in the press.
We got interviewed
by the Wall Street Journal.
It got the second highest
'Metacritic' score of all time...
... on Xbox Live.
And we sold 22,000 copies of the game.
Yep.
I feel like, I actually...
... for the first time in my whole
career...
I successfully did something that...
...a majority of people liked.
It wasn't an alienating experience.
I'm notorious for making games that...
...tend to alienate.
Or not everybody completely
understands.
And to make something that seems to
have...
...complete universal praise.
I can't help but think that...
I finally made something...
... good.
Like, I know there's a kid out there.
Who stayed up all night long.
For the game to come out.
And didn't go to school the next day.
Because he was so into playing it.
And that even exceeds my experiences
when I was younger.
And to think that I could make
something that could...
... have an impact on this kid,
even creatively into thinking:
Hey, I know two guys made this.
Maybe I can make something too?
It's just cool.
It's really cool.
It feels really really good.
Part of it...
... is about not trying to be ...
... professional.
A lot of people come into indie games,
trying to be like a big company.
What those game companies do...
...is create highly polished things...
...that serve as large an audience
as possible.
The way that you do that is by...
...filing off all the bumps
on something.
If there's a sharp corner.
You make sure that's not going
to hurt anybody.
That creation of this highly glossy,
commercial product...
... is the opposite
of making something personal.
Things that are personal have flaws.
They have vulnerabilities.
If you don't see a vulnerability
in somebody.
You're probably not relating to them
on a very personal level.
[He has no plans to delay.]
So it's the same with a game design.
Making it, was about:
Let me take my deepest
flaws and vulnerabilities ...
and put them in the game.
and let's see what happens.