Creators of the Game of the Year 2021, ‘It Takes Two’, Hazelight is a multiple award-winning independent game development studio based in Stockholm, Sweden. Founded in 2014 by Josef Fares, film director and creator of the critically acclaimed game ‘Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons’, Hazelight is committed to pushing the creative boundaries of what is possible in games. In 2018, Hazelight released ‘A Way Out’, the first-ever co-op-only third-person action-adventure, as part of the EA Originals program.
Split Fiction is the latest Unreal Engine-developed title from the award-winning Hazelight, a studio that has built its reputation on producing some of the most imaginative co-op adventure games.
This latest release, made with Unreal Engine 5, delivers yet another mind-bendingly creative concept: two authors, Zoe and Mio, find themselves ensnared in a virtual world inspired by their own work. The hook? Mio is writing a sci-fi story while Zoe is all about fantasy—opening up an almost limitless array of creative gameplay possibilities.
To learn more about the project, we caught up with Game Director Josef Fares and Lead Programmer Jonas Mauritzsson to explore everything from their approach to developing Split Fiction’s multitudinous array of gameplay experiences to how Fares’ background in film influenced the game’s narrative.
This latest release, made with Unreal Engine 5, delivers yet another mind-bendingly creative concept: two authors, Zoe and Mio, find themselves ensnared in a virtual world inspired by their own work. The hook? Mio is writing a sci-fi story while Zoe is all about fantasy—opening up an almost limitless array of creative gameplay possibilities.
To learn more about the project, we caught up with Game Director Josef Fares and Lead Programmer Jonas Mauritzsson to explore everything from their approach to developing Split Fiction’s multitudinous array of gameplay experiences to how Fares’ background in film influenced the game’s narrative.
Thanks for your time! As one might suspect from Hazelight, Split Fiction has a super-interesting story. How did you come up with such a compelling narrative?
Josef Fares, Game Director: Likewise! Well, our games always have a main theme attached to it. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons was about sorrow. A Way Out was about trust. It Takes Two was about collaboration. When I started to think about Split Fiction, there were many words flying around, but the word “friendship” always came back and it just got stuck with me. It made me start thinking about how people actually start to build friendships with each other and what would that look like if they are two complete strangers? I got very intrigued about that and that´s how the first idea of what the narrative of Split Fiction kinda came to be!
Was the idea of blending sci-fi and fantasy universes always a part of the core concept?
Fares: Yes, it was the first core concept in mind. It just felt fresh and unique to have these two worlds playing off each other in the same game, both from a gameplay and narrative perspective.
The lead characters, Mio and Zoe, are brimming with personality. Can you explain how you’ve managed to develop them and bring them both to life?
Fares: I truly believe that you write what you know. Quite early in the creative process, we wanted Mio and Zoe to have very different personalities, but we wanted them to shine through in their own way. The way we wrote them was always to not focus too much on the story we wanted to tell, but more from the angle of why we tell them.
Look, we all carry stuff in our backpack, sometimes it’s heavy and quite dark. But isn’t it awesome to have, or find, someone to share the weight with? Someone to laugh and to cry with? Someone who’s got your back, no matter what? That’s what we wanted to achieve, and I think we did.
Josef Fares, Game Director: Likewise! Well, our games always have a main theme attached to it. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons was about sorrow. A Way Out was about trust. It Takes Two was about collaboration. When I started to think about Split Fiction, there were many words flying around, but the word “friendship” always came back and it just got stuck with me. It made me start thinking about how people actually start to build friendships with each other and what would that look like if they are two complete strangers? I got very intrigued about that and that´s how the first idea of what the narrative of Split Fiction kinda came to be!
Was the idea of blending sci-fi and fantasy universes always a part of the core concept?
Fares: Yes, it was the first core concept in mind. It just felt fresh and unique to have these two worlds playing off each other in the same game, both from a gameplay and narrative perspective.
The lead characters, Mio and Zoe, are brimming with personality. Can you explain how you’ve managed to develop them and bring them both to life?
Fares: I truly believe that you write what you know. Quite early in the creative process, we wanted Mio and Zoe to have very different personalities, but we wanted them to shine through in their own way. The way we wrote them was always to not focus too much on the story we wanted to tell, but more from the angle of why we tell them.
Look, we all carry stuff in our backpack, sometimes it’s heavy and quite dark. But isn’t it awesome to have, or find, someone to share the weight with? Someone to laugh and to cry with? Someone who’s got your back, no matter what? That’s what we wanted to achieve, and I think we did.
Image courtesy of Hazelight Studios
The game’s premise seems to provide limitless possibilities in terms of gameplay. Was it hard to decide what to keep and what to cut in terms of the scenarios that players will encounter?
Fares: At Hazelight, we've become so good at knowing what scenarios and gameplay design to cut and what to keep. The challenge for us isn´t really to come up with ideas and prototyping them, it's more about if we can make sure to polish these mechanics to a high level where it feels nice and fresh for players to experience. Because we have so much variety in our games, it's more challenging to estimate the amount of polish that needs to be done compared to anything else actually. But again, we´re becoming better at making those decisions together as a team.
Hazelight has become known for its groundbreaking gameplay and approach to co-op experiences, but the visual style and atmosphere vary from project to project. Did you have Split Fiction’s visual approach in mind from the onset or did it evolve into what it is over time?
Fares: It was fairly decided from the get-go on what type of visuals we would have for the game. We knew it was two female leads stuck in this simulation and that they would jump between sci-fi and fantasy worlds. But as usual with game development a lot of things change, and the visual style of this game did, too. We always want to try different things and challenge ourselves in the studio. I mean, this is definitely a step up visually compared to our previous games!
Fares: At Hazelight, we've become so good at knowing what scenarios and gameplay design to cut and what to keep. The challenge for us isn´t really to come up with ideas and prototyping them, it's more about if we can make sure to polish these mechanics to a high level where it feels nice and fresh for players to experience. Because we have so much variety in our games, it's more challenging to estimate the amount of polish that needs to be done compared to anything else actually. But again, we´re becoming better at making those decisions together as a team.
Hazelight has become known for its groundbreaking gameplay and approach to co-op experiences, but the visual style and atmosphere vary from project to project. Did you have Split Fiction’s visual approach in mind from the onset or did it evolve into what it is over time?
Fares: It was fairly decided from the get-go on what type of visuals we would have for the game. We knew it was two female leads stuck in this simulation and that they would jump between sci-fi and fantasy worlds. But as usual with game development a lot of things change, and the visual style of this game did, too. We always want to try different things and challenge ourselves in the studio. I mean, this is definitely a step up visually compared to our previous games!
Image courtesy of Hazelight Studios
How does your background as a film director inform the way you craft narrative for games?
Fares: I think it's important to understand that they are different mediums and they are meant to be experienced in different ways. Movies for example are passive mediums while games are interactive, meaning the pace will be different. In movies, you have full control of the pace, but you don't have that in games. In games, the players can pause, take a break, start doing something else, and what do I know! I feel that we´re still learning as an industry on how to write for a game.
There are definitely some studios out there that tell a great story and can create these extraordinary worlds to get lost in. I mean look at Naughty Dog for example, I feel that they are way ahead in that space at least.
Did you draw any inspiration from other games, books, or films when developing Split Fiction?
Fares: Not really, there wasn't anything specific to be honest. I think this is more important for the team to actually play and be inspired around themselves. We do of course pay homage to a lot of games in our own games, but that's because we just simply love video games here. Everyone in the studio can come up with ideas, it's such an open and creative space. I think everyone has lost their minds, in a good way!
Why was Unreal Engine 5 a good fit for this project?
Jonas Mauritzsson, Lead Programmer: Having an extendable and shippable engine is important for us. Game development at Hazelight moves very fast, and we make a lot of changes, so having a stable foundation is very helpful.
Our artists benefit from having an engine that already supports their workflows out of the box. And it being widely used in the industry is a plus for us when onboarding new team members in any discipline or when working with outsourcing partners.
Fares: I think it's important to understand that they are different mediums and they are meant to be experienced in different ways. Movies for example are passive mediums while games are interactive, meaning the pace will be different. In movies, you have full control of the pace, but you don't have that in games. In games, the players can pause, take a break, start doing something else, and what do I know! I feel that we´re still learning as an industry on how to write for a game.
There are definitely some studios out there that tell a great story and can create these extraordinary worlds to get lost in. I mean look at Naughty Dog for example, I feel that they are way ahead in that space at least.
Did you draw any inspiration from other games, books, or films when developing Split Fiction?
Fares: Not really, there wasn't anything specific to be honest. I think this is more important for the team to actually play and be inspired around themselves. We do of course pay homage to a lot of games in our own games, but that's because we just simply love video games here. Everyone in the studio can come up with ideas, it's such an open and creative space. I think everyone has lost their minds, in a good way!
Why was Unreal Engine 5 a good fit for this project?
Jonas Mauritzsson, Lead Programmer: Having an extendable and shippable engine is important for us. Game development at Hazelight moves very fast, and we make a lot of changes, so having a stable foundation is very helpful.
Our artists benefit from having an engine that already supports their workflows out of the box. And it being widely used in the industry is a plus for us when onboarding new team members in any discipline or when working with outsourcing partners.
Image courtesy of Hazelight Studios
Are there particular technical challenges you face when crafting split-screen co-op experiences? If so, how do you approach them?
Mauritzsson: Networking is always an extra challenge for us. A lot of the usual shortcuts don't really work when you can see the other players screen as well. We made sure to create a good foundation for networking our different gameplay systems from the start. The main goal is to have the remote player replicate smoothly with as few eyesores as possible.
Then of course the graphics side is always a challenge, since we need to render both players' views at the same time, which imposes more limitations. This demands good communication between tech and art to find creative solutions.
Were there any technical challenges when setting out to achieve the varied visuals required by exposing players to both sci-fi and fantasy worlds?
Mauritzsson: We were well prepared to work on a game with varying visuals coming from It Takes Two. From a technical standpoint, the focus was on facilitating the creation of a lot of content.
Mauritzsson: Networking is always an extra challenge for us. A lot of the usual shortcuts don't really work when you can see the other players screen as well. We made sure to create a good foundation for networking our different gameplay systems from the start. The main goal is to have the remote player replicate smoothly with as few eyesores as possible.
Then of course the graphics side is always a challenge, since we need to render both players' views at the same time, which imposes more limitations. This demands good communication between tech and art to find creative solutions.
Were there any technical challenges when setting out to achieve the varied visuals required by exposing players to both sci-fi and fantasy worlds?
Mauritzsson: We were well prepared to work on a game with varying visuals coming from It Takes Two. From a technical standpoint, the focus was on facilitating the creation of a lot of content.
Image courtesy of Hazelight Studios
From platforming to puzzles and more, Split Fiction features a variety of gameplay experiences. Were there any particular UE tools that helped you achieve this?
Mauritzsson: We have a lot of custom tech on the gameplay side to fit our way of working. But in general we benefited from the extendability of Unreal Engine, for example having our features integrated well into the property panel.
The Split Fiction narrative is wildly creative and necessitates a huge variety of gameplay types. What was the most complicated gameplay mechanic the team worked on?
Mauritzsson: We want to avoid going into any spoilers, but let's just say that there are some crazy things happening towards the end of the game. You’ll know it when you see it.
Did you dive into the engine’s source code to build any custom tools or gameplay Systems?
Mauritzsson: We have made a lot of engine changes and created a lot of custom tools. All the way from integrating a scripting language, Unreal Engine Angelscript, to simply tweaking the editor styling to better fit our taste.
As another example, we have also heavily customized Sequencer to support split screen and seamless transitions from gameplay to cutscenes and back.
Most of our systems are custom made and if you want to go into more detail about how our gameplay was made; Ylva Werner, one of our senior gameplay engineers, will be holding a presentation on something we call capabilities at GDC this year. I would recommend checking it out.
Mauritzsson: We have a lot of custom tech on the gameplay side to fit our way of working. But in general we benefited from the extendability of Unreal Engine, for example having our features integrated well into the property panel.
The Split Fiction narrative is wildly creative and necessitates a huge variety of gameplay types. What was the most complicated gameplay mechanic the team worked on?
Mauritzsson: We want to avoid going into any spoilers, but let's just say that there are some crazy things happening towards the end of the game. You’ll know it when you see it.
Did you dive into the engine’s source code to build any custom tools or gameplay Systems?
Mauritzsson: We have made a lot of engine changes and created a lot of custom tools. All the way from integrating a scripting language, Unreal Engine Angelscript, to simply tweaking the editor styling to better fit our taste.
As another example, we have also heavily customized Sequencer to support split screen and seamless transitions from gameplay to cutscenes and back.
Most of our systems are custom made and if you want to go into more detail about how our gameplay was made; Ylva Werner, one of our senior gameplay engineers, will be holding a presentation on something we call capabilities at GDC this year. I would recommend checking it out.
Image courtesy of Hazelight Studios
From a technical POV, what are the biggest lessons the team learned between delivering It Takes Two and releasing Split Fiction?
Mauritzsson: With It Takes Two, we feel like we really found the way we want to work and all we really had to do was to continue expanding on our tools and structure to enable us to do even more and iterate even faster.
From It Takes Two we also learned that creating unique systems for every gameplay feature is a lot less bug-prone than creating generic systems that try to do a little too much.
Another thing was the importance of good debugging tools. We invested a lot of time early in the project for this and that ended up really paying off in the end.
Thank you for your time! Where can people go to learn more about the game?
Mauritzsson: If you want to learn more about Split Fiction, follow Hazelight Studio on X, Instagram, and Discord!
Mauritzsson: With It Takes Two, we feel like we really found the way we want to work and all we really had to do was to continue expanding on our tools and structure to enable us to do even more and iterate even faster.
From It Takes Two we also learned that creating unique systems for every gameplay feature is a lot less bug-prone than creating generic systems that try to do a little too much.
Another thing was the importance of good debugging tools. We invested a lot of time early in the project for this and that ended up really paying off in the end.
Thank you for your time! Where can people go to learn more about the game?
Mauritzsson: If you want to learn more about Split Fiction, follow Hazelight Studio on X, Instagram, and Discord!
How to install Unreal Engine
Download the launcher
Before you can install and run Unreal Editor, you’ll need to download and install the Epic Games launcher.
Install Epic Games launcher
Once downloaded and installed, open the launcher and create or log in to your Epic Games account.
Get support, or restart your Epic Games launcher download in Step 1.
Install Unreal Engine
Once logged in, navigate to the Unreal Engine tab and click the Install button to download the most recent version.
Watch how to install