FEZ COVER ART
FEZ’s cover art, as designed by Bryan Lee O’Malley, creator of Scott Pilgrim.
FEZ’s cover art, as designed by Bryan Lee O’Malley, creator of Scott Pilgrim.
© Polytron Corporation 2008-2013
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April 2nd, 2012 at 14:49
Pillsbury dough boy? Is that you?
All Kidding aside it looks awesome! Can’t wait!
April 2nd, 2012 at 14:51
So awesome! Man, Pax this Friday for 3 days, then the Friday after that I play FEZ. April is turning out to be pretty special. Also, any word on a potential physical FEZ soundtrack by Disasterpiece aka Rich Vreeland? I would buy that in a heartbeat.
April 2nd, 2012 at 14:59
Awesome, cool artwork.
April 2nd, 2012 at 15:01
Um, Gomez looks weird. Otherwise, looks good.
April 2nd, 2012 at 15:10
At first I was like wut, but now I totally get it.
April 2nd, 2012 at 15:11
This makes me want to walk into a Toys ‘R’ Us, find this on a shelf, and clasp it to my chest as I beg my parents to give me an advance on next week’s allowance so I can buy it.
April 2nd, 2012 at 15:29
Totally awesome throwback.
April 2nd, 2012 at 15:29
Way cool – love the vibrant colors, main dude looks like stay puff marshmellow mans son.
April 2nd, 2012 at 16:11
First I was like “WTF? This doesn’t even look like FEZ. Why didn’t he just used the beautiful pixel art from the game?”. Then I read that it was designed by Bryan Lee O’Malley and now I love it. I’m such a hipster. Sigh.
(Oh god, I can’t believe FEZ is coming in a couple of days! I’m waiting for this game since 2007.)
April 2nd, 2012 at 16:28
This is the only thing in FEZ that isn’t pixelated… JUST LIKE IT WAS WHEN I WAS A KID! OMFG.
April 2nd, 2012 at 16:33
I would love to play FEZ as much as I have worn my FEZ shirt….that mean a lot.
April 2nd, 2012 at 18:09
the optical illusion typography is just perfect! congrats on shipping =)
April 2nd, 2012 at 20:54
Fantastic cover! I hope it stands out to everyone at the marketplace; I can’t wait to purchase the game!
I had heard of Fez but it wasn’t really on my radar until recently when I saw Indie Game: The Movie.
Phil, you have my utmost respect for making it through this. As an artist myself, I know that the dedication it takes to bring a project through to the end is something a lot of people underestimate.
Thank you so much
April 2nd, 2012 at 21:53
YEAHHHH!!! I’m so excited for this game. The cover art is the only that like to me of the arcade games, it’s fantastic!!
April 2nd, 2012 at 22:17
For those people that don’t know about the game FEZ, I’m afraid this cover art is not going to get their attention. I know you can’t judge a book by it’s cover but this cover is not going to bring anyone in that doesn’t already know about FEZ. I know with the creativity that this game shows they could have chose a better cover.. This one doesn’t do the game justice. If I say “cover” one more time I get a free hat.
justian read of jesture)+(
April 3rd, 2012 at 02:03
It’s a well done piece of art, but it’s not Fez.
I’m not sure why Gomez is so fat. The whole game is so geometric and that’s where it gets its charm, yet the cover art is blobby and cartoony. The logo obviously doesn’t fit in.
I’m still buying the game of course, and the cover art really doesn’t matter that much, but still. Nothing about the game is captured in this.
April 3rd, 2012 at 03:19
Everything about the game is captured in this. You have the magical floating cube things to collect, you have two platforms rotated at 90 degree angles from each other, you have the protagonist and his magical fez, and you have an owl.
April 3rd, 2012 at 06:02
looks like made of sugar and candies =)
corners should be sharpened…
April 3rd, 2012 at 06:23
Well said Michael. It’s a fine piece of art, but it’s not FEZ. It seemed like this artist was used as a name dropper and the concept is lost with this cover, like he was trying too hard. Whoever came up with the simple genius of the polytron logo is the kind of brilliance they needed for this FEZ cover. I wish they would just pay Bryan Lee O’Malley “creator of Scott Pilgrim” for his time and rethink this, but I’m afraid it’s too late. (I’m far to attached already. After all it is just a cover, right?)
April 3rd, 2012 at 08:11
This is wasted only to be released on the xbox… PSN!? PC!? Mac!? FFS!? This is a business after all…
April 3rd, 2012 at 08:21
This is like some strange misplaced “variant comic cover” where a guest artist comes in & interprets their vision of the source material. I essentially like everything about the cover apart from Gomez himself, who looks like a plump Miyazaki Kodama or mini Mr Stay Puft Marshmallow Man…
Can Phil also explain why the decision was made to only go single platform for this game? Considering how long this game took to make surely multi-platform is the way to go (especially to make it all worthwhile).
April 3rd, 2012 at 09:23
if I had one digg against the artwork I would say it doesn’t “look” like the game it represents even though the colors and the elements are familiar to someone who has seem the game before. Eitherway – ONWARD AND UPWARD!
April 3rd, 2012 at 09:24
@Koge_Pan If you’ve watched interviews, etc. you’d realize that he’s been through a lot of shit. One of his partners who worked on the game sued him, and he’s lost funding for the game several times (which is basically when you can’t work on the game for like 6 months). Also keep in mind that there aren’t a lot of team members on the game who probably even know how to program for other platforms. So to answer your question, I think at this point he just wants to get the game out there ASAP for the real fans who’ve been waiting over 5 years. Going Multiplatform might be an option in the long run, similar to Limbo’s approach from xbla –> Steam.
April 3rd, 2012 at 11:35
im sorry some of you seem not to like the cover art.
my intention for it was always to avoid pixel art and slick minimalist designs in favor of a more traditional artist’s rendition. the intention was always to create a huge disconect between what the game looks loke in-game, and the cover art. this was meant as a callback to when videogame covers had to take wild artistic liberties with the original in-game material, since it was so lo-fi. we wanted something painterly, with vibrant colors, and dramatic perspective. something kind of like an oldschool gameboy mario cover. the goal was always to have it look a little off, to have that personal interpretation of what FEZ is about. i wanted something totally differreent than the kind of cold, minimal designs im known for. i wanted cover art cover art.
April 3rd, 2012 at 13:26
@Fish Then I think the art hit your mark. I like it but I don’t think it looks polytronic which was my bias. It certainly looks yummy and makes me want to play it.
April 3rd, 2012 at 13:52
I do like the cover art, and for what your intent was with it, it works wonderfully. It looks fun and retro, I just worry that anyone browsing the marketplace will see it and then say ‘oh.’ to themselves when they look at screenshots because it’s nothing like the game. Even though elements are pulled from it and made cartoony, it’s not the same Fez. But it does work well as cover art and the game will be successful either way.
So good job, Phil. And Bryan, of course.
Also, we miss you on twitter. I tried defending you on a video of the game on gametrailers the other week and I got downranked into oblivion. I hate gamers too.
April 3rd, 2012 at 15:25
You had the right idea, Fish.
I haven’t a clue if it’s too late for critiques for improvements, but here goes. The cubes that Fez is jumping to and from don’t look enough like cubes – especially the one on the left. It’s proportions are just awkward. Fez himself, too, looks a little dough-y like everyone else is saying. Contributing to that factor is that his head is bent which contributes more to all the front-most elements looking disproportionate and warped or melted.
In contrast, the left side lighthouse is perfectly smooth and beautifully shaded, the water is skillfully painterly, and curly, and delicious. the tree on the right side is nice and bubbly, and the moss is shaded wonderfully and beautifully. The breadth of fog-obscured islands in the background are pretty satisfyingly faithful while being stylized. All of those elements of the cover look SPECTACULAR if not perfect.
It’s that contrast that makes it awkward. If the boundaries of the image weren’t done so skillfully, then my expectations of the character wouldn’t be so high. (i’m also predisposed because i sort of love fez a lot)
Good luck on launch day!!
April 3rd, 2012 at 18:47
I understood the concept behind the artwork from the second I saw it. I’m just saying this artwork could have been much better and it leaves me personally disappointed and I’m sure it won’t grab anyone’s attention that didn’t already know about the game. So as a loyal fan I have brought this game too many people’s attention. Here is for hoping* As for the concept, Just for good measure, everything on the cover works fine, except the main focal point (ironically), FEZ and the three blocks, well everything below the title FEZ not including the water.
April 3rd, 2012 at 18:52
It is excellent art. A beautified fantasy simile of the game, with just enough exaggeration. It tastes like benevolent hype.
Very good capture of the details and various flavors of the levels. Great snapshot of the play mood too. Well done.
April 5th, 2012 at 07:19
I love just about everything about it except Gomez’s body, I don’t know if I wanna say it’s too realistic or what but is just a little off to me. Phil I totally get the homage to the retro covers, I loved the one they did for Mega-Man 9. All in all good shit man, I’m so excited!
April 6th, 2012 at 15:46
okay, now someone has to figure out how to hack XBLA and bring it to PC. after that, I’ll mail some money to canada.
April 8th, 2012 at 03:33
The art looks very good.
April 9th, 2012 at 17:40
This totally reminds me of the art for The Great Gianna Sisters. No disrespect intended.
April 11th, 2012 at 04:23
Haters gonna hate, I think this is an amazing nes-style cover right here. Pulled off the look you were going for *perfectly*.
April 12th, 2012 at 02:38
^Someone’s a “Kiss-Ass”^
April 15th, 2012 at 19:00
Hopefully they can hurry up and get this art into the dashboard. Quite strange seeing just an icon in that big Quickplay space.
April 17th, 2012 at 04:44
FEZ, what a wonderful game! Anyway I agree with Brackynews, this is one of the best XBLA covers ever but I can’t see it on my dashboard..
April 17th, 2012 at 12:17
Great box art! But when will they fix the issue of it not appearing on my dashboard?
April 17th, 2012 at 13:27
This is beaut. If I’m not mistaken maybe this is a little inspired by the super mario land 2 cover art? Look, the owl!
April 18th, 2012 at 03:07
Hey, this is exactly what is not showing up under “my games” or whatever its called. All my other games have huge covers, but FEZ has a tiny tiny picture there and it looks funny. I dont mind, but I thought you might want to know that this picture is not showing up on the dash board.
Im guessing taht this is the picture that is supposed to show up there.
April 18th, 2012 at 03:25
OHH and I think the cover fits perfectly. This game is supposed to be old school and old school games always had CRAZY weird artwork that didnt look like the game itsself.
However, I dont see how anyone can honestly care about the cover art of a digital game. Most of them are just the name and a logo with some colors, so this is great in comparison.
This shows quite a bit of the game and also alot of old games always had the characters coming toward you and various random stuff from the game around them. Like he said look at the old mario games on gameboy, or another great example is many of the MEGAMAN games.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/mega-man-/cover-art/gameCoverId,39984/
T
April 20th, 2012 at 17:24
Can you please fix the cover art bug asap? It’s really starting to bother me.
April 22nd, 2012 at 18:03
It’s seems to be fixed now. It looks right here, at least, and it looks very good to boot!
September 4th, 2012 at 05:19
[...] How did I forget to mention this?! The covert art of Fez was designed by Bryan Lee O’Malley! (the guy behind Scott Pilgrim). Share [...]
November 15th, 2012 at 23:42
I personally love the cover because that’s how games used to be 30 years ago. The game itself would be pixilated but there would be an artists interpretation on the box. I think it was a great choice and totally in the vein of the vintage style of the game.
March 2nd, 2013 at 07:23
Perhaps this gave someone the idea of mixing saltpetre and charcoal together and setting it alight.
After the founding of new China, a state banquet in Beijing Hotel, the Summer Palace Museum and other places listen to Li, the present is more in the Great Hall of the Foreign Affairs banquet hall or
the banquet held in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. Day 6: Cabbage soup + vegetables (no
potatoes) + beef. We can now all enjoy a hot cup of this
great beverage in many flavors. Touch nail”All bridge place, I open and take sweet.