The studio behind the award-winning game It Takes Two is back with its newest co-op experience, Split Fiction—and we're happy to announce that Hazelight Studios is returning to GDC to host two talks about this exciting release.
Early Bird Registration is open (for a limited time)!
Split Fiction is the story of two contrasting writers—one creates science fiction while the other writes fantasy—who get trapped in their own stories after an evil tech company tries to steal their ideas. As Mio and Zoe work together to escape their own creations, the game itself jumps between their dual worlds of sci-fi and fantasy.
GDC 2025 is hosting two talks from Hazelight Studios, which cover some of the unique audio and programming challenges faced while creating this unique dual-world experience. Joakim Enigk Sjöberg and Philip Eriksson will go into the art and science of creating a unique audio experience for two different stories happening side-by-side, which presented some unexpected surprises. Ylva Werner will walk attendees through their Capabilities gameplay code pattern, which helped them (and can help you) make an abundance of gameplay for players.
Here are the talks you can anticipate at GDC 2025:
A Matter of Perspective: Mixing Sound in 'Split Fiction'
Joakim Enigk Sjöberg (Senior Technical Sound Designer)
Philip Eriksson (Audio Director)
How do you use audio to make sense of two stories unfolding simultaneously? Join in on an intimate lecture where Philip Eriksson and Joakim Enigk Sjöberg outline how the Hazelight audio team worked their way towards their answer to this very question as they went on the creative journey to build their new co-op adventure in Split Fiction. In true Hazelight split-screen fashion, this title pushed the team in new directions to mixing sound, which forced changes to technical processes as well as challenging old philosophies in design.
Throughout this presentation, you will learn about the individual parts that make up the unique mix of Split Fiction, how the team worked to sustain player connection to everchanging gameplay and how tech and creative choices came together in an experience that both hits hard and leaves an impression. This talk is designed for folks working in game audio, but is accessible for anyone interested in creative philosophy and unique problem-solving.
Capabilities: Coding ALL the Gameplay for Split Fiction
Ylva Werner, (Senior Gameplay Programmer)
This talk reveals the secret sauce of Hazelight's hundreds of gameplay mechanics: Capabilities. A capability is a single unit of functionality that contains all its own state and decision making. In this presentation, dive into the code base of Split Fiction and look at how the team implemented gameplay features. Yiva will dive into about why capabilities were invented, trade offs, and about some Hazelight philosophy. The aim with this talk is to provide you with techniques to make heaps of varied gameplay, so that in the future we may enjoy more of YOUR gameplay ideas!
This talk is mainly for programmers and designers who wish to make an abundance of gameplay. It's also recommended that attendees be comfortable with reading code.
Hazelight Studios made headlines in 2021 with their popular co-op game, It Takes Two, which won Best Design at the Game Developers Choice Awards. Founder Josef Fares has over a decade of history developing unique dual-character experiences, including Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and A Way Out. Time will tell if Split Fiction joins the GDCA ranks in 2026, but in the meantime GDC attendees can take a look behind the scenes.
GDC returns this March 17-21, 2025, and our Early Rate is currently live (for a limited time)! For more information, be sure to visit our website and follow the #GDC2025 hashtag on social media.
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