Hazelight Studios’ Split Fiction unfortunately didn’t walk away with any trophies at the recent BAFTA Games Awards.
That shouldn’t, however, detract from the fact that the game has had an incredible run. It was up for four awards: Game Design, Multiplayer, New IP, and Technical Achievment.
It also ended up being one of last year’s highest-rated releases, sitting at a very respectable 91 on MetaCritic.
Many of us wondered if Hazelight’s prior GOTY winner It Takes Two could be bested; I’d argue it most definitely was in Split Fiction even if it didn’t quite secure the same accolades.
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You may then wonder if Hazelight will be able to raise the bar again. You need not worry or doubt that though.
GAMINGbible had the opportunity to catch up with Hazelight’s Josef Fares at the BAFTA Games Awards with the dev teasing Hazelight’s next project as “the craziest game ever”.
Josef Fares Has “Goosebumps” Thinking About Hazelight’s Next Game
“Here's the thing. What we do now is going to be the craziest game ever,” Josef began. “That's how confident I am.”
“People ask me a lot, like, ‘How can you be so confident?’ And I sometimes say, ‘Come to Hazelight. Feel the vibe, feel the energy and look at what we're doing.’ It's impossible not to be confident. I mean, and also confidence is kind of my natural state.”
He continued, “I don't know why it is, but it's such a cool, crazy, f**ked up in a good way [studio] with such passionate, great people. It's literally living my dream when I am at Hazelight and I'm surrounded by love. That's the best way to describe it.”
Fares added that he gets “goosebumps [...] just thinking of what we're putting together” in terms of the studio’s next game. “That's how excited I am,” he said.
Joining Josef on the BAFTA red carpet was Kaja Chan, the actor behind Mio in Split Fiction.
If it was ever in doubt, Kaja praised the freedom that comes with working on a Hazelight project amid that infectious positivity.
“I think freedom is the perfect way to describe it, because what Josef is offering at Hazelight is this creative platform where the sky is the limit,” Kaja told us.
“And when you say that it is a dream, it does kind of feel like you're grappling onto some nebulous, nefarious, chaotic smorgasbord of whatever is in Josef's wildest imaginations.”
She continued, “But love is at the heart of it, and I think that's why so many players really resonate with all of the stories and games that come out of his life.”
Split Fiction landed four years after It Takes Two so we could be waiting a while for what Josef is teasing, but it’s nice to know Hazelight is cooking up yet another masterpiece.