Fancy Box: Report 1 – Making Levels

It’s seriously been over a year since I last posted a video?? That’s just nuts!

Let’s start the year off right, here’s an introduction to the Fancy Box and level creation.

If you make a level, email it to me (under contact), and I’ll feature it in a future report! Just make sure to include the name you want credited.

Next video coming soon: Fancy Dueling! If you make an arena soon enough, it could make it in the next video.

22 Comments

  1. The Creator

    If it’s true that you want to push players a bit more with fancy pants, I think the only way to do it as things are now is to add new abilities to the player, not to the environment. I honestly feel it’s the fancy pants controls that limits me the most, since there isn’t a lot to do, especially when it comes to the jumping. A double jump of some sort or a grappling hook or just a new blocking mechanic would make the game a lot deeper I think! 😉

    • Brad

      I’m going to have to disagree. Look how far Super Meat Boy goes with basically no character abilities whatsoever. The physics and movement in FPA are super subtle, so there’s tons of ways a player could react to a dynamic environment.

      Of course, that’s what the Fancy Box is for, let’s test this stuff out!

      I want to save the grappling hook for Cutie Pants (yeah, I still want to see her show up playable one day), and blocking is kinda sorta done by ducking. FPA just plays so much differently than fighting games (limited scope of movement to give attacks more effectiveness in their more limited scope vs freedom of motion and player choice with a lower number of more generic attacks), I’m not sure a simple block would translate properly.

      • The Creator

        You are right about super meat boy, but in super meat boy there are hazards everywhere which makes the game very difficult, whereas in fancy pants the solid hazards are barely used at all (at least so far), the only hazard we have left then (except from falling off the level) are the baddies, which really isn’t too much of a problem in my opinion… except from the ninjas, I hate them quite a bit in large portions…
        Super meat boy’s movement in the air is also a lot freer which gives him a wider landing range than fancy pants has, which makes it easier to make a hard and varied game 🙂
        Then again, I don’t think a game needs a lot of difficulty in order to be fun, journey is one of my favourite games and that game is supereasy to beat 😉

        Wow I almost forgot about cutie pants!! It’s been ages since we first saw a playable cutie pants so I though she was entirely scrapped by now! I hope she makes it into a fancy pants game one day! 😀

        • Brad

          I’m definitely not thinking of a ‘hard as nails, get around the obstacles’ type game, but more dynamic platforms, switches, things to dodge… you’re right, the ninjas are the only baddies that pose any sort of threat, I think that’s a little unbalanced. We’ll see what happens, though. I can add things to the Fancy Box and everyone can yell at me if they’re too hard / not fun, heh.

  2. Juliorob

    Definetly cool stuff. I am really excited for multiplayer (since I never got to play FPA on consoles). I like how you made the engine so simple for level design, good for creativity, I think.

    • Brad

      Sweet, let me know how it goes!

      Thanks, me too, I’d rather be drawing than programming or clicking around to make levels, I like to keep those two separate.

    • A Wizard

      I had a similar problem, and it could have something to do with the Flash Player (someone correct me if im wrong, which is quite possible). I have windows on both the computers I use, one is mine and one is the general computer in our house, and there seems to be a few different Flash Players available. Since I have Windows the only Flash Player I had on my computer was some sort of ActiveX Internet explorer Flash Player, and the other computer had that and something that just said Flash Player 10 or 11 or whatever, and I can play SWF’s alone in there, which I cant do on my computer, even though I tried installing a regular Flash Player, but didnt seem to install at all.

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