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'Fez Pocket Edition’ is now available on iOS
The 2D puzzle platformer Fez from the independent game studio Polytron has had a long road in its journey to iOS, but now it's finally here. You can now purchase Fez Pocket Edition from the App Store for $4.99. It's designed for both the iPhone and the iPad.
Classic puzzle-platformer 'Fez' is coming to iOS
It might be five years old, but Fez remains a masterclass in indie puzzle-platforming. The bright pixel art, the mesmerizing Disasterpiece soundtrack and perspective-shifting gameplay comes together in a wonderfully mysterious and serene collectathon. Following its release on Xbox 360, PC, Mac and various PlayStation hardware, Polytron is bringing the game to iOS. In a short teaser trailer, the eyepatch-wielding Geezer tells Gomez, the main character, how the "adventure is ready." A flashy cube appears in the sky, before the entire scene pans out to reveal the game running on an iPad. So yeah, you can expect a tablet-optimized version.
Indie puzzler 'Fez' resurfaces with a $100 special edition
We aren't getting a sequel to the adorable retro indie puzzler Fez well... ever. But that doesn't mean developer Polytron is out of things to sell fans. The Canadian company hopes the wound it opened by canceling the sequel won't deter you from dropping $100 on a special edition of the game that features a rather handsome hardcover notebook, "bound in red canvas with debossed gold foil inlay presented in a matching slipcase," download codes for PC and OSX versions of the game and a copy of its killer soundtrack from composer Disasterpeace.
Fez studio starts Polytron Partners to 'give back'
Polytron Corporation is breaking into the not-publishing (but kind of publishing) business with Polytron Partners, beginning with Panoramical, an audio visualizer from designer Fernando Ramallo and Proteus music man David Kanaga. Fez creator Phil Fish announced Polytron Partners on his blog: "We only got to make Fez in the first place because of the help and support of a LOT of cool people. Time to give back a little, you know? When I offered to help with the release, Fernando explained that he was already working out a somewhat similar deal with Adam and Bekah Saltsman's FINJI. They would provide help with day to day operations, payment logistics, things like that. The kind of details independent developers often need help with when they're busy trying to ship the damn thing. What Polytron could help with was production and promotion."
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite takes a swing at PS Plus tomorrow
Sony confirmed Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, the last of March's PlayStation Plus games, joins the Instant Game Collection tomorrow. The PSP action-RPG is playable as a download on Vita, and if you're in to big weapons, big creatures to defeat, demanding combat and playing with friends, you might lose a lot of hours to it. Plus members can also take advantage of discounts on the new PlayStation versions of Fez, which arrive on PS4, PS3, and Vita tomorrow in North America. Fez is a very different game to Monster Hunter Freedom Unite but its puzzles are no less demanding in their own right. The colorful 2D-or-is-it-3D platformer has a regular price of $13 that comes down to $10.39 with a Plus membership. Meanwhile, there are also discounts on BioShock 1 and 2, each half-price at $5, and on DLC for BioShock Infinite including the first episode of Burial at Sea. You can find the full list of discounts on the PlayStation Blog. [Image: Capcom]
TowerFall, SteamWorld Dig headline PSN's Spring Fever event
A slate of high-profile indie releases will hit the PlayStation Network during Sony's Spring Fever event this month, bringing games like Luftrausers and Towerfall to the PlayStation family of consoles. The promotion kicks off with tomorrow's launch of an upgraded PlayStation 4 version of Ronimo Games' 2D MOBA Awesomenauts Assemble, and the PS3 debut of Wales Interactive's sci-fi adventure game Master Reboot. Ouya-ported multiplayer combat game TowerFall Ascension (PS4) and Strange Loop's puzzle-platformer Vessel (PS3) continue the promotion on March 11, while Image and Form's mining-themed adventure game SteamWorld Dig (PS4, PS Vita) and Vlambeer's aerial dogfighting sim Luftrausers (PS3, PS Vita) follow on March 18. The event wraps up on March 25 with the release of Polytron's Fez for the PlayStation 4, PS3, and PS Vita. All featured games are available at a launch-week discount for PlayStation Plus subscribers. Sony additionally revealed that Tomb Raider and Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition will launch tomorrow as the month's first free PlayStation Plus games. [Image: Sony]
Fez hits PS3, PS4, Vita on March 25
Fez lands with huge, happy grin on PS3, PS4 and Vita on March 25 in the US, Polytron Producer Marie-Christine Bourdua announced via the PlayStation Blog today. Fez hits European Sony systems on March 26. The port comes from a collaboration with Blit Software. "The PS4 version is what we consider to be the best-looking and smoothest Fez experience you can get on a TV set, running at beautiful 1080p (and yes, 60fps too)," Bourdua said. "You wouldn't think that upping the resolution would make a big difference in a game like ours, where the pixels are the size of Gomez's fist ... but it really does look even crisper and blockier – in a good way." The game itself remains unchanged from its original XBLA or PC versions, though the PS4 iteration has a few gimmicks: The DualShock 4's lightbar brings "a little bit of Fez's world into your own home," and judging by a picture that means the bar matches the dominant on-screen color. The newest version of Fez supports a late-game easter egg without the need for red glasses, and it runs on 3DTVs. It supports cross-saves among all three Sony platforms. [Image: Polytron Corporation]
Fez sales surpass 1 million
That's a lot of tiny red hats. Fez has sold more than 1 million copies across all platforms – Xbox 360, PC, Mac and Linux – developer Polytron Corporation announced today. In its celebratory post, Polytron thanked everyone: "Thank you for buying the game! Thank you for stealing it! Thank you for telling your friends about it! Thank you for buying it again when it came out on PC! Thank you for boycotting it so well! Thank you for putting up with the bullshit! Thank you for all your love letters, fan art, cosplays and freakin' tattoos you got, you crazy bastards! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Fez hit XBLA first in April 2012, and we found it to be an absolute joy. It later came to Steam for PC, Mac and Linux, and during two days of the Steam Summer Sale this year, Fez raked up 105,000 sales. Fez is on its way to PS3, Vita and PS4. A sequel to Fez was announced in June and canceled in July.
Beers with Friends: Mixing drinks with Toronto's gaming scene
By ten in the evening, a steady stream of people stand outside the Get Well bar in downtown Toronto, clamoring to get in. The west-end watering hole is home to Torontaru, a new monthly meetup for local video game developers and players, which gathers on the last Wednesday of the month. Even in the event's three-month infancy, Torontaru has established itself as a meeting place for game developers to discuss fresh ideas or hatch harebrained schemes, but a casual and safe meeting place is at its core. Kris Piotrowski, creative director at Sword & Sworcery developer Capy Games, says conversations during Torontaru may lead to game ideas, but "maybe it's not intentional." "It just happens," he tells Joystiq. "This is the kind of environment where things do happen." The idea for a casual meetup for game makers in Toronto was one pulled from a similar event in Japan. Piotrowski, Marie-Christine Bourdua (Fez, producer) and Renaud Bédard (Fez, programmer) were inspired by a gathering organized by 8-4, a localization team and podcast crew based out of Shibuya, Japan. "[Marie-Christine and I] went to Japan a few years ago and we were invited to an event called Otaru, which is a gathering of developers," says Bédard. "I guess [the team at 8-4] wanted to have some kind of social evening that they could do every week - every Thursday - where they could drink with friends and bring whoever's in town to be part of it, so you just get there and you talk to people and meet people." Torontaru strives to bring that safe environment, for gamers and creators to come together, share drinks and stories and help grow an already expanding scene.
Fez, Mark of the Ninja, FTL head up Humble Indie Bundle 9
Humble Bundle's ever-busy organizers have launched Humble Indie Bundle 9, a pay-what-you-want compilation spotlighting Polytron's Fez, Klei's Mark of the Ninja, and other standout indie hits. Buyers will receive Double Fine's metal-infused action-RTS Brutal Legend, the DLC-bundled Trine 2: Complete Story, and stealth-action game Mark of the Ninja, which makes its Mac and Linux debut as part of the collection. The package also includes a beta version of Klei's Eets: Munchies, marking the first time the game has ever been available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Backers who beat the average purchase price will also receive Subset Games' space roguelike FTL: Faster Than Light and the dimension-twisting platformer Fez, which is newly available for Mac and Linux.
Steam weekend deals: Walking Dead, Fez, Mars War Logs
Some good deals are lurking in the Steam weekend sale section. Telltale Games' The Walking Dead headlines this weekend's deals, offering up its entire first season for $6.24. The 400 Days DLC is also half-off during this promotion, bringing it down to $2.49. Polytron Corporation's Fez has also slashed its price in half: The standard game is $4.99 while the bundle including the soundtrack is down to $7.49. Rounding out the weekend discounts are select games from Focus Home Interactive, including Mars War Logs for $10, The Testament of Sherlock Holmes for $10.19 and Game of Thrones, available on its own for $7.49 or in a bundle including a bunch of DLC for $10. All weekend deals are available until the Steam store updates on Monday, September 9 at 10am PT.
Polytron's Fez coming to PlayStation 3, PS4, PS Vita
Polytron's acclaimed puzzle-platformer Fez is coming to the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PS Vita, Sony announced today at Gamescom. Polytron producer Marie-Christine Bourdua confirmed the news afterward. A release date is not yet known.
Fez 2 cancellation 'a surprise' to Polytron producer
Polytron producer Marie-Christine Bourdua said she was surprised to learn Fez 2 was canceled, telling Joystiq she wasn't even in Montreal – the studio's home base - when company co-founder Phil Fish announced the game's fate on Twitter. "But it's ok," Bourdua told Joystiq at Torontaru July, a new monthly meet-up for game players and developers in Toronto, Canada. "It was weird and special to learn it that way, but I respect and trust Phil a lot, so that's totally fair that he decided that and he has his reasons." "We learnt it the same minute you did," original Fez programmer Renaud Bédard said, referring to the Fez 2's abrupt cancelation announcement on Saturday. "The development of Fez 2 is up to him. If he decided [to cancel it] now or he decided it at the end of development, it's easier to cut it out now, than it is to say 'Hey, we've been working on this for years and I'm not feeling able to finish it.' So in that way it just makes more sense," Bédard, who joined Capybara Games at the tail-end of 2012, added.
Phil Fish cancels Fez II, tells haters 'you win'
The game that helped to take indie development mainstream, while also proving how tortured and twisted the process can be, will not be getting a sequel. As you may have heard over the weekend, Fez's creator, Phil Fish, wrote a typically short and emotional fragment of explanatory text on Polytron's official website, saying that he's "getting out of games" and that he's killed the Fez II project that was announced last month and had been destined for the PC: "FEZ II is cancelled. i am done. i take the money and i run. this is as much as i can stomach. this is isn't the result of any one thing, but the end of a long, bloody campaign. you win." The "bloody campaign" in question likely consists of numerous hate messages that have been sent to Fish, sometimes in relation to his outspoken comments about other games and gamers, sometimes connected to things he did / didn't say about Microsoft, and other times simply due to the fact that Fez was so financially successful. We're not going to provide any specific examples, since gamer feuds are never worth the stress, but if you have a tougher skin and you want to know more, feel free to sully yourself at the links below.
Fez 2 canceled [Update]
Development on Fez 2 has ceased. The announcement was made earlier today by a tweet on the official Polytron account, which we then corroborated and verified with creator Phil Fish. "It's true," Fish told Joystiq in an email. Fez 2 was originally announced during last month's E3-concurrent Horizon conference, where it was the surprise, show-ending reveal of the event, following a cavalcade of other new indie developments from different developers. Beyond the fact that it existed, however, and that Fez composer Disasterpiece was also involved in production, nothing specific was known about the project. Update: The official Polytron Corporation website has been updated with a short, candid message reiterating the game's cancellation.
Steam Summer Sale snapshot: Fez sells 105K units in two days
Fez launched on Steam on May 1, following one year as an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive. On July 12, Fez joined the Steam Summer Sale, knocking half off of its price – bringing it to $5 – alongside an avalanche of hotly anticipated discounts. In its two days as part of the Steam Summer Getaway Sale, Fez sold 105,000 units, which is more than it sold in its first month on XBLA. In the first discounted day alone, Fez racked up more sales than it had in its previous three months on Steam. On Twitter, Fez creator Phil Fish described the numbers as "BANANERS" and "fuckin' NUTSO," which sounds accurate, especially when looking at the sales graph he included. We asked Fish if he's a fan of Steam sales, considering his game was half-off when it got those mad hits. "Yeah I'm a fan!" he said. "Even I can't find a way to complain about it." That's the most solid endorsement of the Steam Summer Sale we've ever heard – go check it out.
Fez getting all patched up on XBLA
Fez will get a new patch on Xbox Live Arcade, Polytron founder and Fez creator Phil Fish says in a tweet. Fez has been in need of an update on XBLA since June 2012 – Polytron actually released a patch that month that fixed a number of issues in the game, including infinite death loops, but that update caused some save files to read as corrupted. Polytron later re-released the patch without fixing the issue that caused corrupted save files, citing costs from Microsoft running into "tens of thousands of dollars" to issue that first patch. Latest reports indicate that Microsoft has dropped the fee for Xbox 360 developers to patch their games. Fish says the fresh update will take "a few months," but it's on its way. The problems with the first patch affect less than 1 percent of players, Polytron says, but it's a risk that most people would probably rather not take. Fez 2 is in development, but it's not coming to Xbox One or 360, Fish says.
Fez 2 is heading to 'not Xbox'
Fez fans won't be able to continue the dimension-twisting adventure on Microsoft's consoles. When Polygon recently inquired about potential release platforms for Fez 2, creator Phil Fish's response was, "Not Xbox." Fish's relationship with Microsoft soured in the months following Fez's Xbox Live Arcade release. A problematic patch was pulled and then subsequently reissued without addressing a save deletion bug affecting a small number of players. Fish claimed that the prohibitive cost involved in re-certifying the game effectively blocked the release of a new patch on the Xbox 360. A Windows version was later released via Steam and other services. Fish hasn't yet revealed which platforms he has in mind for Fez 2, but notes that the PlayStation 4 is a tempting prospect, due to its indie-friendly approach to publishing. "PS4 seems to be doing everything right," Fish said. "It's too early to tell how everything is going to unfold but their heart definitely seems to be in the right place." Fish continued: "Whether or not I would develop for it comes down to how the platform holder treats me. With Microsoft they've made it painfully clear they don't want my ilk on their platform. I can't even self-publish there. Whereas on PS4, I can. It's that simple. Microsoft won't let me develop for their console. But Sony will."
Fez 2 announced [update: Disasterpeace involved]
In a surprise announcement at the end of the Horizon conference, it was revealed that Fez 2 is in development at Polytron. The brief trailer revealed little else, though the soundtrack sounded very similar to the work that composer Disasterpeace did for the original Fez. Update: The video's description confirms Disasterpeace's involvement.
PSA: Fez remix album, FZ: Side Z, fills your earholes today
FZ: Side Z is he second half of the Fez remix album and it's out today, assaulting your eardrums for $5 or more. The first half, FZ: Side F, launched on April 20 for the same semi-name-your-own price. Both albums feature tracks from various artists, including the original Fez soundtrack composer, Disasterpeace. You can give all of the tunes a listen – or throw down your favorite bill for the whole album – right here.
