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Indie Game Scene Drama Bomb: Dyad Dev Tweets Anger about Fish / Indie Game: The Movie

Not a Jellyfish

but I am a sheep
DYAD ‏@DyadGame
Note:I tried to meet with the creators when they were in Toronto to settle this privately but they weren't able to. I chose not to via email

So wait...instead of discussing this situation privately through email he instead goes on twitter ranting and raving? Real mature.
 

bishoptl

Banstick Emeritus
For what it's worth, the line was always supposed to read "Phil Fish's ex-business partner was not asked to participate in this film", it was brought to their attention last night, and they've been preparing a new, corrected version to replace the one currently on Steam/streaming/etc.
complete clown shoes
 

ShawnMcGrath

Dyad Developer
So wait...instead of discussing this situation privately through email he instead goes on twitter ranting and raving? Real mature.

I didn't know that "mistake" was going to be in the movie until I saw it. If I had known before it was released I would have discussed it in private. I tried to talk to them about other aspects of the portrayal privately. And like I said before, I wouldn't have said anything publicly if it weren't for that line.
 

etiolate

Banned
Of course Fish was giving his own biased view on things. That's not a surprise. It's not like the film paints Fish as some pillar of sanity and truth. Fish looks like he's a borderline psychopath at times in the film. To stop and say that his presentation of his situation may not be the whole story would be a jarring overkill.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
So do we have ANY details on what actually occurred between Fish and his ex-partner? I'm genuinely curious to know.

It seems like a pretty rotten situation all around, though. :\

I must say that the film paints a picture of Phil Fish that is quite different from that of every other source of media. I don't know the guy, obviously, so I couldn't judge one way or another but it definitely stood out.

Makes me wonder about the other portrayals in the film. Jon Blow is portrayed a chilled out dude that isn't really all that full of himself (despite what I've read) while Team Meat seem like a very humble duo in the film.
 

wolfmat

Confirmed Asshole
So do we have ANY details on what actually occurred between Fish and his ex-partner? I'm genuinely curious to know.

It seems like a pretty rotten situation all around, though. :\

I must say that the film paints a picture of Phil Fish that is quite different from that of every other source of media. I don't know the guy, obviously, so I couldn't judge one way or another but it definitely stood out.

Makes me wonder about the other portrayals in the film. Jon Blow is portrayed a chilled out dude that isn't really all that full of himself (despite what I've read) while Team Meat seem like a very humble duo in the film.

Well, it's sort of reading vs viewing, you know. That's just inherent.

Besides, they're obviously filtering. Not just in terms of weird behavior, but also to reduce the footage to the message with cuts and shit.

I'd say it's pretty hard in general to gauge a person with either written or filmed material about them. You really gotta get up in that grill yourself if you want to know what a dude is about.

Think Hitler. Think Gandhi. You've got all these pieces of literature of them, you've got them on film totalling hours and hours. But you can't really tell what kind of people they are.

It's like, you gotta have a discussion with someone yourself, see them struggling with a concept, not making a proper argument here and there, brushing stuff aside, all that, to get to see their imperfections. And you really have to sort of smell them in the quiet moments and shit. Human beings are too subtle for proper description most of the time.
 
There's a HUGE difference between Phil Fish's ex-business partner asked not to participate in this film and Phil Fish's ex-business partner was not asked to participate in this movie.

I was wondering why there was a 3gb update to the Steam version. Someone must have got an angry lawsuit threat email or heard from a lawyer for them to change that.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
So do we have ANY details on what actually occurred between Fish and his ex-partner? I'm genuinely curious to know.

It seems like a pretty rotten situation all around, though. :\

I can't bring myself to watch the movie, something about it sends shivers of discontent all the way up my spine even if I quite like Jon Blow and Team Meat, but the situation interests me as well.

Tidbits away from the movie itself paint the tale of like two (or more? I'm hazy) publishing partners that came and went on the title due to the time it took, this partner leaving, and now ultimately the programmer leaving because the whole experience with 'Polytron' wiped him out and wants to work in a team again rather than the sweating blood and tears for Fish's supposed crazed demand for perfection.

I'd personally throw the suggestion out that Fish went a bit mental striving for a perfection thats never expected or logical to aim for in such a low rent title and hubris caused him to push anyone and everyone else away whenever they expected a little give and take/compromise on his 'vision'. I think the alternative reasoning probably thrown out from the Fish camp is that the music person was lazy and didn't make the music on time which sounds absolute nonsense.

Also its no surprise the makers changed this quicksmart. This kind of gross omission would poison the well of their documentary making business and make a lot of people wary of being involved with them. Could have gone on to blow up in a far bigger fashion.
 
I feel like the movie plays/played a big part in making drama queens out of and/overblowing the egos of indie game developers.

I stay far away from most indie games because of the bloated sense of importance they place on their creations. i'll never watch this flick but its kind of par for the course, Gameinformer pretty much made Fish the face of the film.

Every time I see this picture, it reminds me of that scene from The Shining.

Jack_Nicholson_Shining_bar.png
 

Fraeon

Member
I stay far away from most indie games because of the bloated sense of importance they place on their creations. i'll never watch this flick but its kind of par for the course, Gameinformer pretty much made Fish the face of the film.

It's easy to get the whole "placing a bloated sense of importance" thing when you have one or two guys working on a single thing for years at a time. But still, a lot of indie games -- I'd say most of them, aren't really concerned on a "message" but are just some guys making what they want to make. The biggest reason any of this is spilling out is because these guys don't have expensive PR departments telling them what not to say.

I'd say play the games if they're fun, don't dip into the drama if you don't care.
 
So do we have ANY details on what actually occurred between Fish and his ex-partner? I'm genuinely curious to know.

It seems like a pretty rotten situation all around, though. :\

I must say that the film paints a picture of Phil Fish that is quite different from that of every other source of media. I don't know the guy, obviously, so I couldn't judge one way or another but it definitely stood out.

Makes me wonder about the other portrayals in the film. Jon Blow is portrayed a chilled out dude that isn't really all that full of himself (despite what I've read) while Team Meat seem like a very humble duo in the film.

well "the ex-business partner" built the core mechanic of fez to start things off
 

Jedeye Sniv

Banned
I stay far away from most indie games because of the bloated sense of importance they place on their creations. i'll never watch this flick but its kind of par for the course, Gameinformer pretty much made Fish the face of the film.



Jack_Nicholson_Shining_bar.png

I'll never watch this film I'm commenting on! You have the distinction of writing the most willfully dumb thing I've read all month, congrats. For what it's worth, I think that Team Meat were the central characters of the film.

I find myself feeling sorry for Phil Fish in all this internet drama. The guy is obviously something of an iconoclast - he thinks big and seems very driven. Fez is an absolutely insane game - the scope is mind boggling as a player, let alone the person that comes up with all of it. It's like a mental illness distilled into a platformer, and it's incredible.

I don't see why people want an artist like this to be likable. Not all artists are, some are total dicks, but their art speaks for itself. He seems like a passionate, emotional and single minded man though, and these are admirable qualities. And at the end, the game speaks for itself.

Also, I will say that as a viewer, I didn't really think badly of this ex-partner. I just assumed there was a lot of unsaid stuff in the background. But none of this invalidates the emotions that Fish was feeling, and the human connection you have to him as a viewer.
 
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