A Big Change, and a Quick Status Update
I’ve been hard at work on the demo over the past several months, and I’m happy to say that it’s nearly complete in an unpolished beta state – currently, all that I have left to do is implement sausage leveling and polish up the geometry and effects…or at least, that’s what was left until a couple days ago.
Something I’ve noticed recently is that a lot of people seem to be mixed up on the purpose and the goals the game, mostly due to my own mistakes explaining it. Some people think that I’m still working on the Dark Souls-Platformer Hybrid, named The Fantabulous Game, and others think that Le Fantabulous Game v1.0 is going to be a proper revisit of the egglike genre. And, on top of this, there are people who dislike the (quite frankly, cringe-inducing) use of the word “Le” in the title. This is something I hoped would be endearing to fans of the original v0.9, but even Vinny himself hid the word “Le” when he showed the trailer, accidentally hiding the fact that the game’s going to have a Kickstarter. (As a sidenote – I’m so so grateful that he mentioned it at all, let alone showed his viewers the trailer or mentioned it twice, especially since it’s brought this issue to light.)
So, long story short: I’m finding that the name of Le Fantabulous Game is confusing to people; at best, it causes people to mistake LFG for TFG…and at worst, results in people treating the game like a free egglike, or even worse, as shovelware and trash for those less interested in the genre. I’ve been pouring my heart and soul into making a real game, and the title has seemingly been holding it back. So, without further ado, I’d like to announce that Le Fantabulous Game is being renamed. The new title?
Fantaria: The Quest for Sausage
I know some people are going to be upset about this change, but this is something I need to do both for my own continued passion for the project, and for its ability to draw in new fans who haven’t heard of the original – I certainly don’t want them looking up “Le Fantabulous Game” and finding the video of v0.8 and thinking that’s all it is, after all.
So, to officially clear up the confusion: Fantaria is an FPS/Collectathon Platformer hybrid, named after the continent where the game takes place. You play as a mysterious alien who fell from the sky in a capsule-esque egg, who the Spherefriends dub as Capboy. Capboy quickly gets roped into the surreal politics and supernatural threats of Fantaria, and slowly begins to unravel the secret power of the Sausages which the denizens of the island find so alluring. The gameplay’s inspired by games like DOOM16 and Banjo Kazooie, with my own unique gameplay elements to boot.
So with that out of the way, I’d like to give you guys the lowdown of what’s done for the demo:
Fightyplace-3, “Mount Sphonk Summit,” has a complete structure. This level is what will comprise the majority of the demo, and features five separate enemy types along with a hybrid of platforming and combat gameplay.
FP-3 still needs some polishing both visually and audibly.
The boss of FP-3, who I’ll be keeping under wraps, is nearly complete and simply needs some slight polishing and a death animation. Mechanically, it’s 100% complete, with two phases.
Four weapons (including melee), each with a primary and secondary fire
A tattle, where you get a small blurb about the enemy you’re looking at based on the spherefriend you have equipped
A slipdash, letting Capboy become invulnerable to all damage while dodging in the currently held direction
Mind control, allowing Capboy to seize control over a stunned enemy. Note that this ability will not be present in the demo due to not quite being up to the stability standard I’d like it to be, and will instead be replaced with a new ability I’ll discuss below.
All of this content is being consistently tested for quality/enjoyability as I make it, so this should all be much more stable and fair than things in v0.9 were.
And, as for what’s left to do beyond the mentioned polishing:
Implement Sausage Leveling, where Capboy can spend collected sausages in a menu to upgrade his weapons and abilities
Implement corresponding upgrades for every ability and weapon – note that skill trees will be very limited in the demo compared to the final version, due to only having one level’s worth of sausages, and will be more potent and generalized.
SFX and death anims for Vineborn enemies
Create skyboxes for FP-3 and FP-Boss
Write up kickstarter info
Record Q&A video – this has been so delayed because my overhead light went out in my apartment, so I’ve been waiting for a day that I have time to record and have the sun lighting things up well enough. The video’s scripted, and based on the weather it can be out hopefully tomorrow?
So, home stretch! Due to this name change and general refactoring, there is a decent chance that the Kickstarter will be first week of May instead of April, but I’m sure you guys can handle waiting just a little bit longer. If you’d like to join the server and talk about any of this, you can check it out here: https://discord.gg/Y4R8d3K
Thanks for reading, gang, and I’ll talk to you guys again soon!
-Fantabuloso
