Anticipations are running high for Hazelight Studios' next game, Split Fiction. Following the success of It Takes Two, studio creative director Josef Fares has set his sights on their most ambitious game yet – one that weaves a multitude of genres and gameplay in a meshing together of sci-fi and fantasy stories.
We had a chance to sit down with the director and discuss some of his journey as a developer from the success of games like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and It Takes Two, to highlighting the challenges of creating Split Fiction and the importance of aiming to provide a fresh and engaging experience for players.
Hazelight’s previous title, It Takes Two, was highly successful, so it’s a little curious if that was something that was expected given how stacked 2021 was in terms of games and if that has had any impact going into the development of Split Fiction.
“It’s been a crazy journey,” said Fares.
“It’s interesting because I’m a huge gamer myself, it’s kind of a weird feeling but I’m also extremely proud of all that’s happened, and the impact we’ve had in the gaming industry. I strongly believe you do what you believe in, you follow your passion and it’s gonna land good.
“If you’re talking about expectations, it wasn’t really an issue. We know a lot of people love our games, but that can’t be in our heads when we start. You just got to trust your vision and go with it.
“This was definitely the hardest game we have done considering the mechanics and the variety," Fares said. "In [Split Fiction], you need everything to feel crisp and nice and polished. That was super hard.”
So despite the success of It Takes Two, it became more about believing in what you do and going with it. The team never really thought much back on the previous game when starting the process for Split Fiction.
That said, it’s pretty clear Hazelight does favor a particular style and that’s one built around co-operative gameplay. Defining that style, as well as keeping things fresh, however, is a different story and might not always be restricted to that for the studio.
“I often feel that some games are too repetitive,” said Fares. “When I was new in the industry, people were questioning it all the time. But now I have my own studio so nobody can question it, so you can do whatever you want.
“And also it started the way all the games we do, it starts from like, I want to play a game like that. So that’s where Brothers started. With that said, Hazelight will always have the co-op DNA in it, but we’ll probably also explore single-player games in the future but with a Hazelight twist.”
In terms of this co-operative core focus for the past 10 years of work, we were curious if Fares had felt there had been a peak to reach, or if there was enough experimentation within that core that sprouts out with each new iteration.
“That would definitely be like, becoming better in designing the co-op games, writing them, production-wise, getting them to a good level of polish,” Fares explained. “We also have something really crazy in this game that’s gonna happen at the end, and I can guarantee you, you’ve never seen it in a video game before. It’s really fucked up."
“So we have some really crazy stuff, but again there’s so much more to be explored in telling a story like this, and when you practice, there’s no limitation to what you can do. There’s so much different stuff to experiment with, there’s so many ideas you can do.
“But here, this isn’t your typical co-op [mode], this is written and designed from the beginning as co-op which means you have different characters depending on who you play.”
Certainly, Fares believes there’s a lot of stuff they can become better at. Making a game is a lot harder than making movies, after all, so to him it’s about “how do you keep that passion?”
One thing being introduced to Split Fiction is the addition of optional side stories to flesh out the experience.
“We call them Hazelight moments,” said Fares in reference to one particular grim side story that was shown during the preview. “You can skip them but we’ll make sure you can see them. But we’ve seen that people really want to play them.”
But as far as the overall aesthetic of Split Fiction goes, it’s curious to note that it relies on a lot of originality and no specific inspiration.
“The whole core of it was like blending sci-fi and fantasy,” Fares explained. “It felt very fresh and unique, and when we started with that, we thought there was going to be a lot of TV and moves that were similar, but we’ve done nothing really like that. You have parallel universes and stuff, but we haven’t had this combination of fantasy and sci-fi.”
One of the unique aspects of Split Fiction is its dual female protagonists – Mio and Zoe, and there is a bit of an inspiration behind this decision.
“Well, the first game, Brothers, was two males, A Way Out also had two males, and It Takes Two had one male and one female,” said Fares.
“Now it’s like, come on, let’s do two females. Otherwise, it becomes, just a lot of guys all over. But yeah, it feels natural. And also, my daughters are Mio and Zoe, so it felt like a right time to do a game about two female characters because there were always so much guys in games. It can’t just be boys.”
Indeed, it can’t just be boys. With that approach in hand, we’re left with one final bit of advice for those who are new to Hazelight’s brand of co-op adventures.
“You’re gonna experience something than you’ve never experienced before,” said Fares. “Get ready for a wild ride, and yeah you’re gonna see some crazy stuff for sure.”
TechRaptor was invited to an event to preview Split Fiction by the publisher.
