“It Takes Two’s Josef Fares on NFTs, Activision and winning game of the year

Despite the difficulty, Fares feels like he and his 65-person team at Swedish studio Hazelight have made significant progress since he directed his first game, “Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons,” back in 2013. “It Takes Two” regularly blurs genre lines, introducing mechanics as far-flung as “Diablo”-style, hack-and-slash action, third-person shooting and “Tony Hawk”-esque rail grinding, but Fares said development was relatively smooth sailing. Certainly the team had to omit some exciting ideas — including a section in which one player obtains a hammer and the other a nail, which would have allowed players to nail enemies to the ground — but, by and large, their meticulous planning paid off.