
Phil Fish, the indie games designer who broke onto the scene with his unpublished platformer Fez, today sparked anger by publicly deriding the work of Japanese games developers in front of a packed audience at GDC.
Following a GDC screening of Indie Game The Movie – a documentary about games design that Fish heavily features in – the Canadian Polytron developer took part in a Q&A discussion with the audience.
A standing ovation for the movie itself set the tone for an open and positive discussion about indie games with the audience, yet when an unknown Japanese developer took to the mic to ask a question, the mood visibly turned.
The Japanese developer praised the movie and said he was pleased to see how many independent developers had been inspired by games such as Super Mario Bros and Zelda since their childhood.
But when he asked what the panel thought of modern Japanese video games, Phil Fish (pictured) immediately replied “your games just suck” – a comment that sparked an audible reaction from the crowd, though some were cheering.
Others looked on awkwardly as the Japanese developer was then subjected to a string criticisms about game design flaws in his native country. The developer nevertheless thanked the panel for their response and returned to his seat.
After the Q&A many attendees were heard to be privately criticising Fish’s comments, though some went public with their complaints.
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Bitch needs to sit his ass down.