Split Fiction Interview: 11 questions with Josef Fares

Josef Fares: Hi Petter! Damn good to see you, it was only yesterday, do you remember, that I blogged on Gamereactor... what, 12 years ago? Time flies, haha.

I turn up to the meeting with Hazelight founder Josef Fares with the intention to talk about the upcoming Split Fiction and I am greeted by the cheerful, unpredictable, super-enthusiastic, and dedicated film and game creator we all love. I've interviewed Fares several times in the past and there really aren't many people who are easier to talk to in the whole gaming world. The passion just pours out of him and it's easy to see why his last three games have sold over 40 million copies combined.

• Don't miss: Our 10/10 review of Hazelight's Split Fiction

Gamereactor: How do you feel about the release?

Fares: It feels great. I am so incredibly excited. Above all, I'm so convinced that we have a really good game here. You know, many people often question this with my enormous self-confidence and then I usually draw the parallel with a working relationship. Of course there are ups and downs, of course you have both challenges and obstacles to try to overcome, but the foundation is strong and that's where the results come from. With Split Fiction, it's been like that all the way for us. Challenges, yes! But the core idea and our vision has always been very strong.

GR: How did you come up with the idea?

Fares: I have to be careful here, I don't want to say too much and reveal details now considering it hasn't been released yet but it all started with me coming up with the idea for the ending in the game. It came first. The idea was exciting for me to try to mix the opposites, try to combine two extremes: fantasy and sci-fi. It seemed like a good idea beforehand, partly because the story itself is about friendship but also about contrasts. Two completely different people, one introverted while the other is extroverted, and that's how we worked this time... with opposites. Here at Hazelight, there's one thing we love more than anything else and that's variety and the concept was so well suited to what we think we're good at. Not only could we create maximum variety in every single world in the game, but we could also make a new world per chapter. The concept felt fresh to us.

GR: Almost every other studio in the world would have developed a sequel to their game if they sold over 20 million copies like you did. Why no It Takes Two 2?

Fares: I never say that Hazelight won't do a sequel but again, for me and for us, it's about variety. It has to feel fresh, exciting, interesting and we are driven by our desire to find new ways, new goals, new methods. This just felt so right and there is no doubt in my mind that the quality level of what we have created here has gone up a couple of notches since the last time, and I don't just mean the graphics, but everything. We've become a much braver team now since It Takes Two and have been able to develop a lot in a short space of time in our writing, in the design, in all areas. This game was developed by Hazelight 2.0 and I deliberately don't follow the market, or look at current trends. If you look at the games we make and have made, we go our own way and it's very much about my gut feeling. It has to feel right, then it will be right.

GR: Why do you think co-op, despite your huge successes, is still uncommon today?

Fares: I don't really have a good answer to that, but the thing is that at the same time it's not that it's uncommon, but rather that it has evolved into something else, today. There are some games with cooperative modes for up to four players, there are plenty of games that offer online cooperation, and so on... What has disappeared, however, and where we are quite alone, is split-screen, and here I have a few theories. Firstly, I think many developers feel that it's an old thing that was done a long time ago. Then, of course, I also know how technically challenging it really is. I think many players never reflect on the fact that a game like Split Fiction is two games running simultaneously. All graphics are rendered twice, simultaneously. Making it still look graphically impressive is no easy task. At the same time, I would like to emphasise that what we do at Hazelight is not ordinary co-op games with a simple collaboration mode. We write and direct our titles from the first frame to be played together only. We don't have single-player, we never have an ulterior motive that the lone player must be able to enjoy the adventures on their own, we make cooperative games for real. However, I hope there will be more games like ours because we have now proven that this is something that players all over the world want. We have sold a lot of games.

GR: Variety is something you often come back to, is it the single most important aspect?

Fares: Well, one of them. The single most difficult part of every game we develop at Hazelight is undoubtedly the amount of variety we build. So many different elements and different game mechanics are created that the challenge during development itself is downright mind-boggling. Of course, we don't want to release unfinished games without a polished experience, which means that the prototyping process for all these different game elements is very demanding. It must feel tight, well thought out, and there must be game elements in our games that complement each other without ever feeling repetitive. Basically, I love games, I'm passionate about games like nothing else and my dream and my vision is to push the storytelling and that evolution forward in the gaming world. Hazelight is well on its way to being a part of that, driving the development of the medium in general. If nothing else, you know how passionate I am, right? Before I even founded Hazelight and before I started sketching Brothers in earnest, I wrote at Gamereactor just to share my love for games as a form of entertainment.

GR: That love, passion, and enthusiasm is what drives you but if we look at today's big games with some kind of general perspective, we are perhaps in a place where this is more lacking than ever. How do you see it?

Fares: Indeed it is. A lot of it is about money and risk, unfortunately. Sometimes it's about budgets of hundreds of millions, which means that neither developers nor publishers dare to follow their gut feeling, or dare to give space to their passion. Instead, they become afraid, scared, and back off. In my world, you have to find a way to combine what is commercially viable with pure creativity and passion. I think this is a responsibility that lies with both developers and publishers, that you create things that are not just moulded into an already well-used template. You need developers with a clear vision and a publisher who doesn't chicken out, back down, and rely on endless market research. Because let me tell you, we will never do that here at Hazelight. Not ever. We do what we want to do and what works for us as gamers.

GR: Which part of Split Fiction is the best, which part are you most proud of?

Fares: If I could only pick one part, it would undoubtedly be the final chapter. I don't want to spoil anything now for anyone, but I can guarantee you that you will experience something in a game that you have never experienced before... when you get to the end. I can guarantee that. I know that sounds very cocky but it's also true. There is both a design and technical brilliance in that chapter that I think many will remember for a long time.

GR: Is it also the part you are most proud of?

Fares: One of the parts, absolutely. On the whole, I'm probably most satisfied and proud that we were able to finish considering how many different aspects and different game mechanics we built for Split Fiction, made everything work well together and created a game that really feels tight and elaborate from the first to the last moment. If you work with games, you know how easy it is today to test things in Unreal Engine, but getting them to work properly in combination with lots of other things is anything but easy and it's really impressive that we managed to finish on time.

GR: Unreal Engine yes, why not EA's Frostbite?

Fares: Now, we are not an EA-owned studio, we are a third-party developer and we choose which engine we want to work with and this game or our previous titles would never have worked in that engine. It would never have worked. Unreal Engine gives us the ability to make our dream games, on a split-screen.

GR: How many are you today, at Hazelight?

Fares: We are exactly 80 people today, we have 60 when we did It Takes Two and 35 when we did A Way Out. The idea is to grow by a maximum of maybe ten more people but then that's enough. We're definitely not going to go over 100 developers, we're not going to become a giant team and all the hassles that come with trying to get so many people pulling in the same direction.

GR: Fuck the Oscars! Given that the gala happened recently, the publicity you gained from that comment still cannot be valued. Do you think a bit like that when you say things like this in front of an audience of millions?

Fares: No, no. Haha, no. I'm super spontaneous and only say what I feel like in the moment, but that comment has benefited us in the end. The thing about that was that everyone I talked to during the preparations for The Game Awards that year went on and on about how similar it felt to the Oscars, as an event. Everyone said the same thing, all the time. In the end, I guess I just had enough and blurted something out because even then, The Game Awards and Geoff [Keighley] felt like an important, big thing for our industry.