page_title: Phil Fish
section_title: Polytron
hierarchical_section_title: Phil Fish / Polytron
caption_attribution_description: English: Polytron Corporation logo (makers of Fez), 300 dpi
context_page_description: Philippe Poisson, better known as Phil Fish, is a French-Canadian former indie game designer best known for his work on the 2012 platform game Fez. He was born and raised in Quebec, where his experiences with Nintendo games in his youth would later influence his game design. He studied game design at the Montreal National Animation and Design Centre, and worked at Ubisoft and Artificial Mind and Movement before starting Polytron in 2008.
  Fish was a founding member of Kokoromi, a collective that explores experimental gameplay ideas, and organized Montreal's annual GAMMA games events. While Fez was in development, Fish worked on other unreleased games at Polytron including SuperHyperCube and Power Pill. Fez was released in April 2012 to widespread acclaim after a protracted five-year development cycle. Its final phases of development were shown in the 2012 documentary Indie Game: The Movie, which brought Fish fame unusual for game developers.
  Following an online argument and doxxing, Fish publicly announced his exit from game development twice over the next two years, citing long-term mistreatment by the industry.
context_section_description: Fish began to work with Toronto-based indie developer Shawn McGrath on McGrath's idea for a puzzle game that showed 2D views of a 3D space. Fish provided the project's art until the partnership crumbled due to creative differences: Fish wanted their product to be more of a platform game. Fish continued to work on the game in his spare time, and incorporated the idea of voxels (3D pixels), where a 2D pixel could be seen from four sides. The game would become Fez and the game's design, lore, and art derived from this game mechanic. Fish searched for a programmer on DeviantArt and Renaud Bédard, the first person to apply, became the game's programmer. Fez was first announced in July 2007 and was nominated for two awards at the 2008 Game Developers Conference Independent Games Festival. Fish's employer, Artificial Mind and Movement, would not let him take leave from work to attend, so Fish quit. He marked this January 2008 moment as "when I became indie". The game received widespread attention upon its showing at the festival, leading Fish to open Polytron Corporation as a startup company with a government loan.
  Polytron later ran out of money and was on the verge of folding when the company's Québécois neighbor, developer-producer Trapdoor, offered to help Polytron without transferring its intellectual property rights. According to Fish, the partnership saved Fez. The game was delayed several times over the next few years for which it received some notoriety.
  In late 2009, Polytron presented an iPhone game called Power Pill at Pecha Kucha Montreal. The game features a panacean pill that travels through human bodies as its playable protagonist, and it uses the iPhone's multi-touch screen. GameSetWatch's Eric Caoili compared it to Soul Bubbles and Irritating Stick. The game was developed with Alec Holowka of Infinite Ammo, and a level editor was expected to be included. While working on Fez, Fish revived a game project called SuperHyperCube, which was based on Wiimote motion capture input and stereoscopic navigation. Fish felt the game would work better with the new Kinect motion tracking. The adapted game was a finalist at Indiecade 2011.
  Fish and Fez were featured prominently in the 2012 documentary Indie Game: The Movie, through which Fish received celebrity unusual for game developers. The film chronicles the stories of several indie developers at various stages of their games' development cycles, and Fish is shown preparing for Fez's booth at PAX East in March 2011. The film presents Fish amidst a legal dispute with a former business partner that jeopardizes the game's release. The ex-partner, Jason DeGroot (a musician who contributed to the game), is portrayed negatively and is not shown on-screen. The film also tracks Fish's personal and emotional investment in the game. Eurogamer wrote that the scene where Fish resolves to kill himself if he does not release his game is "the film's most startling moment". Rock, Paper, Shotgun wrote that Fish is portrayed as melodramatic, existential, theatrical, and neurotic in contrast with the other developers shown in the film, which would exacerbate his outspoken public perception. Game Informer called Fish the film's "most memorable developer".
  Near the end of development, Fish felt "burnt out" and that his personal health had suffered. Fez was released on April 13, 2012 and sold 200,000 copies in its yearlong exclusivity to the Xbox Live Arcade platform. Video game review aggregator Metacritic described its reception as "generally favorable" and that of the 2013 PC version as "universal acclaim". While in development, Fez had won the 2012 GDC Independent Games Festival's Seamus McNally Grand Prize, the 2011 Indiecade Best in Show and Best Story/World Design, and the 2008 GDC Independent Games Festival's Excellence in Visual Art. Eurogamer awarded Fez a perfect score and named the "perfect, wordless sci-fi parable" their 2012 Game of the Year. The game sold one million copies by the end of 2013 and Fish announced eventual ports for most video game platforms. The New York Times's 
caption: Fish left Artificial Mind and Movement to set up Polytron Corporation, his indie startup company
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