gaming Phil Fish Allegedly Stole Coding to Make Fez

[Wulfgar Von Heltzer 42]

 

 

According to a former video game journalist, Allistair Pinsof, Phil fish effectively stole coding to make fez, never gave credit, then used his connections in the industry to intimidate the developers into not suing him : (For some reason the thread isn't loading right now so here's the archive: https://archive.today/C9737)

 

You hear a lot of things when you become a journalist prominent enough to cover big exclusives but not popular enough to be initiated into the game media elite’s inner circle. One of the more interesting things I heard was a notable indie developer tell me that Phil Fish significantly stole from their code, projects and ideas to create Fez. When I questioned why they won’t sue, they said they were in fear of being ostracized by the IGF, media, and indie dev scene.

 

I don’t mind naming this developer because most of the information is in fact public, just ignored by the media. So, this developer Shawn McGrath approached me when Indie Game: The Movie came out and featured credits that libeled his friend Jason Degroot. Both of these guys were extremely influential on Fez; there’s a good argument that it’s their game. McGrath created the central mechanic, design, and code which was lifted from an earlier project he made with Fish that was a music game. Fish admitted to this as far back as 2007, but he’d say “the whole game is made around the 3D pixel aesthetic” or “it’s all designed around my Miyazaki influence”. This was dishonest however because it was really designed around McGrath’s mechanic.

 

Let me roll back a little here. Degroot did music for Fez in 2007. He had a falling out with Fish which led to legal threats and drama which you can find in Indie Game: The Movie (which by coincidence was produced by Fish’s current partner, hmm). The film presents him as an ominous entity who exists to make Fish’s life hell, never was he given a chance to tell his side of the story, and — a total slap in the face — the film’s credits said he “asked not to participate in the film” which was untrue. Degroot is a non-confrontational guy so McGrath took up his cause — feeling sympathy since Fish stole from him too and backstabbed him — and came to me with his story. So, let me get back to that.

 

The thing the public never knew – that McGrath and Degroot held for leverage should the filmmakers & Fish not change the credits – is that McGrath worked on Fez until the GDC trailer put out in October 2007, according to McGrath. At this point, McGrath had a second falling out and this time it was serious. McGrath told him they were done and Fish agreed to cancel the project. The agreement was that McGrath would take his original design (2D/3D rotating mechanic) and Fish would take his Trixel engine, according to McGrath. When McGrath saw the game appear at IGF 2008, he was furious and felt backstabbed. There’s been bad blood between them ever since. This behavior seems habit for Fish since the same thing happened to Degroot who designed the game’s original audio aesthetic via sound effects and a chiptune score, only to be cut and suddenly replaced with someone else who copied his style — it’s an amazing soundtrack but Fish keeps bringing in new people to follow through on other people’s ideas.

 

I think Fish is a talented visual designer and Fez carries his unique stamp on it, but the problem — and this is according to McGrath — remains that two of its biggest creators were snubbed out of its development, uncredited, unpaid, stolen from, and lied to. What makes this an industry wide problem is that the two were afraid to speak out because of Fish’s connections. Fish was friends with Boyer who ran the IGF, Fish was a social butterfly who knew a lot of gaming press (there were multiple videos of him casually hanging out with 1UP staff back on their video site in 2008) and had high level connections at Microsoft. Degroot & McGrath feared Fish would use his connections to ruin their career right as they were to debut their successful indie title Dyad.

 

I feel like this story embodies the indie game development scene as a whole. You have guys like Degroot and McGrath who are non-confrontational, good people who just want to make a great game. Then you have these megalomaniacs who use their influence to cheat their way into awards, take ideas and more from other developers, and depend on media, investor, and judge connections to keep their corruption away from the public’s eye.

 

I already disliked the guy, and, if this is true, I now have further reason to hate him. I hope, assuming this actually happened, that they gain the courage to sue. He shouldn't be able to get away with this.

Edited February 5, 2015 by Wulfgar Von Heltzer

[Banul 3,831]

Wouldn't put it past him. Every time I hear his name, its about him being a dick.

[Megas 27,695]

Wow, I didn't think it'd be possible for me to have an even lower opinion of Fish if this turns out to be true. If it is true, then I never want to touch Fez again, or anything he's associated with

[Discordian 6,015]

I barely even know who this guy is but people talk about him a lot.

 

I heard he even admitted it in like 2007 but I couldn't say for sure. Grapevining!

[Rainbow Dash1 92]

Oh Phil Fish, you're quite the funny guy.

[Wulfgar Von Heltzer 42]

Wow, I didn't think it'd be possible for me to have an even lower opinion of Fish if this turns out to be true. If it is true, then I never want to touch Fez again, or anything he's associated with

 

Well he's certainly not making any more games, he rage-quit the industry back in august or september, cancelling Fez 2, and tried to sell the IP. and is now a DJ.

 

 

No wonder he cancelled Fez 2, he can't make the game himself and likely pissed off anyone who would be willing to help him.