Exploring the Unbelievable: Josef Fares on How Split Fiction Revolutionizes Co-Op Adventure Games

Working on Split Fiction is no small task. The game seems to introduce fresh mechanics every quarter of an hour and quickly leaves the old ones behind. It faces the challenge of ensuring these novel concepts don’t feel incomplete or underdeveloped.

“In Split Fiction,” there’s a segment where you ride dragons — crafting even just one of those magnificent creatures took nearly eight months. Back in the early days of my career, some team members would wonder why we were investing so much effort for just a short ten-minute gameplay sequence.

But here’s my perspective. In filmmaking, if a scene cost a fortune to produce, you’re not going to recycle it just because of its hefty price tag. Some moments are unique and lose their magic if overused. There’s a common thought in gaming that expensive elements need repetition to justify their cost. But really, why repeat them when it can dilute the impact they had the first time around?

With Split Fiction, we take this philosophy to heart, going so far as to incorporate sizeable chunks of content that are completely optional. Think of It Takes Two, where mini-games were sprinkled throughout the journey. In Split Fiction, these segments, accessible via portals you discover along the way, delve even deeper.

Here, you’ll encounter entire worlds filled with unique mechanics, fearsome bosses, and new visual environments. It’s almost as if there’s a whole other game waiting inside the main adventure.