Q&A pt 1

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I always feel weird about uploading these to YouTube for hosting. I can just see a bunch of people all like, ‘who is this guy, and why do I care?’ Oh well, still better than using my own bandwidth, I’m sure that banner is sucking up enough bandwidth as it is…

 

Questions addressed in this video are:

Where and when did you first come up with Fancy Pants Man?

Do you have the first drawing of Fancy Pants you made?

Where does Fancy Pants Man store his brain and other headly organs?

How did you get into game development?

What is your educational background?

What do you do other then makes games?

What are you using as a webhost?

How much did Armorgames pay you?

What is your girlfriend like?

How long have you been working on flash games?

Did you make Mindbender?

Can I have your MSN/AIM?

How do you pay for all this, do you have an actual job?

Have you made yourself a level editor?

What kind of pants were you thinking of when you created Fancy Pants?

Are you looking for any ideas for future games?

Is Fancy Pants Man’s wardrobe a reflection of your own?

Did you plan on making Fancy Pants Adventures a series? Did you mean for it to be such a big hit?

 

Comments Q&A pt 1

Time Trial

70

Just a heads up, I put a timer in World 1 on Kongregate for some new badges. Hit T while in game to display the stopwatch. If anyone really cares about it, I might go and add that to World 2…

Anyways: World 1 at Kongregate.com

As for shirts… still working on that… it’s a bit more difficult than uploading an image to cafe press, if you’re gonna do it right, heh. More videos should be coming soon, and that banner, yes I’m going to let you navigate with doors…

Comments Time Trial

Behind the Fancy Pants

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Alrighty, here’s one of those videos I’ve been talking about. I dig around on my hard drive for old files from FPA’s creation. Joining me is Paul Downs, original creator of the Penguin, who is mostly there so I wouldn’t just be talking to myself about how terrible all my old stuff is.

I had to cut a lot from this video, so who knows, maybe I’ll post some of that footage one day…

Next up, though, is a multi-part Q & A session with Fairly Obvious / my girlfriend Jenna, once I begin editing that, I can tell you guys which questions we’ll go through in the first part.

Also: yes, I will make the banner navigate the site through different doors, I was planning that all along, but I’m still catching up with a ton of work, so, I’ll do it eventually 😛

Comments Behind the Fancy Pants

Where are those videos?!

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picture-15.jpg

Things have been pretty busy around here. I don’t really want to go into details of my personal life, but I haven’t been able to get much work done lately (and no, it’s not because of Brawl :P), so I’ve finally found myself catching up on a ton of things.

Soo, basically, I’ll get to those videos when I can…

Oh yeah, right, that picture… Been playing around with Art Rage a bit lately, Flash isn’t really good for the sketchy way that I draw, but I like having an undo button, so that program tends to be really good for goofing around.

Comments Where are those videos?!

Why Not

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Before we started filming, my fat cat decided to say hi.Just thought I’d prove that the video is real and Fairly/Jenna exists 😛

Video Thing Again

If it’s not working still and you have Quicktime, either click return in the address bar to load the movie file again, or try right clicking and save file as…*shrug* It’s being weird for me, if I click it and click back and click it again, it works fine.(it’s Quicktime, and I should probably learn how to embed videos…)Yeah whateva.

Comments Why Not

Another Video

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I know that for most of you who visit and post on my site, there wasn’t all that much new info in the guides video, but nonetheless, it still sparked a few questions and discussions.

For all of you who want to know more about the history of The Fancy Pants Adventure, and my commentary on World 1 and 2, I’m planning on making another video tomorrow, something that’s far more in depth, that those of you out there have already got all the pants colors and trophies should enjoy.

I don’t want to get too technical with it, but if there’s anything specific you’d like to know, post questions here. I know this is really short notice, but I’ll still try to go through all the questions I’ve been asked so far, since I haven’t been able to go through all my emails and respond to each one.

My friend Paul Downs will also be in the video, he’s the guy who designed the Penguin (which I turned angry), something like 15 years ago. That should be far better than just having me sitting at the computer mumbling into a microphone alone…

Comments Another Video

Video Guide!!!

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Dun dun dun! Never thought I’d finish this… guess I’m too critical of my own voice and kept rerecording the lines over and over. Oh well, learned to loosen up a bit near the end, so it starts to sound more like me, I think…

But even if you’ve already gotten everything in the game, I still try to a little bit about the game and levels and all that, plus there’s a few tips for controlling the Shell in the very beginning. Who knows, you might still learn something.

Of course, if you’re new to the game or you’re looking for guidance on any of the holes, here’s the video, I hope it helps, if there’s anything that’s unclear, or anything else you’d like to see, ask away.

The video on the guides page

and

The YouTube page

Not really sure what you’d use that for, but there it is anyway, heh.

Comments Video Guide!!!

Nope, not dead.

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I think that title about sums it up… Funny how I choose to make a blog style site and never actually update the blog posts on it. Funny, too, because I have a tendency to rant about anything related to video games and the industry. I suppose I should try and actually make blog posts from now on…

First off, soon I’m going to work on those guides for the game. Sure World 2’s been out for a bit now, but I’m still getting emails asking where trophies are and how to unlock colors. For those who already have everything, I’ll try and throw in a bit of commentary for the fun of it, so who knows, the videos might still be worth watching.

Also in the pipeline, I’m working on a few games at once again now that World 2 is out, and I’d like to update you guys on the progress of my games. Nothing that’s as large as World 2, but a few things that I’ve definitely excited about. Specifically, I’m working with a new style, and I’d definitely like to get some feedback on it.

Now that that’s out of the way… Smash Bros. Brawl, eh? Can’t wait. Going to be epic win, period. Haven’t really been playing Wii much lately, but I know that that’s going to change come next month. Lately, though, I’ve been playing MotoStorm and StarDust HD. Haven’t really been using the ps3 much after buying it for Uncharted, but it’s been getting some more use now that I’ve downloaded StarDust. The system itself, though, ugh, it’s awful. The controller is still terrible (seriously, Sony, everyone uses the analog stick now, put it where my thumb goes, like all the other controllers!), no rumble FTL, and the only game I used the tilt with was MotoStorm, since it’s more fun like that, but the joystick is more accurate, especially with lighter vehicles. Oh yeah, and something that I didn’t know until I bought the system: you have to install demos after downloading them. Installing is one of the reasons I’m not really fond of gaming on my computer. The 360 doesn’t do it, so why does the ps3? Oh yeah, and the menu is pretty bad, too.

So yeah, the ps3 is pretty terrible, doesn’t do anything the 360 can’t, and I vastly prefer the 360 controller, so that’s the system I’d buy any multiplatform games on.

Let’s see, what else… Got a lot of plans for the future, hopefully I’ll be able to reveal more fun stuff soon, like about those shirts and what’s going on with future Fancy Pants Adventures (though I still say I could use the Wii remote better than any developer has yet 😉 ).

Oh yeah, I also want to post how you guys can play my games with different controllers (Wii remote, Classic Controller, 360 controller, USB gamepad). FPA is definitely much more fun like that, and that’s how I do extended testing sessions. Anyone interested in playing World 2 on your computer with a Wii Classic Controller?

Comments Nope, not dead.

Shirts

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So here’s a question for all of you.

If I would happen to make some Fancy Pants Man shirts, would you guys buy them?

If you really, really want to sport some FPA gear, here’s your chance to be really loud about it. Telling other people to comment in this thread if they’d want shirts too could also work…

Comments Shirts

Website updates

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If you haven’t noticed, I’ve started updating the website for the open release of World 2, which is this Thursday. I’m trying to set this site up as much like a real site as possible, so there’s the sections to the right right, right there, and, ah, fun, some ads.

So, what do you guys want to see? Some questions you want answered in a faqs would be nice, general, or for a specific game. Anything you want to see in the ‘about me’ in particular?

Anything else I should add to the site?

Comments Website updates

The colors!

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Okay, so a few things had to be left out of the initial release of World 2, but there is one feature that made it in that I thought you guys especially would enjoy.

On every level, there is a snail, and somewhere else on that level is a golfball hole. Sink the shell, your pants turn the same color as the flag at the hole. Surprise surprise, the hole in level 3 is based on the little challenge that this site created while playing the beta!

Post screens of Fancy Pants Man sporting different shades of fancy! How many can you earn? Who can get all 6 first?

On a sidenote, the Fancy Golfball challenge was created in direct respose to anyone who said that World 1 was too easy 😛

And guys, please, no spamming up this thread like the others…

Comments The colors!

Merry Christmas!

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As much as I would have liked to have World 2 out already, being able to work less and actually enjoy the Christmas holiday has been quite nice. I’ve also been working on a few small things in the game that I wouldn’t have been able to do if I didn’t have the extra development time, if that’s any consolation.

Either way, Merry Christmas!

world-2-christmas.png

Comments Merry Christmas!

Some real news

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Alright, guys. I’m gonna do the classic good news / bad news deal.

Good news is I actually have a release date for World 2.

Bad news is, it’s not before Christmas.

I’ve been working like mad lately, with World 2 and Christmas stuff, I’ve almost burnt myself out. So I’m going to release on January 8th, there’s not all that much left to do, but I don’t want to be cutting corners or sleeping even less than I do now. Plus, you know, I wouldn’t mind enjoying the holidays with my family a bit, heh.

And in an attempt to get ya’ll to hate me less, a shot of what’s probably my favorite background in the game. It’s actually from the second level that was in the demo.

picture-1.jpg

But, this will be the final delay, as long as nothing goes terribly wrong, which it shouldn’t…

Comments Some real news

Beta .1, have at it.

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Approximately 3 gajillion fixes in this one, so attack it and make sure I didn’t break anything else.

Off the top of my head:
– improved landing smoke and new cannon smoke animation (by James Kholamian)
– fixed that pause when you land while running
– fixed baddies rotating when coming into screen
– should have fixed baddies just floating in the air
– fixed where the stupid shell would skip forward while rolling off of something (you don’t know how much that bugged me…)
– tightened up normal wall jump
– that stupid teleporting thing should be FINALLY fixed
– LOTS more stuff

Beta .1

Comments Beta .1, have at it.

Beta .09, final (*crosses fingers*)

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Alright, this should be the final beta. If something’s not fixed in here, chances are I either wanted it like that, or it would be too much trouble to fix. That doesn’t mean you guys can’t pillage through this version and make sure everything’s fixed, but unless it’s a major issue, I doubt I’m going to take the time to fix it.

My girlfriend’s been helping me on a wrap up page for the Beta, with all the bugs that were found, suggestions given, and what has been changed. Pretty much just a summary of everything that’s been accomplished during the Beta period. Huge thanks to her for all her help.

I’m trying to post this quickly, and I still need to paste all the new code from the working build over to the Beta build, so I’ll make a more official ‘yayz teh Beta is finished!’ when I make that wrapup page.

New features in this build:
– New spider animation, yes the old one looked pretty bad
– Slippery walls… Something I’ve been meaning to program for awhile now so I through some in there. Remember the ‘icy’ floor as someone put it? Well I finally remembered to color the ink over that, and now there’s ‘inky walls.’ This level doesn’t really take advantage of that feature too much, but you can still try it out. Jump at the walls with some upward momentum, no the real laws of gravity have no real effect here! It’s nice for going higher up the walls, or down quickly, as they’re slippery. You can press the direction away from the wall to get off of them quickly, making the section that I added them too able to be ran through even quicker now.

***To those new to the Beta, this is only a single level used for finding bugs in the code, though there’s a few new features to be found if you’re interested. There’s no goal to get the shell to, yet, but a few of the Beta testers have gotten the shell to the top of the level just for fun.***

Beta .09

Also, keep an eye on JayIsGames.com, they should be running a preview sometime monday, they even have some info that you guys don’t know about yet.

Comments Beta .09, final (*crosses fingers*)

Beta .08

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Been out of town with my family for Thanksgiving, so I can’t say I spent a huge amount of time on this update, but there’s a few issues I want to make sure I just fixed that have been popping up recently.

Fixes:

– Spiders should behave while off screen now. This issue was especially apparent while kicking spiders off screen to the right into the small platforms by the cannon…

– Falling through slanted platforms while low jumping / kicking.

– Added some speed to the landing, that should stop the landing from the kick from feeling sluggish.

– little stupid platform tweaks like always…

– Juggle the snailshell in the air without it landing or hitting anything 😀

– Finally remembered to add the caching progress bar in there, not a big deal, but I think it’s neat

Beta .08

Comments Beta .08