TP6 Ediciones periódicas: revista / Martin Sosa

ODYSSEY - El laberinto y el puzzle

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ODYSSEY - El laberinto y el puzzle

No serán pocos los lectores que advertirán aquí diversas transgresiones a la convención literaria. Para no citar más que algunos ejemplos, los personajes argentinos pasan del voseo al tuteo cada vez que le conviene al diálogo; un londinense que tomaba sus primeras lecciones de francés se pone a hablarlo con sorprendente soltura (para peor en versión española)apenas ha cruzado el Canal de la Mancha; la geografía, el orden de las estaciones del subterráneo, la libertad, la psicología, las muñecas y el tiempo dejan evidentemente de ser lo que eran bajo el reino de Cynara. A los posibles sorprendidos les señalo que, desde el terreno en que se cumple este relato, la transgresión cesa de ser tal; el prefijo se suma a los varios otros que giran en torno a la raíz gressio: agresión, re-

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gresión y progresión son también connaturales a las intenciones esbozadas un día en los párrafos finales del capítulo 62 de Rayuela, que explican el título de este libro y quizá se realizan en su curso. El subtítulo “Modelo para armar” podría llevar a creer que las diferentes partes del relato, separadas por blancos, se proponen como piezas permutables. Si algunas lo son, el armado a que se alude es de otranaturaleza, sensible ya en el nivel de la escritura donde recurrencias y desplazamientos buscan liberar de toda fijeza causal, pero sobre todo en el nivel del sentido donde la apertura a una combinatoria es más insistente e imperiosa. La opción del lector, su montaje personal de los elementos del relato, serán en cada caso el libro que ha elegido leer.

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ODYSSEY - El laberinto y el puzzle

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LA MÚSICA Y EL TECLADO

La música de videojuegos ya empieza a ocupar un lugar sano y decente dentro del arte. En 40 años de vida han aparecido bandas sonoras dignas de sacar de la consola y enmarcar; y algunas de ellas han conseguido cambiar la escena. Esta ocación les ofrecemos una breve selección de las que consideramos imperdibles.

DONKEY KONG COUNTRY 2 Muy compleja para su tiempo y un ejemplo de cómo evoluciona la música de cada arte junto a su tecnología.

Aún hoy, refleja libertad y alegría con su influencia funk, y nos recuerda la preciosa era de los 16 bits. Su variedad fue algo nunca visto, y aunque otros han creado cosas maravillosas para los monos, como Grant Kirkhope, la diferencia la marca esta Isla Cocodrilo de David Wise. La canción que destaco, la de las fases acuáticas, brilla dentro de un conjunto brillante.

BASTION

NieR

PORTAL 2

Bastion es un juego de contemplar el mundo muerto, pero incluso en ese contexto, los humanos demuestran no ser de fiar. Darren Korb mantiene sus raíces rock aquí, pero se adapta más al folk tristón que le pega al post apocalipsis.

Lo que no es tan habitual es el punto electrónico que aquí envuelve en un universo imposible de leer. Los indies pisan fuerte y se atreven con lo que los triple A dudan, como un combate entre Vaults y Pablo Alborán.

NieR es un juego muy especial. Su música es la definición de artesanía: hecha con mimo y bien implementada.

Keiichi Okabe y su equipo se encargaban de dar vida a una banda sonora dinámica que salta en las manos, contando con la voz de Emi Evans para cantar idiomas ficticios. Orquesta, una versión jazz, punzadas de teclado y percusión…

Cada escucha es diferente, cada partida es distinta y las capas de sonido que brotan según nuestro estado de ánimo son abrumadoras para el oído. ¿Esto no iba de matar marcianitos? NOP.

Hay que agradecerle a Mike Morasky una de las bandas sonoras de videojuego mejor integradas en su universo.

Su riqueza y variedad de temas es una de las razones por las que Portal 2 funciona incluso mejor que su predecesor.

Mantiene algo de esa naturaleza ambiental de Portal, pero explora terrenos más dramáticos y juega con la música adaptativa gracias a los distintos escenarios y tipos de geles. Desafiar los límites de la banda sonora tal y como la conocemos tenía que ser cosa de Aperture Science.

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ODYSSEY - El laberinto y el puzzle

BIOSHOCK

Final Fantasy IX

La oscuridad de Rapture explora lo disonante, utiliza la cuerda para crear puntos de luz o teñir de lúgubre y se diferencia de otras bandas sonoras orquestales porque es capaz de innovar y a la vez mantenerse accesible a todos los oídos en menos de 20 minutos de banda sonora.

Garry Schyman es un compositor que viene de la televisión y maneja de lujo los tiempos, así que da gusto escuchar un trabajo que no enfanga la acción con repiqueteo constante, sino que deja a los silencios y al llanto de las gramolas hacer su trabajo.

Esta elección tiene trampa: es muy complicado escoger solo una de las scores de FF y yo no quiero morir joven. Uematsu es un genio incontestable, y en esta IX plasma engaño, guerra, pérdida, deseo de pertenecer a algo, codicia...y todo de una forma muy inspiracional.

La música de Nobuo es ya un género en sí misma, y aquí eleva FFIX a una magnitud creativa espectacular.

Sword & Sworcery

Zelda - Majora’s Mask

Jim Guthrie fue miembro de Islands, de Human Highway y de Royal City, pero fue su banda sonora para Sword & Sworcery la que nos clavó su buen hacer en el tímpano.

La atmósfera enigmática que rodea a la Escita se mezcla con sintetizadores ondulantes, guitarras lánguidas y tcapas de sonido amenazantes. Si hay algo que hace especial este Superbrothers es que su música es un pilar maestro y el resto de apartados del juego se crearon a su alrededor: sin ella, todo se cae.

Majora’s Mask siempre ha sido la oveja negra dentro de la saga Zelda: no se ambienta en Hyrule, no hay que rescatar a Zelda y ni rastro de Ganondorf.

Eso es precisamente lo que le hace tan especial, y Koji Kondo plasmó la oscuridad que rodea el viaje de Link tan desesperada y solitaria como siempre ha sido.

Se divide en cuatro secciones definidas por territorios, y aunque comparte muchos temas con Ocarina of Time, los originales son verdaderos retos que definen su esencia retorcida.

Todavía hoy, si oigo un carrillón, me meto debajo de la cama.

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Super Mario Galaxy Por primera vez, un Mario orquestado. Con arreglos muy refrescantes que permitían a Mahito Yokota explorar los ambientes y los escenarios, más que crear piezas típicas e icónicas de un Mario.

Para conseguir todo el rango de emociones que buscaba, necesitaba una orquesta. El esfuerzo por buscar el camino adecuado mereció la pena si esta banda sonora se separa exponencialmente de todo lo escuchado anteriormente para el fontanero.

NEXT LEVEL

La aventura comienza cuando el pacífico mundo de los peces-planeta de la Chica se ve perturbado por una extraña y oscura criatura.

Su único objetivo es causar el caos y por ello destruye el sagrado motor que mueve el mundo y, ahora, toda vida en los peces-planetas está en peligro. La banda sonora de Christopher Larkin (Hollow Knight) se combina con la narrativa visual de TOHU a través de su cautivadora música.

TOHU

es el bello juego de aventuras creado por Fireart Games para Switch, PS4, Xbox One y PC.

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a distribuidora The Irregular Corporation (Murder By Numbers) y el celebrado desarrollador Fireart Games (Spirit Roots) han revelado hoy TOHU, una hermosa aventura nueva que está ya camino de estrenarse en PC a través de Steam, PlayStation 4, Xbox One y Nintendo Switch a finales de este año.

También se ha publicado un nuevo vídeo que muestra su gameplay en profundidad y nos presenta el título con un vistazo detallado a uno de sus primeros puzzles. Este vídeo en cuestión podéis verlo directamente aquí, justo debajo de estas mismas líneas; se trata de un vídeo que muestra su jugabilidad y nos pasea por el juego.

En TOHU experimentarás una aventura completamente nueva en un mundo extraño y maravilloso plagado de peces-planeta.

Explora sus hermosos escenarios, resuelve complejos puzzles y descubre la verdad

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detrás de una misteriosa niña pequeña y su alter-ego mecánico, Cubus.

TOHU combina mecánicas tradicionales de un juego de aventuras con un diseño cercano y sencillo dentro de su variedad de fascinantes localizaciones y peculiares entornos, que incluyen el escenario de una producción teatral repleta de maravillosas criaturas. Además, se trata de un mundo patas arriba donde cada escalera te llevará en una dirección que desafía las leyes de la física.

Podrás cambiar entre Ella y Cubus en cualquier momento para sacar provecho de sus habilidades únicas, pero el misterio acecha en cada esquina y necesitarás un plan. Piensa y busca soluciones creativas para sus misteriosos puzzles para poder avanzar. Ya sea buscando los bichos necesarios para dar energía a tu nave-pez capaz de explorar el espacio o aprendiendo cómo disparar un cañón usando topos con bigote como munición, TOHU está lleno de estrafalarios problemas a resolver.

ODYSSEY - El laberinto y el puzzle

Tetris Effect: Connected confirma su fecha de lanzamiento y llegada a Xbox Game Pass de consola y PC para el próximo 10 de noviembre.

Tetris Effect

Connected confirma su fecha de lanzamiento y llegada a Xbox Game Pass

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lo largo del día de ayer fuimos testigos de la confirmación de que hay muchos juegos que llegarán el día 10 de noviembre para aprovechar el lanzamiento de Xbox Series X y Xbox Series S. Y toca hablar de un nuevo juego que aprovechará ese 10 de noviembre para ver la luz. Tetris Effect: Connected confirma su fecha de lanzamiento y llegada a Xbox Game Pass de consola y PC. Y la fecha de lanzamiento de Tetris Effect: Connected será también el 10 de noviembre, confirmando que en Xbox Series X correrá a 4K y 60fps, llegará con toda la acción tanto para un jugador, como para el multijugador con múltiples modos de juego y alguna sorpresa más.

Según apuntan desde el estudio, la llegada de Tetris Effect: Connected no será como un simple port, ya que han trabajado para añadir ese soporte nativo a resolución 4K para Xbox Series X. También añade nuevos modos, como es el Zone Battle o el Connected, que añade una nueva modalidad

donde tres jugadores luchan contra un Boss.

Estos modos de juegos nuevos se añaden a Tetris Effect: Connected para su llegada a Xbox Series X y Xbox Series S a la versión ya disponible en Playstation 4 y PC. De este modo, Tetris Effect: Connected confirma su fecha de lanzamiento y llegada a Xbox Game Pass directamente, adecentando un catálogo de lanzamiento que se había convertido en una de las mayores incógnitas de estas últimas semanas. Poco a poco se han ido modificando y concretando fechas de lanzamiento, donde juegos como Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, DIRT 5, Yakuza: Like a Dragon o Gears Tactics, han aparecido en escena para confirmar que llegarán el 10 de noviembre a Xbox.

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START - FEZ

UN MUNDO DE CUATRO LADOS

La suma del inteligente diseño de niveles, la percepción de las mecánicas, el masivo número de niveles y secretos y el increíble arte de FEZ, es mucho más que un homenaje a la vieja escuela de los videojuegos. FEZ es un juego enamorado de los juegos. Muestra respeto por los ideales clásicos y confianza en la originalidad de sus ideas. Polytron se posiciona aquí para recordarles a los jugadores la razón por la cual se enamoraron de los video juegos.

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fter a catastrophic event adds a third dimension to a 2D world, Gomez, the fez-adorned hero, finds himself capable of shifting the dimensional plane. This is where Fez starts challenging player perception.

Imagine the world like a four-sided column. With each pull of a trigger, Gomez rotates the column left or right 90 degrees. Each rotation displays a different side of the landscape, each of which has a distinct set of objects to interact with. This simple device changes where Gomez can go and how he can get there.

If there’s no means by which to climb higher, rotating the scene may reveal a hidden ladder or new ledge. Fez further complicates matters when it lets illusion become reality.

Manipulating pieces in such a way that they look traversable is all Gomez needs to navigate. In twisting the world to your will, disconnected objects become the literal stepping stones to your success. Perhaps a single platform becomes part of a wall, or positions itself within jumping distance of another platform. If two separate, smaller ladders appear as one long ladder from a certain angle, they act accordingly.

Fez makes no apologies for its complexities. Rather than relying on instruction, players discover possibilities by experimenting at their own pace. There’s no threat, no urgency, and no consequence for death. Everything exists as is. It’s just waiting for you to find it.

The rotation gimmick could have made a simple side-scroller something far more frustrating, but the dozens of levels are all laid out quite cleverly. New areas are always within reach, and altering the camera gives Gomez plenty of extra opportunities to explore. You can always get to the next area, even if you don’t quite know what to do when you arrive.

Really, though, experiencing its aesthetic is Fez’s true reward. The terrific detail of its pixel-painted universe, old-school-inspired music, vibrant art, and ever-changing scenery bring the brilliant world to life. There’s such an absorbing diversity in the way levels look and sound that it’s enough just to be part of it regardless of the character’s goals.

Manipular piezas para que parezcan atravesables es todo lo que necesita Gómez para viajar Fez also sneaks in some satirical material just for kicks. Dot, your helpful floating companion, doesn’t know anything about anything. In any other game Dot would be your guiding force, a talking tutorial. It forgets what certain objects are for, if it even has anything to say other than “Uh, I don’t know

RESEÑAS DE NUESTRXOS LECTORXS Realizamos una breve encuesta en nuestra redes para saber lo que pensaban sobre FEZ, aquí una breve selección de sus aportes:

@Tiranoexe

what this is.” Fez also goes out of its way to make the gaming-literate members of the audience smile. Tetris pieces have a prominent thematic presence in the quiet story. Most of the audio effects sound just like old NES games. Dot even busts out a “Hey, listen!”

The most astonTishing thing about Fez is how it, like the games it uses as inspiration, imposes itself on the real-world.

The mechanical gimmick in Fez makes players consider and take advantage of perception. This thought often applies outside the game, too. Conditions to fully complete Fez include analyzing the Achievements list for a subtly placed password. Punching in the code unlocks a bonus collectible cube piece. It’s the modern equivalent of the long-forgotten cheat code, or the codec frequency hidden on the back of Metal Gear Solid’s CD case.

Fez also forces itself on reality by tucking QR codes in secret spots. Scanning them gives players additional unlock codes. This means players need to find their smartphones, potentially download a QR-scanner application, or borrow someone else’s device. One way or another, players need to stop playing and go out of their way to use a physical thing to interact with Fez.

Muy entretenido, con una estética muy atractiva y, sobre todo, una jugabilidad única. Pensé que iba a ser bastante mas corto y fácil pero realmente tiene muchisimas cosas complicadas y puzzles que vas a tener que buscar en internet para resolverlos. Recomendadísimo.

@LOGOS Un indie con mucho corazón y un diseño de arte que exenta con facilidad la prueba del tiempo, esconde muchos secretos interesantes y puzzles retadores en un mundo gigantesco a explorar, recomendado.

@SilenT De los mejores juegos indie de la historia, siendo sincero, el juego es lento y si no te gustan los puzzles y quieres acción, vete por otro. Por todo lo demás este juego es perfecto en sus mecánicas, ambientación, cohesión, está super bien pensado.

@LINA Un excelente juego.

Los gráficos y la música hacen una ambientación extraordinaria y si te gustan los puzzles, éste juego es para ti.

UN CUBO RUBIK VIRUTAL La historia de cómo el ciclo de cinco años que llevó diseñar el título ganador de premio IGF al mejor arcade de XBOX LIVE: FEZ, se cargó con la salud y la vida personal de su creador Phill Fish, y la lección que aprendió de la prolongada y difícil experiencia.

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ive years in the making, indie platformer game Fez from Polytron is finished and set for release in the New Year. While playing on gamers’ sense of nostalgia with its pixel graphic style and numerous nods to Nintendo’s 16-bit classics, it’s a game that also blazes trails with a unique perspective-shifting control scheme.

As the game enters certification with Microsoft, developer Phil Fish’s role is shifting from that of creative vision-holder to evan-

gelist. Gamasutra’s Simon Parkin caught up with Fish at the recent GameCity event in Nottingham, England, where the designer was manning a dimly lit Fez lounge in which attendees were invited to sit back on a comfy sofa and lose themselves in his creation.

In a candid interview, Fish opened up about the toll the game’s development has taken on his life, offering advice to other indie devs who might find themselves in a similar situation.

ODYSSEY - El laberinto y el puzzle

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UN CUBO RUBIK VIRTUAL

-El salón de Fez es encantador. ¿Cómo se llegó a esto?

-Phil Fish: Iain [Simons, director of GameCity] approached me and he said: “Do you want to do something a little bit different?” I told him I don’t think Fez demos well in short bursts, in a standing up, noisy environment, which is what we’ve been doing at PAX and things like that.

I told him it’d be nice if we had a kind of living room type arrangement, put a good sound system where people can sit down and play the game for a longer period of time comfortably.

Because the game is a bit of a slow burner, you know, it’s all about the atmosphere and getting sucked in and lost into that world.

So that doesn’t work at all in five minutes.

And then he said: “We have this lounge!”, and he sent me a picture and I saw the chair and I was like “Sold!” It’s been the best demo we’ve ever done. It’s also the first time we showed the entire game, so I’m getting a lot of good play-testing notes.

-Sí, estás sentado en la parte de atrás como un archivillano con un gato en tu regazo, mirando. Es una excelente manera de jugar. Se siente un poco como estar sentado en la sala del frente, y tienes 20 minutos adecuados para sentarse y digerir la experiencia.

-PF: One group of friends played for like two hours; they played a quarter of the game. I never personally sat down and watched somebody play for that long before. And it’s working! People are not getting stuck, they’re figuring out what to do.

I had this class of kids come in yesterday morning, 12 to 15 year olds. First thing in the morning I was scared shitless. I thought these kids are going to tear me apart; they are not going to like this game, they are not going to get this game. They are not going to get like the nostalgia aspect of it, because they’re too young, and I was certain that they’d be saying things like, “There’s no guns in this game?!

What the fuck this is?” But no, they were like

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Phill Fish / diseñador de FEZ y fundador del estudio Polytron

entranced by it, and they kept saying like, “This is amazing! I need an Xbox now.”

-Eso debe ser un alivio.

-PF: Yes, because I was still stressed when I saw them walk in, and then they really got into it and I was like, [sigh of relief] “Man, fuck, it’s working!” It’s a huge relief, because the game only came together as a game in the last couple of months.

For years, all we had were just like these different parts that didn’t connect, and we didn’t even have that big, open world that you could play for an hour or two; like it’s all these little segments that didn’t communicate, and only recently did all the pieces fall into place.

And then we added music and the polish and it’s like: “Woah, woah! Fuck, this is an actual game now that we can let people play for a while.” Because, you know, we were operating for years on the assumption that it was going to work somehow.

And it was kind of really scary for years,

ODYSSEY - El laberinto y el puzzle

because we didn’t even have a way of testing it ourselves, if it would work. And just recently we started sending out these builds for our friends and colleagues and just getting like amazing feedback. You know [Independent Games Festivial Chairman] Brandon Boyer?

-¡Por supuesto!

-ttPF: Brandon Boyer is in love with Fez. He started to send us like, every day, pages of feedback, like of his entire adventure through Fez. At first I thought he was just bullshitting us; it was so hyperbolic. I was all: “Come on, Brandon, you’re just saying that because we’re friends.” He was like: “No, no, if I was just being nice, I would say, like, ‘Keep it up!’”

But it was just a glowing review of Fez, basically, and if there’s one guy who’s opinion matters to me it’s Brandon Boyer. I did something good! And [Braid developer] Jonathan Blow loves it. There’s another guy that’s hard to please. He’s also been sending us tons of feedback.

It’s funny, because Blow will only send you feedback about the things he doesn’t

like. It’s only negative, and it always sounds a little bit insulting because, you know, he’s kind of a hard-ass. He sent us like this page of feedback that was all nitpicking, except for this single line in the middle that just said: “Cool ending.” I was like: “Wow! You beat it? You played it till the end, and you thought it was cool? Amazing!”

So just recently, it started to sink in that we made a game that works. We have achieved what we wanted to do and it was like [sigh of relief]. Eeverybody who knows me that has seen me recently, they all tell me: “Phil, you look so much more calmer than the last time I saw you a year ago; you’re almost a different person.” Yeah, I feel completely different; I am not in complete terror/panic mode 24/7. I’m starting to be like: “I did it.” It feels really good.

Personalmente, nunca me senté y vi a alguien jugar tanto tiempo. ¡Y está funcionando!

La gente no se atasca, están entendiendo lo que hay que hacer

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-¿Y qué pasa ahora?

-PF: I’m becoming more and more useless, and it’s kind of scary actually. All my friends who have shipped their big indie game all warn me of the most severe depression of my life coming.

-¿La depresión post-natal?

-PF: Yeah. The first day that I wake up and the game is locked, and I’m not allowed to do anything, is terrifying. Which is scary, because I’ve actually been pretty depressed the last couple of years. [laughs] It was kind of hard making this game. And I’m super looking forward to release. I want it to be out and I want to move on and do something else with my life.

But everybody tells me: “No, you’re not going to be happy. It’s not going to be like, [sigh of relief] Done! It’s going to be like, What do I do now?” I have been in this intense routine for five years of Fez, all day, everyday. And then [snaps fingers] one day it’s going to be: No more Fez! It’s done! What do you do with yourself at that point? I don’t know.

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-¿Te vas a tomar vacaciones?

-PF: Well, we’re already working on another game. We had this game that we made a while ago called Super Hypercube. It’s like a head-tracking puzzle game that was also stereoscopic. It used the Wiimote, head-tracking, which was kind of messy, so nobody ever played that game. But it was a proven concept that worked that we wanted to push further and we never did. That was like four years ago.

Then when Kinect came along we saw it would be a perfect fit, so we got that working. It was a finalist at IndieCade a couple weeks ago, and Microsoft seemed interested, and we might actually do something. So I already have something else that’s starting to get interesting.

-El desarrollo de FEZ llevó mucho tiempo. ¿Cómo financiaron el juego por tanto tiempo?

-PF: The first thing we had when we got started was a big loan from a government fund.

So there’s an agency that funds you in three parts for: prototyping, production, and post-production.

So we applied for a prototyping loan. That’s like weeks of paperwork, and it’s really messy.

And it’s a lottery basically and months later you get a letter that says, “You’ve been approved! Here’s a bunch of money!” It’s a conditionally repayable loan. If the game’s a failure and never comes out, we owe them nothing, but if it comes out and makes money we have to pay them back full; it’s a great deal. Not as great as free money, but the next best thing.

-Es como una empresa discográfica.

-PF: Yeah. Back when I started, we got our first office finally, because working from home was driving all of us just insane. And for reasons we still don’t quite understand, the agency dropped us for that second amount of funding. And when that happens, you’re not working on a game at all at that point, because finding money becomes your only priority.

Because it’s not a problem you can just put in the back of your mind and keep working. It’s like, “Well, I need to pay the rent in two weeks; what the fuck do I do?” So there was like a horrible three-month period that I always had to borrow a lot of money from friends, and family, and things like that just to stay afloat. And then have you heard of the Indie Fund?

-¡Sí!

-PF: We were the prototype to the Indie Fund. Those guys funded us for about a year and a half before the whole thing just kind of fell apart. They had a lot of tension internally on their side, because, like, there were 17 of them, and then the seven of them left and did the real Indie Fund. Our business guy at Polytron ended up leaving us, and they were just panicked about that. And the whole thing, yeah, it lost attention, just kind of exploded, lost our funding. And so the second time we lose our funding is like a month or two of just panic and nothing.

And then finally this company in Montreal, another studio called Trapdoor, with 15 employees or so -- a lot more serious than we are -- came to us. It’s the guy who used to run Gameloft in Montreal. After eight years or so he got really sick of making just clones

and terrible iPhone games, and started his own company.

So these guys came along and they said: “Hey, you need some help? You lost your business guy? You need some money? You need some support. You need people helping you out. Here’s what we can offer you: We’ll bankroll you; we’ll pay you like a salary as if you were working for us. We’ll give you

Hice mi juego, y el producto final está realmente cerca de la idea original que tuve, y mas o menos logré lo que quería.

access to our accountants, our lawyers, all of that; we’ll take you to conventions, we’ll pay for your flight, all these things. And in exchange we’ll take a cut of the revenue, but Polytron owns the IP.” And that’s been almost a year now, and it’s been really, really nice. They’re helping us out in a lot of ways. Like, they assigned one of their producers to us at one point to just help us keep on schedule, because I’m incapable of scheduling and I’m just really disorganized and messy.

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things going in my life, I was seriously considering just giving up. Actually it became like this weird like suicide fantasy that I was going to cancel Fez out of spite, like, “You’re NEVER gonna get it! Fuck you all!”

And like I was just in such a horrible place for a while that like yeah, it really did seem like the game was actually not going to happen. It felt like every force in the world was conspiring to make sure that it was never coming out, and I was getting so burnt out and so depressed that when Trapdoor came along they saved the project. I don’t think there would be a Fez if they didn’t help us out.

Realmente, estoy tratando de ser positivo. Porque realmente están pasando cosas buenas para mí y para el juego, y tengo mucha suerte de estar haciendo lo que hago, y suerte porque todas estas cosas me están pasando a mí.

-Entonces, ¿Qué crees que les quedará de estre proyecto? Sí lo pudieras resumir en un solo aprendizaje, ¿Qué es lo más positivo que te dejaron los últimos años?

-PF: I don’t know. I feel a lot of pride that we actually did it. It took everything. That was really, really hard. We had every reason to just give up, and so many obstacles to overcome. It took five years, but we did it. I made my game, and the final product is really close to the original vision that I had, and I more or less accomplished what I wanted.

And I realized it, but I feel like I don’t really realize it yet. Like today, I was just looking at people play it and I was like, “I made all of

this!” Holy shit! That’s quite an achievement.

I’m trying really hard to be positive. Because good things are happening to me and the game right now, and I’m lucky to be doing what I’m doing, and I’m lucky to have all these things happen to me.

But at the same time, I’m so burnt out and tired, and I just want to get it over with and have a life again. I don’t know. Honestly, I’m trying to be positive. If you would’ve asked me a year ago, “What’s your advice for people who want to get into indie games?” it would’ve been “Don’t.”

Just don’t do it. It’s not worth it. It’s going to ruin your life, it’s going to fucking kill you, it’s going to take away your health and your happiness, and it’s going to cost you every meaningful relationship that you have in your life. Your girlfriend’s going to leave you, your friends just become distant, and it’s not worth it. Don’t do it. Just get a real job and make games on the side as a hobby thing.

But now, I still feel like that a little bit, but it’s starting to actually pay off now. But I don’t know. Is it actually worth it? It’s hard to say now. I’m starting to feel a little bit of gratification for the work I’ve put into this.

ODYSSEY - El laberinto y el puzzle

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LA HIPNÓTICA BANDA SONORA DE FEZ Vive y respira atmósfera clásica de video juego

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n addition to being a smart, enjoyable platformer that revels in a deep and mysterious energy, Fez is an aesthetic triumph. We tend to throw around terms like that a lot—”aesthetic triumph.” But what does that really mean? It’s nice-looking? It’s got a good soundtrack?

In the case of Fez, those things are both true. But it’s their synthesis, the way that the sights and sounds of the game combine, that feels truly inspired.

Much like Capy and Superbrothers’ Sword & Sworcery EP, Fez takes what can only be called “the video game aesthetic” and riffs on it marvelously, creating a unique and pleasing pastiche of game-like visual and audio cues that inspire powerful nolstalgia.

The music, composed by Rich “Disasterpeace” Vreeland, hits a

great mix of chippy video game sounds and broader, softer pads.

Many of the sound effects and techniques remind me of Jim Guthrie’s work on Sworcery, which as far as I’m concerned is a very good thing.

“I come from a chip background,” Vreeland said to me in an email, “and I think it’s easy for others to see it as being a chip soundtrack, but I tried to move away from that a bit while still using some of the same sounds. There’s a lot of reverb everywhere, which helps to make things a bit paddier, and more reminiscent of 80s synth scores than chiptunes. There’s also a lot of tape warp effects, bitcrushing, and other

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kinds of distortions to mold things into a cohesive, consistent sound.”

Vreeland, a guitarist and pianist who studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, worked on the Fez soundtrack for 13 to 14 months, doing it at night while also doing the soundtrack for Shoot Many Robots. When I asked him about the vibe he was going for he described it as “a sort of lonely, contemplative curiosity.”

“Abstaining from using percussion in most parts I think went a long way in capturing the right vibe. I also tended to slow things down a lot, and a bunch of tracks have very fluid tempos, that ebb, flow and breathe along with the player. There are also sections of

the game without music, which I hoped would create the same sort of effect.”

The Fez soundtrack will be out on April 20th, and can be pre-ordered on Diasterpeace’s website. There are also a couple of free tracks that you can download now, including “Adventure” above.

SECCIÓN

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