Their young daughter, Rose, is not a fan of the idea. Nothing especially heavy has happened, Fares says, but the grind of daily life has worn them down, and they’ve decided that it might be best to go their separate ways.

Cody and May are a married couple who have fallen out of love. That’s all to say that It Takes Two starts at a place that is decidedly unfun: the specter of divorce. “Some parts of gaming are fun, but I would say that more, depending on the scene, it should be engaging.”

His own game, Brothers, memorably ends with a powerful moment that clearly isn’t meant to be fun. “The best moments of my life in video games haven’t been about ‘fun.’” The game director and Hazelight founder cites experiences like Journey or moments from the opening sequence in The Last of Us to underscore his point. “Video games are not always about fun that’s a misconception that many people say, ‘Is this fun?’” Fares says. And after talking to Fares about the co-op adventure, it’s clear that he has a lot to say about, well, everything. Hazelight Studios’ upcoming project, It Takes Two, tackles the oddly underrepresented subject of love. While that game’s quality spoke for itself, Fares took to the stage for follow-up A Way Out, memorably taking over Geoff Keighley’s 2017 Game Awards broadcast by addressing the camera and saying, in part, ‘F- the Oscars!” It was a profane moment, to be sure, but it also showed Fares’ exuberance and natural flair for the outrageous. The filmmaker-turned-game-developer’s first game, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, is a remarkable fable about the power of family.

It takes two minigames