Fez Teaser Trailer

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: October 10th, 2007

At long last, the great Phil Fish has unveiled in-game footage of his IGF contender Fez.

Early on he had mentioned a big, secret element to the gameplay… but people say that kind of thing all the time, yeah? Usually it’s some gimmick, or something not as great as they imagined. Not so with Fez. Once you experience it, you realize it’s not only no gimmick — it’s an entirely new and compelling experience.

I cannot wait to play the finished game!

It’s fun looking back now and noticing the little hints Phil dropped along the way… If you had a keen enough eye, you probably could’ve figured him out.

Awesome job, Phil and Renaud!

Watch the video. DISCUSS.

UPDATE: Fish just released a new shot of the game showing off their 3D 2D rendering tech, which they call “Trixels.” (Not voxels, I swear!) Check it out here.

Notice how every “pixel” (trixel) is rendered in 3D. Very cool.

UPDATE II: Fez programmer Renaud explains Trixels vs. voxels, and a bit of Fez’s gameplay, on the Kokoromi blog. (Thanks Petri!)

Posted in Platformers, Unique / Bizarre, Videos | Tags: PhilFish, Polytron

Golds

It looks really, really nice. and well implemented.

While Super Paper Mario has this sort of idea, it seemed like a gimmick and not integrated all that well into the gameplay, where a looks like more of a core gameplay mechanic in Fez.
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Please let’s get awesome! For enjoy.
Average Higgins

I think we all knew Fez was destined to be awesome but damn, this is really pumped up my excitement for the game.
It reminds of Paper Mario. In a really, really good way.
http://kavdragon.com Myster_EE

This reminds me of Crush…… Can’t wait to play!
Riegel88

That looks awesome, I can’t wait to play it.
Mizumon

Definitely reminded me of Super Paper Mario, but it seems much more integral here than it was in the latter, as Golds mentioned.

Can’t wait to see how this turns out.
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Trust me, the gameplay is entirely its own. :)
Robert

@Golds

Do you actually own Super Paper Mario? The 2D / 3D swapping was actually very cleverly integrated into both gameplay and story.

I know we’re supposed to be supporting indie games here, but I think in your rush to do so you might be unfairly knocking a great game.
BoboDaHobo

Agreed on the similarities with Super Paper Mario. Even though I thought the swapping in Mario was clever, this does seem more engaging and fleshed-out in Fez.
wormguy

Alright, that looks freakin’ sweet.
PoV

Indeed. I saw the 2D/3D thing mentioned on their IGF page, didn’t think much of it, but it’s truly something to see it in action. Nice work Fish and co.
Melly

Crush did a very similar thing. You had to ‘crush’ the 3D world into a 2D plane on different viewpoints in order to get through the game’s levels. Since it was a puzzle game that was pretty much what the whole gameplay was based on.

So, yeah, it is awesome, but not ‘totally’ new an experience. Wondering what Fez will do with the mechanic, though.

It does look sexy.
renkin

Very nice looking. If it’s just used in a sane and not just confusing way, this can be really damn good. Give me clever puzzles!
Derek

You rock my fucking fez, Phil.
Pigbuster

I believe Fish actually said that he was rather disappointed in Super Paper Mario because the flipping was treated as a power-up instead of being fully integrated into the game. It didn’t make proper use of the mechanic.

During SPM, you would play in 2D until you got to a “puzzle”, which would obviously require flipping the dimension, solving it instantly.
Rather then flip between the different “sides” of the 2D landscape, it just switched from 2D to 3D, and that pretty much limited it to a couple of easy puzzles.

Which is why this looks so awesome. The flipping is going to be a mechanic, rather than a gimmick. It has the courage to jump fully into the concept rather than just dip its toe into it.

It’s a whole different beast from SPM. A different, AWESOME beast.

Unfortunately, I’m guessing Fez is going to be endlessly compared to SPM now.
renkin

What Pigbuster said. I’m certainly not going to compare it with SPM, though. SPM always looked pretty uninteresting to me, while this looks rather awesome. Just the locked 2D is very appealing in itself, but if the view switching is used in a good way, as well… yeah, wow.
Eudaimon

Well, I’ve never played Crush, but from what I gather this is basically the same mechanic.

Regardless, it’s probably going to be really interesting to see how this game uses it.
edenb

It’s like what Jon said with Braid: making the playing with time the core mechanic.
Same here, except it’s the 2D/3D thing instead of time. Actually reminds me of echochrome, with the different perspectives and such. But only tenously, really.
Anyway, it looks wonderful.
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Pigbuster is right!

Except… I hope not about that last bit. :x
http://doomlaser.com Golds

@Robert, Pigbuster’s comment echoes my feelings about the mechanic in paper mario in better detail.

I didn’t own it, but i played through the first couple hours at a friends and kind of lostinterest– Nintendo has this irksome tendency with uninterruptable dialog and cutscenes dating all the way back to 1-2 in Super Mario Bros… “I get it, I’m walking into a pipe.” :).
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Hahaha, that is some classic IRC humour, my friend. ;)
King-N

I loved SPM. I want to play this soooo much right now…
Mr. Trianglehead

WOAH! Just WOAH. I did not expect the 3D aspect of it to be so intense. Amazing, just amazing.
konjak

As has been stated, it’s not actually “new”.

I’m looking forward to how it makes use of it though.
konjak

Now, I want to know, considering it is not 3D all the time, what makes the 2D gameplay justified for it not just remain 3D? How much more than “looking around corners” is it?
http://http//www.tscreative.net BMcC

Forget that! It’s its own game, it’s a new experience, and it’s made with creativity and care.

It’s new.
http://http//www.tscreative.net BMcC

Konjak: Yeah, the video doesn’t show this as well as I think it should — the part with the FEZ logo probably does best. It’s more than looking around corners. ;)
Al King

Does it matter whether or not it’s strictly ‘new’? It’s damn cool, regardless.
Gomez

YEAH WTF GUYS
Melly

It’s fairly obvious that Fez is being made to be its own game, without feeding on the popularity of another. I respect the creators and can’t wait to play with the cute little protagonist.

The particular 2D/3D gameplay mechanic is not new, but it’s rarily done so far, and even more rarily explored in its full potential. It, however, still doesn’t change the fact Crush has done it very well (and I’m not mentioning SPM because it wasn’t as developed as it could be, even if the game as a whole is fairly awesome).
konjak

BMcC: Well, I was thinking that when I played Super Paper Mario (which I didn’t like) I always felt compelled to turn the screen to make sure I didn’t miss stuff and felt it could have just been 3D because it’s not that fantastic a mechanic anyway.

In Fez I’d have to spin four times, and to what purpose other than to find the next door to go to when I find a door just fine in a game that doesn’t spin… it’s hard to explain.

Point is, I’m hoping it’s more than “regular fighting but you can also spin the level”. Something more that justifies it for me.

I think I am overanalyzing a bit for being so early.
konjak

I’ll just shut up.
edenb

Indeed, let’s just enjoy it!
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Konjak: Yeah, man, I feel what you’re sayin’. It’s hard to describe, but it’s not like that — the flipping plays into the puzzles in a big way. When the angle changes, it’s not just a different angle. The new scene complies to the 2D gameplay rules, and depth disappears.

Watch the FEZ logo at the end. It starts disjointed, then comes together as the camera shifts.

(Haha, I wish I could describe this better!)
konjak

Well, that’s what Paper Mario does :)
konjak

…granted you can walk up/down too
Zaphos

Did fish just rename voxels ‘trixels’?

Anyway, looks sexy! Hope he makes a trailer with actual gameplay some time.
fish

i feel loved :)

so many questions.
but im so tired.
i promise ill say something smart in the forums. soon.

this, BTW, was only meant as our “holy shit, its 3D!” reveal.

we’ve been waiting for this for so long.
MONTHS of secrecy.

there’s plenty more where that came from.

give credit where credit is due:

myself, art/design
Renaud Bedard, everything code/tech
6955, music/SFX
Graham Lackey, animation
Pigbuster

>Well, thatâ€™s what Paper Mario does :)

Thing is, Super Paper Mario only partly does that.

For instance, if the Fez logo were in Super Paper Mario, you would see the logo in its completed state. Then, when switching to 3D, it would show the logo’s “true” nature. You never actually “make” the illusion; you are always un-doing it, finding the truth from the lie.

In Fez, there is no “true” nature of that logo. The picture when showing the logo is as valid as the logo all jumbled up. Given the 4 different views of the logo, there can be 4 entirely different levels in one. Each side could be totally and completely different from the others if the design were clever enough.

In Super Paper Mario, you play most of the game in the side-view. This view, however, can tell you lies. You can use a power, the flip, to see the “true” world, and get past pretty much every puzzle in the game. The only reason we don’t play the whole game in the flipped mode is because they gave a limit to its use, a timer.

There is no challenge to overcoming the lies when you can enter the truth and defeat the lies whenever you want.

In Fez, you play a level which has 4 sides (presumably). Each side is an illusion, and by turning the game world, you are switching the illusion to another one. There is no “true” world (apart from the 3D model, which I assume you can’t play in). Every side is a lie.

There would be a challenge to overcoming the lies because there is no truth to play in. You have to use the lies themselves to defeat the lies.

That should make Fez FAR more deep in terms of gameplay.
Pigbuster

I could be totally wrong, though. Maybe Kokoromi has something in the bag that would discredit my entire giant post.

And I should be writing a rough draft of a paper for school right now instead of a comparison between Fez and…

WAIT! It’s supposed to be a Compare & Contrast paper! AHAHAHAHA! That is way too perfect, but I’m not sure if I have the guts to turn that in. =P
fish

yeah man, its like, soooo deep ;)

and yes, there are 4 sides to everything.
you can rotate freely left and right at (almost) any given time.

each little bit of level had to be designed 4 times. making it a *total bitch*.

and the art? 6 freakin times.

there is indeed no “right” side.

you cant play the game in 3d.
gomez is only controllable when in 2d, because gomez IS 2d. he is exploring a 3d world from his perspective.

the “look around” thing is just something the player can do at any time to observe the way the world is built. because everytime you rotate, the world kinds of “re-compiles”, and that becomes the absolute truth. until you rotate again. which you can do whenever.

its kinda like flatland. if flatland was all pixely.
Angelo Doom

Flatland is cool.
failrate

Yar, by rotating the level, you’re basically switching to a “different” level.

So, Gomez can’t get to, let’s say, a door from his starting position. So, he moves to a place that, while in “this” perspective is a dead end, in another perspective provides him with access to the door. Many variations on this theme are possible, like trapping monsters, etc.
http://www.distractionware.com Terry

BMcC said about 3 hours later:

Konjak: Yeah, man, I feel what youâ€™re sayinâ€™. Itâ€™s hard to describe, but itâ€™s not like that â€“ the flipping plays into the puzzles in a big way. When the angle changes, itâ€™s not just a different angle. The new scene complies to the 2D gameplay rules, and depth disappears.

Watch the FEZ logo at the end. It starts disjointed, then comes together as the camera shifts.

(Haha, I wish I could describe this better!)

Come to think of it, why can’t we just play the demo and see for ourselves? :) We’ll be kind, Phil, I promise! This looks excellent!
Dominic White

I know its been said already, but – yeah, Crush uses this exact same trick. In fact, it’s a platform/puzzle game based around moving the camera around to create situations where you can get from one place to another without the other dimensions interfering.

Crush is also a very, VERY good game and everyone should play it.

But Fez looks pretty neat too.
haowan

There’s also Echochrome. But this looks far more interesting tbh.
Optrirominiluikus

Holy shit! This looks extremely sweet.
colorFool

Never seen or heard of Mario Paper Cut or whatever it’s called, so to me this is pretty new! I’m wowed! Dis looks so sexy!
Cycle

Yeah, crush is awesome, you should all check it out! Best thing Sega put out for a long time. Shame it’s only on PSP right now. They should get that shit on XBLA or PSN.

This looks pretty neat too, although the trailer doesn’t really show anything solid about the gameplay (so it could be going in a different direction to Crush), but it’s pretty much sold me because I love the visual style and audio. That music is the kinda stuff we can expect in the game, I hope?
gustav

I knew it…!

Or… no, i didn’t think it’d look this good. Or be implemented so cleverly. I hope you’ll use this little mechanic to its fullest and make something great!