Fizbin loves telling stories. The studio’s name itself is inspired by one, about a card trick called the ‘Fizbin drop’ – so difficult, legend has it, that magicians might break their hands performing it. Since it set up in 2011, the German studio has spun plenty of its own yarns, with five commercial releases, including three this year (Minute Of Islands, Say No! More and Lost At Sea), that offer a diverse mix of character studies and satire. It’s a range that reflects the company’s commitments beyond game development – and the backgrounds of its three founders.
The first story they told together, though, was quite traditional: The Inner World, a point-andclick adventure born when the trio met as students at an inter-university workshop. Game director Sebastian Hollstein and Mareike Ottrand (a fellow co-founder who remains a company shareholder, but now works as a professor of Illustration and Games in Hamburg) were both studying at Ludwigsburg Film Academy. The workshop introduced them to coder Alexander Pieper from the University Of Applied Sciences Ravensburg-Weingarten, who is now the studio’s technical director. “The idea was to bring together people studying interactive media with people studying computer science,” he says. It worked.
Combining their skills in art, game design and programming, the trio built a prototype for The Inner World during their studies and began to collaborate professionally on freelance projects. “Actually,” Hollstein tells us, “we founded the company the same day we had our final exam.” They established Fizbin right there in Ludwigsburg, and immediately focused on creating a sustainable business.
This story is from the February 2022 edition of Edge.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the February 2022 edition of Edge.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles
Anyone familiar with the concept of kitbashing is already halfway to understanding what Tomas Sala’s open-world builder is all about.
Children Of The Sun
René Rother’s acrid revenge thriller – an action game with its limbs broken and forcibly rearranged into the shape of a spatial puzzler – is at once a bonafide original and an unlikely throwback. Cast your eyes right and you wouldn’t blink if we told you this was a forgotten Grasshopper Manufacture game from the early PS3 era (we won’t be at all surprised if this finds a spot on Suda51’s end-of-year list).
Post Script
What does Rise Of The Ronin say for PS5 exclusivity?
Rise Of The Ronin
Falling in battle simply switches control to the next person up, and then quick revive fixes everything
Post Script
The pawn and the pandemic
Dragon's Dogma 2
The road from Vernworth to Bakbattahl is scenic but arduous. Ignore the dawdling mobs of goblins, and duck beneath the chanting harpies that circle on the currents overhead, and even moving at a hurried clip it is impossible for a party of four to complete the journey by nightfall.
BLUE MANCHU
How enforced early retirement eventually led Jonathan Chey back to System Shock
THE MAKING 0F.... AMERICAN ARCADIA
How a contrast of perspectives added extra layers to a side-scrolling platform game
COMING IN TO LAND
The creator of Spelunky, plus a super-group of indie developers, have spent the best part of a decade making 50 games. Has the journey been worth it?
VOID SOLS
This abstract indie Soulslike has some bright ideas