Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Fez Footage From GDC

By John Walker on February 20th, 2008 at 2:04 am.

Finally some new footage of IGF competition finalist Fez.

I’ve played the first level, and oh boy. Need more.

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38 Comments »

  1. Will Tomas says:

    Trippy. Looks fun.

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  2. Caiman says:

    Cave Story meets Echochrome?

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  3. PleasingFungus says:

    Yeah, I noticed the Cave Story look. Seems excellent. Can’t wait.

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  4. Hypocee says:

    Further namecheck: The PSP’s [Edit DUH]Crush.

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  5. SuperMatt says:

    I guess the question on everyone’s lips is: why can I get it on steam?

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  6. Kast says:

    Awesome! And mind-bending. Always good.

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  7. roBurky says:

    Wow.

    I like that at first, it just looks like a cute low resolution platform game. Then it reveals itself to actually be a full 3d game pretending to be pixelly and low-res.

    I want.

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  8. dartt says:

    “Very good, I’m pride!”

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  9. espy says:

    Oh dear, this is amazing. It’s a bit like a short film by Paul Robertson, plus the same kind of wonderful music, clever puzzling, great style and Fezzes! What could go wrong? Let someone spellcheck it, then put it on steam. I’d even preorder it.

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  10. Piratepete says:

    Have you guys never heard of Super Paper Mario?

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  11. espy says:

    Yes, but Mario annoys me immensely. I like this style much more, and the music is superior by many orders of magnitude.

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  12. matt says:

    Excellent, just got to love the concept ! It kinda reminds me of the Shift flash game that was featured here not long ago.
    And the art is neat too, makes me want to play it !

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  13. Super Paper Mario, while a mostly lovely game, made a significant mistake. It punished you for using its hook. You are time-limited in 3D mode, and wounded for staying there too long. Fez has no such restrictions, rather letting you adapt your environment to your needs without the game giving you this constant message that it’s in some way a negative thing.

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  14. My jaw hangeth open…

    That ‘dimension’ trick is fantastic.

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  15. Dinger says:

    Is that simulated Engrish?

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  16. megamaj says:

    Uhm, oh, … I am not sure if my brain can take this kind of bending. It is awesome!

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  17. TreeFrog says:

    Do want. But only if they leave the grammar as it is. Foolish reader!

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  18. Surprise says:

    Now thats what i call a wicked ending, flying away on a rainbow beam from a giant mushroom =)

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  19. Razor says:

    Wow, that is… wow.

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  20. Lu-Tze says:

    It certainly looks interesting, and the mechanic is fresh, but I can’t help feeling that the levels will gradually regress to helpless viewpoint shifting trying to work out what angle gives you somewhere you can jump to.

    What made the original 2 Paper Marios (not played SPM yet) was the way they played with your perception (such as a set of 3D stairs flipping over like a page of a book to face the opposite direction). The world was 3D, but it used the fact you were looking at it in a 2D space to play little visual gags because they were rigidly controlling your view angle.

    Hopefully the level design on Fez will take advantage of the mechanic they have in a way that produces similarly interesting results, otherwise it will be a short and forgotten diversion with an interesting twist that the next Paper Mario will undoubtedly steal.

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  21. KBKarma says:

    It looks interesting enough to warrant a glance.

    As Lu-Tze commented, however, it could result in a 3D version of Spot-The-Pixel, like in 2D adventure games: continuously shifting the viewpoint in an effort to find the ONE angle you need to get to your destination.

    However, I think that it could become a puzzler of the same calibre (uninteresting aside: Iceweasel’s in-built spell check thing doesn’t recognise calibre or, indeed, Iceweasel or recognise) as Portal: completely redefining your perspective and the way you view games and, after enough playing, the world itself.

    Also… why an XBox controller? Will we need to use a controller for it?

    By the way, my Gravatar isn’t being shown, even though I have set one. I’ll change and see if it works.

    EDIT: Nope.

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  22. Martin says:

    Looks very, very nice indeed and just the kind of logical, tricky game I like.

    Lets hope that they can take advantage of the “hook” all the way through the game.

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  23. Gylfi.Fenriz. says:

    What the hell?
    What’s so special about this ? That when you switch visual you go ooooh! ? Is that all the genius? Is this all the gameplay depth We can expect today from indipendent freaks ?

    Well WTF ? Get me a new Flashback/Another World, damn you all!

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  24. Fazer says:

    It is genius indeed. Haven’t you noticed the world is 3D, the platforms are in different legth from you, however when you switch to 2D they are all at the same length and you can reach them with no effort? Impossible is nothing ;-)

    It’s kinda like Portal – bends the space and boggles the mind ;-)

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  25. Noc says:

    [Edit: Simulposted, apparently. Damnit, Fazer!]

    Gylfi: look closer at it, and watch what happens when you change perspectives. You aren’t actually working in a 3-D world; when you swap back to 2D, it flattens the image into a two dimensional screen that ignores the depth of the original objects.

    It’s a puzzle game, not a platformer with a silly visual effect.

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  26. Theory says:

    That was glorious! :D I only hope the developers haven’t confused frustration with difficulty with fun. I will never forgive Gish.

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  27. Dracko says:

    So which platforms will it be coming to?

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  28. phuzz says:

    So which platforms will it be coming to?

    Only a couple, but then you swing the viewpoint round and you realise it’s actually loads!

    (sorry)

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  29. Yhancik says:

    Now you’re thinking in 3D

    Oh and I love the character’s expressions ^^

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  30. Jives says:

    You didn’t thank game trailers :O

    thats horrendous

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  31. DigitalSignalX says:

    very nice, like 16 bit Mario meets MC Escher.

    @Gylfi.Fenriz = a new flashback title would be absolutely lovely. One of my all time favorite and much too short games.

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  32. Satsuz says:

    Ah dear god, all of this crazy stuff coming out of GDC is destroying my brain!

    THE PAIN!

    Ahem. Fez is… nice? That’s the best word I can think of right now. I’m gonna take a nap…

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  33. Yhancik says:

    Because it’s not Gametrailers, it’s Game Videos, and they shouldn’t be thanked, because most of the time their videos don’t load (on my computer with my firefox) :p

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  34. Jives says:

    fair point, in my rush to jump upon this earth shattering mistake I mistook gametrailers for game videos

    I feel I should that I should apologise to gametrailers

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  35. Dracko says:

    No way, man. GameVideos all the way!

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  36. Seth Tipps says:

    Hells yeah. Flatland on acid. Literally from the looks of the level transition. I’m guessing that the Engrish is affected, but delightfully so.

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  37. MANNE says:

    NO -ING WAY! :O

    Get seasick from watching them change perspective, sweet -ing jesus this owns!

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