Phil Fish, the controversial creator of much-loved puzzle-platformer Fez, is known in the gaming community as a guy who cares little for what people think of him. It seems that a bit of his personality spilled over into Fez, where the Black Monolith puzzle has left gamers scratching their heads for years. Possibly referring to the Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and surrounded with a similar amount of speculation and theories, this puzzle is yet to be fully solved. While the answer to the puzzle - which uses a cryptic code - has been brute-forced by the dedicated Fez community, no one yet understands why the answer is what it is. Solving the puzzle unlocks the final piece to a heart-shaped block in the game, but no one yet understands what the block is supposed to do. The whole story surrounding the puzzle is a testament to the determination of the gaming community to solve a puzzle by any means necessary, and to the developer's determination that its full meaning remain a mystery.
Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
