Fe creator says publisher EA has not 'meddled' with game's vision, main story will last 7-8 hours

Pretty platformer Fe is out next month, and ahead of its release developer Zoink has been talking about what it's been like to work with EA—the game was the first to be picked up by the publisher's indie support arm, EA Originals. The gaming giant hasn't interfered in Fe's development, according to game director Andreas Beijer, which is promising news for future EA Originals titles.

"It has been amazing to have them onboard actually. I understand it might sound like I’m paid to say this but that’s the honest truth. They have provided so much help without meddling with the artistic vision of the game and it has been fantastic for us to be able to use their experience and knowledge of making and publishing games," he told Wccftech.

In the interview Beijer also revealed that Fe's main story will last between 7 and 8 hours. "If you were set on just completing the 'main quest' I would think perhaps [it would last] about 7-8 hours. Then you are free to roam around and find all the secrets and that really depends on the player how much time that takes. It’s hard to say really. I’m thinking of the world of Fe as big enough to get lost in but small enough to get to know it all."

The game's world will open up in sections, so at the start you'll be able to freely explore one bit, and then other areas will unlock as you go on. You'll be climbing on giant beasts—almost like a less violent, more relaxing Shadow of the Colossus—and solving puzzles by singing. You sing to different animals to gain their trust and get them to help you complete puzzles, and you learn different songs as you progress.

Zoink was in the news this week because it formed its own games label in collaboration with Steamworld Dig 2 developer Image & Form. The two companies will continue to produce their own games but may collaborate on a joint game in future.

Future projects on the EA Originals label include co-op prison break game A Way Out and Sea of Solitude, an exploration game set in a partially submerged city.

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.