Split Fiction takes the idea forward again, using the more familiar video game worlds of fantasy and sci-fi, but blending them and blowing them apart with new ideas that arrive at breakneck pace – one moment, you’re escaping from trolls through a beleaguered medieval village, the next you’re a cyber-ninja slashing or laser-whipping scores of enemies, and then you’re suddenly a couple of magical pigs who… well, I’ll let you find out about that bit on your own.

It might initially seem like a familiar format for Hazelight – this is still a game that requires two players (either local or online), and uses a mixture of single- and split-screen sections to throw new mechanics at you constantly. But Fares sees this as a true step forward in how competently his team can make new mechanics, and tell experimental stories.

“It’s a natural evolution,” he tells me. “A more mature team, better technical tools, better understanding of design of the mechanics, we’re better at writing a story for co-op, and obviously we’ve become better knowing what and what not to cut early.”

It was the idea of combining sci-fi and fantasy that was the initial passion for Split Fiction – the story sees two writers invited to a tech company in hopes of getting a publishing deal, before one realises that they’ll in fact have their ideas drained and repurposed by a newly invented technology. After an altercation, both writers are pulled into the same simulation based on their creations, and their very different ideas begin to blend into one another. You (and your co-op partner) will play through the wild results in what Fares describes as a playable buddy movie.

And it’s in that blend of ideas that Fares and his team found their way to go further than their previous work.

“It’s about taking this to the next level, then the next level – what can we do to keep the players on their toes, keeping this, ‘What the f**k is going on?’ feeling and making sure that the pacing feels right. There’s always something around the corner that’s going to surprise you and delight you.”

It’s a truly brave approach to design, but Fares has been emboldened simply by the success this approach has brought. Millions of people bought his last two games, showing a desire for exactly what he’s doing.

Not that he’d change course, anyway:

“Well, here’s the thing – I’ve never adapted to anyone, even on Brothers. I really don’t care, to be honest. At Hazelight, we always do our vision. We’ve done it since the start. On Brothers, there was a lot of questioning. A Way Out, a lot of questioning. It Takes Two as well.

“Sure, there are fewer questions from the outside [now] – it doesn’t really matter. The game will always be the game that we want to do. The one thing I guarantee is that Hazelight will always be about passion, about making games that we love to make. We’ll never change.”

Fares won’t let on what Hazelight’s next game might be – and even if will continue the co-op form of its previous work – but Split Fiction proves that his team won’t be sitting still. I’m almost certain that, in a few years, Fares will be sitting down again and asking himself, “Did we actually do that?”