Bittersweet

Bittersweet

I don’t think I need to tell anyone that 2020’s been a crazy year for everyone. The ‘death of Flash’ was one of the bizarrities of last year that were more personal to me than most. It’s difficult to see an entire workflow be deleted from the internet that I almost entirely credit as my entry point into game development, my outlet for creativity, the ‘tool of my trade’, so to speak. The freedom, the ease of sharing work, the personal nature of most Flash games, I don’t think there will ever be anything similar to Flash again.

But, with Flash’s death, there’s been more attention on Flash, Flash developers, and Flash games than there has been in quite awhile, it’s, well, bittersweet. I’ve been taking some time off of development and trying to not take the whole ordeal too personally, but I’ve been talking about Flash, games, gaming, and all that quite a bit lately, so I won’t go on too long here about it, but I think I owe the brave souls who listened to me ramble for far too long a link below if you’d like to hear more from me about it.

The end of Flash: What legacy will it leave behind? – Amelia Hansford

Flash Game History – Jonas Richner

It’s from awhile ago, but I haven’t made a post in even longer, so please check out Flash Game History if you haven’t already. I shouldn’t be surprised to see so much love and admiration given to Flash developers, but it still stuns me to think that have any sort of place among them.

Flash Developer on the Dead of Flash – Me

I made this video that long ago?? Should be no surprise that I forgot to link it on the site anyway. I don’t think my thoughts have changed all that much, though I do need to make an updated video now that Flash is finally actually completely dead.

So what’s the future look like for Borne Games, then? I’ve been taking a bit of a break from the stress of trying to get the next game funded / published, but there’s still some plans creeping forward in the background, so we’ll just have to see how 2021 plays out.

Don’t worry, though! Flash may die, but Fancy Pants will live on! I’ve been pretty terrible about using the site for any sort of collection of information, so I’ll give that list it’s own post soon.

Comments Bittersweet

FPA: World 4 now online!

I haven’t released anything online in forever, and now seems like a pretty good time to do that, with everyone stuck inside…

So! I’m finally releasing Super Fancy Pants online as World 4, in pieces (it’s a pretty big game, after all), part 1 will be the Basement Spire, part 2 (not to be confused with SFPA ch.2!) Squiggleville Plains, etc.

Enjoy some good ol’ fashion Fancy Pants and stay safe (and fancy)!

Part 1:

Comments FPA: World 4 now online!

The Fancy Pants Adventures: World 1 Remaster

In case anyone hasn’t seen it, the World 1 Remaster is live for PC on itch.io, and on iOS and Android!

The Fancy Pants Adventures: World 1 Remaster on itch.io

And free (ad supported) on mobile!

The Fancy Pants Adventures: World 1 Remaster on iOS

The Fancy Pants Adventures: World 1 Remaster on Android

Not convinced, check the trailer!

Already got the game? Here’s the official 100% Walkthrough / Dev Commentary:

Stay fancy my friends.

Comments The Fancy Pants Adventures: World 1 Remaster

FPA World 2 Christmas Edition

Merry Christmas, internet!

Site’s been even more dead than usual, unfortunately. But on the plus side, the FPA Discord server has more activity than the site ever did, so make sure to come say hi!

Discord

Patrons get an exclusive channel where I post as much behind the scenes content as I can, give patrons early builds, and if you’d like to make suggestions for the future of FPA, that’s the best place to do it.

Borne Games Patreon

Patrons are going to get access to the World 2 Remaster as I make it, so you’ll get a closer view of development than ever before.

Standalone builds of classic FPA games are available to patrons, but for Christmas, I’m making a standalone build of World 2 Christmas Edition available to everyone!

Click for a full size wallpaper version. Sheesh, that image is over a decade old!

Download for Mac

Download for PC

Backup links in case you get an error:

Download for Mac

Download for PC

(my Mac bros: right click the app and hit open, that’ll let you play the unsigned app)

Comments FPA World 2 Christmas Edition

Legend of Excalipurr

“Oh! I can’t watch this!” she said as she curled up in her chair covering her eyes.

“No! No, it’s fine! I got this, I just have to figure out how I want to jump.” I said, concentrating.

I have to admit, it’s always nice to see a member of a development team reacting to someone playing their current project. I’m so used to feeling that sense of worry or watching it cross Brad’s face that I don’t even think about other developers/artists going through it.

I was at the local game dev meet up, where a few people (including Brad) had brought their games for people to try out. I actually hadn’t planned on trying anything out but had been handed the controller by someone who was finished playing. You don’t exactly want to say “no thanks” when someone who made the game is nearby, but being one of the few females in the group it was bit nerve wracking. I also have this anxiety when it comes to people watching me play games. It’s that inner feeling of your gaming skills being judged. I have no idea if it’s because I’m a girl or what but its there.

Anyway.

Continue Legend of Excalipurr

Comments Legend of Excalipurr

BorneGames Site

Hey guys!

As you can see if you’re here the site is back up and it’s gone through a little redesign. Please be patient while we figure out what we need to add and alter, if you have any suggestions feel free to post them in the comments!

The forum is no more since we’ve moved onto our own Discord server. If you haven’t joined the Discord chat feel free to check out the “Follow Us” drop down menu to get to the invite link!

Brad will be starting up livestreams again soon and we’ll be doing our best to keep this site as updated as possible. Thank you for your patience 🙂

– Fairly

Comments BorneGames Site

Fancy Pants Design: Combat

Let’s talk about some game design!

Fun fact, the last time I stuck my face in front of the camera was 7 years ago 😐

Apologies for being woefully out of practice at actually looking at a camera. What do you guys want to see next? Interested in seeing how everyone responds to videos about games that are already out instead of still being worked on…

Don’t worry, we’ll be seeing some new content too 😀

Comments Fancy Pants Design: Combat

Anti-Anti-Skeuomorphism video rant

During the development of Super Fancy Pants, I just never had enough time to work on development videos, now that things are starting to settle down (wrapping up the Android build, woo!), I’d like to start up with some post-dev videos, especially since I’m still updating and adding things to the game (join the beta to get the latest builds!).

Figured I’d start off with the biggest design challenge for the mobile version: touch screen controls. It’s difficult to figure out the balance between keeping the controls out of the way, and giving players subconscious cues for button press-ability. I think I followed the anti-skeuomorphism trend a bit too far with the first release, so here’s a look at next update’s revised buttons.

I feel out of practice and the video might be terrible, but that’s just making me want to record another one soon, so there’s something (if I had a dollar for every time I said I wanted to post more videos…).

Anyways, anything you guys want to see? Tutorial style videos for the combat, movement, or guides for the more difficult challenges would be the obvious ones, let me know!

Comments Anti-Anti-Skeuomorphism video rant

Super Fancy Pants Update #1

First off, WE DID IT! After 3 years of development, Super Fancy Pants Adventure has launched on Steam!

Let’s Plays and reviews have so far been overwhelmingly positive. Hearing about how nostalgic players have for the series has gotten me choked up at points, and the enjoyment I’ve seen players get from the game is really what making games is all about for me.

A huge thank you to the No Good Terrible Game Breakers that have been helping track down bugs, and of course my family for dealing with my crazy addiction of making and releasing games.

Anyway, what’s in the update??

Game Freezing / white screen

Some older GPUs were not triggering the fallback rendering style in the game and just showing a white screen. I’m manually checking compatibility now, so this issue should be resolved.

Performance Improvements

Some changes slipped through when updating the framework, and the game ended up rendering everything twice, the new update should see a massive performance increase, especially on GPU limited systems.

All The Bug Fixes

So many fixes, guys. So many.

The Future

Everyone wants it, so it looks like local multiplayer is going to be the first major content update for SFPA. It’ll take some time to get the main levels working properly with it (lots of camera problems to solve), but I have a handful of test levels created during development that should work without much modification, so I’ll try to get something to test out multiplayer up sooner rather than later.

Also have some new multiplayer modes in mind that I think will be really fun 😀 I haven’t forgotten about multiplayer, just wanted to get the core mechanics of the game completed and polished first!

If there’s something you want to see in future updates, let me know!

And all updates are planned to be free, so no, World 5 will not be added to SFPA 😛

Comments Super Fancy Pants Update #1

Waiting…

Oh hey, new trailer up on Steam, release date should be announced tomorrow!

Check it out

Spot the new Fountain Pen Abilites!

—-

Still fixing up bugs here and there, but at this point there’s mostly waiting until the actual release. When is that, eh? Should be a date and new tailer dropping soon 😉

I’m going to try to make some posts to help keep my sanity before launch (yeah I know I always say that, right?).

In the meantime, I found this trip down memory lane, might be a good refresher before SFPA hits. I’m seriously honored that someone thought my games are worth such a detailed look (no pressure for SFPA or anything, lawlz!), so please help me throw some views and thumbs up his way!

Comments Waiting…

Art in Motion

The gears are grinding behind the scenes, guys, I promise! To help with the wait, here’s a few new clips!

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More level art from Chris Gianelloni. Some levels are more cartoony, while others are more abstracted and… fragmented. I wonder why that is…

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And earlier section, drawn by Andy Debus, focused on the good ol’ momentum-based gameplay you know and love. Run down slopes to gain speed, jump off ramps and profit, you know the drill!

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Wasn’t someone pointing out unfinished slide pole animations earlier? This one’s for you.

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Despite completely overhauling combat for World 4, I went back and adjusted the stomp a few times to get just the right springiness. Because you guys deserve only the best stomping there is!

Probably owe everyone a follow-up Let’s Play video with final art, hmm…

Comments Art in Motion

Android!

Hey guys remember when I super pranked everyone on April Fools with an image of World 3 on Android?

Lucky for you guys I’m actually far too lazy to mock up an Android download screen and Over the Top was working on one all along!

So, DOUBLE SUPER PRANK COMBO LAWLZ

World 3 Google Play

And it’s free! (ad supported), so download away!

And please, give us a fair rating, it’s a fresh launch so we need your help!

Comments Android!

Annnd We’re Back

We’ve been single-mindedly hammering away at the last stages of development for awhile now, just want to assure everyone that the site going down didn’t mean development was stalled. Lots of boring behind the scenes paperwork type stuff going on at the moment (more on that hopefully soon), but we’re also sprinting on the rest of the artwork, some new sounds to up the production quality, tweaking challenge difficulty, just lots of little things that I hope I can show off in some videos soon!

In the meantime, I think I owe everyone some new screens for the temporary disappearance there.

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Arrrr!

And some challenges:

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Comments Annnd We’re Back