Fez
A puzzle platformer created by Phil Fish and released exclusively for the Nintendo Connect, Fez, as IOTL, is the culmination of a years-long development cycle by its creator in collaboration with several other creators. IOTL, the game's development was featured in a documentary movie, while ITTL, Fez's creation was somewhat less publicly documented but no less rocky. Fish was ultimately given a boost when Nintendo agreed to assist with the publication and promotion of the game in exchange for exclusivity (which, unlike IOTL, is not timed exclusively, and thus Fez will only appear on Nintendo platformers). The game is quite similar to IOTL's game, featuring a retro graphical style and a main character named Gomez who wears a fez and explores a world that can go from 2-D to 3-D, which is used to help the player solve puzzles and collect items. The biggest difference in the gameplay of the OTL and TTL titles is the ability to change Gomez's hat during certain segments of gameplay. While the hat style itself remains the same (it's always a fez), it can have different colors, sizes, and embellishments, with ten total hats in all for Gomez to wear during the course of the game. These hats can be switched at a machine known as a "Fez Dispenser" (a play on Pez Dispenser), and they allow Gomez to perform different actions, which can help him solve certain puzzles he encounters. These hat switches are done in such a way that there are multiple solutions to many different puzzles, and sometimes, reaching a Fez Dispenser is part of the puzzle itself. For the most part, the game's plot itself remains the same, with Gomez's goal not being to save the world or defeat bosses, but simply to explore and get to the next puzzle, and collect as many different things as he can. The game's music, like the graphics, is done in a retro style resembling 8-bit chiptunes, and while certain tracks differ from OTL's game, the general feel of the soundtrack is largely the same. The player can also use the Connect's connectivity features to connect to different music players or even to a radio to play their own music during the game, however, this feature can only be utilized after the main game has been beaten, so that the player will experience the music as the developers intended the first time they play.
Fez is released as a digital exclusive Connect title in January 2012, and as IOTL, is showered with praise from reviewers, who enjoy the game's challenging puzzles, relaxing feel, and unique visual style. Thanks to the game's slightly less rocky development cycle and Nintendo's greater promotion of the game than IOTL, Phil Fish doesn't become nearly as burned out on the game design process as he did IOTL, and enjoys a friendly relationship with Nintendo moving forward. The critical and commercial success of Fez would later lead to the game making an appearance on a future Nintendo console as an HD remake, and would also ensure the quick production of a sequel title. It's considered an early success for Nintendo's newest handheld in the indie arena, which has become notably more significant as the seventh console generation begins to lead into the eighth.
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Console Makers Court Indie Creators For Next Generation Exclusivity
With Nintendo, Apple, and yes, Google all preparing to launch a new generation of home gaming consoles, exclusives, which have become more uncommon in the modern age of gaming, are becoming more and more vital in helping players differentiate between gaming machines. While the major gaming companies are going multiplatform in increasing numbers, indie developers, looking for production dollars and promotion for their games, are still willing to hitch their games, temporarily or permanently, to one of the three major companies. Each of the three console makers is looking to strike it big with the next surprise indie hit, and each of them appears to be taking a different approach in how best to secure these hits for their consoles alone.
Google, which is preparing to launch its first ever foray into the home video game console market with the Nexus, is taking a more acquisitional approach. Google has been slowly buying up promising indie companies over the past couple of years, most notably the French mobile gaming company Ankama. While some may declare that once Google buys a gaming company, it's no longer an "indie" company, but Google has granted employees of these companies a great deal of freedom and autonomy even after absorbing them, allowing them to continue making the games they want to make. Such is the case with a small company out of California known as Pallisade, which had been developing RPG titles for mobile phones since 2008, and which was purchased by Google last November. The company had been developing their most ambitious project yet, an RPG known as Sewer Scamps, when Google decided to acquire them. Sewer Scamps has been in development for more than a year and is shaping up to be an RPG reminiscent of the Mother series, featuring young characters venturing through modern cities, and including plenty of contemporary humor. The company's acquisition by Google has seen an increased budget for the game, which the game's development team says will enable them to make Sewer Scamps twice as big, and will allow the game a bigger music budget as well. Google has mostly been snapping up mobile game development teams which previously developed games for Android phones, and this strategy seems consistent with their stated desire to make Nexus a "bigger, better version of the Android landscape". Of course, buying out companies also prevents them from developing future games for Nintendo and Apple's consoles, but Google's established rivals have their own plans for future indie game development.
Instead of acquiring indie companies, Apple has chosen a "recruitment" approach, plucking up talented developers and hiring them to make games at Apple's in-house studio. However, Apple's studios aren't just open to developers on the company payroll. Apple also allows for a practice called "contributed resources", in which certain companies, both large and small, are allowed the use of Apple game development resources and even developers themselves in exchange for exclusivity. Many indie developers have chosen this approach, including the team behind the upcoming Battle Mob, coming to the iTwin later this year. The game puts players in control of 100 miniature soldiers in a variety of combat and platforming situations. The game has been called "Chu Chu Rocket meets Mario", and the game's development team has partnered with Apple's in-house studio to put the finishing touches on the title and to gather inspiration. Apple has also funded numerous indie projects, including Silvana: Awakened Power, a Japanese-style RPG developed by a team out of Texas, which has managed to put together an RPG that could easily pass for a major studio release despite operating on a fraction of the budget. The game will be another iTwin exclusive, and will launch at a budget price that could make it more attractive to buyers than the full priced games like Final Fantasy XIII and Tale Paradisia coming later this year.
Nintendo's relationship with indie companies has been a bit less hands-on. Nintendo has shied away from funding indie titles, hiring developers, or acquiring companies. Instead, Nintendo offers the most promising titles something they may not get from Apple or Google: exposure. Nintendo has promised to promote indie titles heavily on its digital game stores, online webcasts, and its ongoing magazine Nintendo Power, and so far, the company has delivered on much of those promises, with games like the recently released Fez able to rise to the top of sales charts on the basis of promotion by Nintendo. The company also enjoys good, ongoing relationships with companies like WayForward, which produces the Shantae series exclusively for Nintendo systems and will be releasing a new game, Shantae's Risky Team-Up!, exclusively later this year on the Connect. This year will also see the release of the RPG Eternal Summer, one of the most promoted Sapphire RPG titles of the year. It's set for release next month in Japan and will come to the States later in 2012, and Nintendo has been very aggressively promoting the game in Japan. Perhaps the most anticipated Nintendo exclusive indie of the year is Undine Across The Water, a platforming adventure title focused on a water sprite who is forced onto the land and must survive and make friends as she tries to get back home. The game has a lot in common with the Shantae series, but features a heavy story focus and a more level-centric style (rather than the interconnected Metroidvania style of Shantae). Nintendo is hoping that the game, being developed by indie studio Ratcheteer, will become not just a popular game franchise, but a multimedia franchise as well with success outside the realm of gaming. Nintendo isn't the first company to see potential in cross-media promotion: Apple has achieved a great deal of success with its own Pixelworld, which has not only become one of the most successful video games of all time, but has seen successful toy and clothing lines as well. This type of forward thinking might seem a bit arrogant, but if a company can get out ahead of a potentially successful game franchise, it can help to plan that franchise's future and ensure its continued success.
Even as big triple-A titles dominate the gaming landscape, popular indie games are becoming more important than ever before. Will indies help decide the eighth generation console war? The seventh generation battle between the Sapphire and the iTwin was the closest ever, and even the most seemingly insignificant game can mean the difference between victory or defeat.
-from an article on Gamecrunch.com, posted on January 30, 2012
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We quickly got used to switching between the flashlight's weapon functionality and its ability to actually, you know, light stuff as we continued to make our way through this dangerous section of the park. Claudia had once again been separated from her twin brother Dirt, and she was just a step ahead of the zombie-like creatures pursuing her. Even though the game's not nearly as graphic as say, Resident Evil, with the zombies having a look about midway between that game and Plants vs. Zombies, the fear, both ours and Claudia's, was quite real as we found a suitable place to hide and finally read that strange book we'd picked up before.
As we read the book, a journal belonging to the mysterious government scientist in charge of the experiments that had caused the trouble at the park, we could hear the zombies moaning outside, and quickly turned off our flashlight to avoid attracting them. Claudia couldn't help but whisper to herself as the zombies milled about outside.
"Don't they ever get tired of shambling around like that? I know they're hungry, but it's not like they're gonna die if they don't eat... not like me anyway..." lamented Claudia, as her stomach growled audibly. Outside, one of the zombies stopped and looked toward the window, and Claudia groaned in frustration. "I knew I should have used that vending machine, even if all it had was nasty expired candy from the 1980s..."
Though based on Ariel Hirsch, one of the game's two main creators (Ariel mostly responsible for character design and scenario creation, while twin brother Alex was in charge of worldbuilding and game mechanics), Claudia is voiced by professional actress Danica McKellar, most notable for her role as Winnie Cooper in The Wonder Years. Her light, slightly sarcastic tone is perfect for Claudia, a sensitive and smart but also somewhat eccentric girl, and McKellar conveys Claudia's fear and annoyance perfectly in her various scenes. As we wait to see if the zombies will burst in, necessitating another fight, they suddenly leave, and Claudia breathes a sigh of relief. She gets the information she needs from the book and then cautiously steps out of the cabin. It is possible to acquire a lot more information, some of which might be important later on, though a majority of the information that can be gleaned by poking around the game's various nooks and crannies is simply flavor text, painting a picture of the world which can range from hilarious to horrifying to soul-crushing. We opted to progress the game's plot with the limited amount of time we had left, and navigated Claudia around to the side of the cabin.
We were careless. A hand suddenly goes over Claudia's mouth, and we're presented with a QTE option as we're dragged away. We mash a button, and Claudia jams the butt end of her flashlight as hard as she can into her assailant's stomach. We're free, and are presented with another QTE option. We hit another button, and Claudia is poised to smack her attacker across the face... only to see that it's her twin brother Dirt, and stops the flashlight an inch from his forehead.
"What are you doing?" screamed Claudia, in a mix of shock, relief, and annoyance. "I could've brained you!"
Dirt implores us to be quiet, and Claudia puts her hands on her hips before waving the book up in the air and proclaiming that she managed to get some new information from it. Dirt is awkward, but also a bit more logical than Claudia, and voiced with endearing charm by actor Jason Ritter (whose father John also has a voice role in the game, though Alex and Ariel refused to tell us who he might be playing). The scene continues for a while, with the two comparing information, and depending on how much you managed to acquire with either character during the most recent time you played with them, this scene and the revelations contained within can play out somewhat differently.
(...)
While much of the part of the game we played focused on Dirt and Claudia, we know there are more characters in the game, including some of the other students from the trip, who may find themselves stumbling into trouble as well. We also learned of another character who may appear in the game: an insane old man with a surprisingly good memory. We learned from Alex that while the main plot of the game will play out the same way every time, the way each player experiences it will differ subtly based on their exploration and what leads they choose to pursue.
Terror Trip has progressed quite a bit since it was first shown at E3 2011, and now we expect that the game will indeed be released on the Sapphire and iTwin later this year, with a Nexus release also expected but not officially confirmed. Alex, Ariel, and their company Pyramid Games (whose logo, a pyramid creature with a single eye and a top hat, alludes to the mysterious nature of their games) have achieved a degree of notoriety even before the release of their very first game. Whether or not Terror Trip, which is being funded and published by Psygnosis (itself an indie company in the wake of its separation from Microsoft) can succeed will depend on how much the twins can reconcile their love of video games and their immense creativity with the realities of the modern video game industry. Terror Trip looks like it will be one of the year's best indies, but the devil will be in the details, and, ultimately, the sales.
-from an article in the February 2012 issue of GameInformer
