This has to be the most beautiful indie game I've seen in a while.

I took a look at the game's history on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fez_%28video_game%29

and it states that it's been in development since 2007. Half a decade. That's crazy. Does anyone know why it took so long and how it's been financed?

I'm surprised, but also glad, nobody pulled the plug after the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th year of development. This is unusual for the game industry.

The funding had its plug pulled at least once (or not renewed), afaik. The authors continued on despite this and more funding was found. Indie Game the Movie chronicles some of this.

I've been playing for a day now. The fit-and-finish is unreal.

800 Microsoft points (5 bucks?) is way too cheap.

Note that there was also only 1 programmer on the project throughout its development.

That takes a Linus-Torvalds-amount of dedication to pull off. Kudos to the developer.