The Art of Video Game Design with Josef Fares
A Way Out: The Art of Video Game Design
By Benjamin “Benji” Karmis
21 December 2017
There’s something relaxing about kicking back and unwinding with
a video game after a long day. That is, until you’re at the edge of your seat,
hands sweating, just trying to beat a level or complete an objective. But
that’s the miracle of video games – for just a wee bit of time, you can escape
your regular life to travel through time and space, fight in WWI for the
British Empire, or generally just pretend to be somebody you aren’t. But what
we might not think about is how much work goes into creating your little break
from life. So we decided to figure it out.
After his explosive part at The Game Awards,
Josef Fares’ enthusiasm for his game A
Way Out literally
became a meme. We knew we had to talk to him, so we reached out to Hazelight
Studios and was lucky enough to Skype with the head man himself. I had high
expectations going in, but to say they were merely met would be an understatement.
“I eat, sleep, and drink A
Way Out!” Fares could still eagerly boom about his game at 6PM Central
European time instead of eating dinner. If you googled his name, one word you’d
find in nearly every article or video is the word, “passionate.” To say it
neatly, Fares’ excitement for his game radiates from his skin. He’s so
confident in his game, he’s previously claimed you
can come break his legs if you don’t like it. But he was quick to mention
that his eagerness is completely genuine. “I’ve never done cocaine! Never done
any of that shit,” he joked. “I’m just really excited for the game.”
So where did his whole video game design process begin? It
was when Fares and a buddy sat down and wanted to play a game together, but
couldn’t find a suitable one. That’s because cooperative gameplay has been a
void progressively growing more and more desperate for us gamers. Why do we
have to bust out consoles from more than a decade ago when a friend comes over?
Fares ran into the same issue, which led to the idea for A Way Out.
But too describe A Way
Out like any other co-op game where you drop in then drop out would not do
it justice. Fares, who also wrote the game, built it around his vision of
making it an emotional journey to be shared with a friend. That’s why his game
is solely made for split-screen co-op. “This game is meant to be played on a
couch with a friend,” he explained, though you can play with a friend online.
But if that’s the case, he’s got good news: “Only one of you needs to buy the
game!”
Fares’ adamant vision for his game shows exactly how much of
an art creating a video game is. Coming from a background in directing films, he
ended up directing another unique video game called Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, where each of the two characters was
independently controlled with the different analog sticks of a controller. The
necessity to make an adaptive experience for each individual player in a video
game makes the development process much more challenging over a movie. “With a
movie, you can develop a timeline of about how long it is going to take each
part to do,” Fares stated. “You can’t really do that with a video game unless
you’ve done multiple titles of the same game.”
Unfortunately, big-box publishers have been known to damper
the creative process of making a video game by shifting it from an art to a
business. EA
has been a prime example as of late, so their ties with Hazelight could
tamper with the otherwise untainted vision of the game. In fact, Fares’
aforementioned part in The Game Awards caught so much attention partially
because it had to do with EA’s recent blunder with the loot boxes and
pay-to-win structure of Star Wars
Battlefront 2.
Josef Fares doesn’t feel threatened. “These EA guys,” he began
while leaning back in his chair, “they eat shit like everybody else. Everybody
fucks up sometime.” Fares is known for his foul mouth, but his point rings true.
Similar to small gas stations receiving
localized harassment after the oil spill solely for being tied to BP by
their franchise status, a mistake shouldn’t tarnish all of the good that came
from a team’s hard work put into a game. In fact, Fares is still pained when
other video games get fried in reviews, even though they might technically be his
competitors. “When I see a game get bad reviews, my heart hurts and I feel for their
director because I know how much work they put into their game,” he admitted.
Even so, Fares has been sure to make sure nobody is changing
his vision of the game. “But what I will tell you [about the creative process]
is that I’m in complete control. EA can’t change the color of a character’s
shirt from green to blue unless I want to.” In a world with big
companies ruining the gaming industry, it’s refreshing to see the little
guys strike such a unique deal with a massive company known for excessively
monetizing so many of their projects. “We make 100% of the profit of this
game,” Fares added.
Other games in the past haven’t been so lucky. Another EA
heavy hitter, Mass Effect: Andromeda,
received
some lackluster reviews after production was rushed, leaving fans of the
decade-long story with a buggy and unsatisfying game spearheaded by debatably the worst facial
animations of 2017. It isn’t just EA, either. Bungie, renowned for the
all-star series Halo, received some flak for Destiny after some late
top-down decisions that forced the revamp of entire plot. Regardless, even
the good games catch some of the community angry, so there’s a lot of pressure
on developers to put out quality work.
This could be why Josef Fares has made such wild claims
about his game. He might act cocky about it, but it’s because he’s simply so
excited for it. In fact, he’s actually a pretty decent guy. “I don’t like to
look at myself as the boss. I could clean toilets tomorrow, as long as it helps
this game,” he declared.
All in all, there’s a lot of work that goes into fabricating
such an intensive video game. Among a myriad of other perks, Josef Fares brings
his vivacious personality to the table in creating A Way Out. So next time
you’re blowing off some steam with a video game after a lengthy day on the
grind, don’t nit-pick the small things that are wrong with it. Instead, just
appreciate how much time on the clock that went into making your time off the
clock a bit more enjoyable.
I’d like to give warm-hearted thanks to Josef Fares and Hazelight Studios for the interview. A Way Out comes out on March 23rd, 2018. You can pre-order it with me here on PC, Playstation 4, or Xbox One for $29.99.
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