‘Menu’

19

Here’s another quick progress report. I’m currently working on the ‘menu’ system for the game, which, once again, is just a series of rooms, no pointing and clicking in my game thank you very much.

So this time around, I have about twice as many main levels. Not only that, but the cameo levels are turning out so awesome (and some of them rather large) that I want them all selectable from the Level Select room. So World 2 will have a system of doors for a menu that isn’t as simple as the one screen rooms from World 1.

Setting up all the doors that will be unlockable made me worry about something, though. With the game being so much longer than the last one (though I’m sure you can still run straight through fairly quickly if you skip the bonus rooms…), will that be a problem for people who play the game on public computers that can’t save their progress? I’m making sure that the game will be fun even if you only drop in for a few minutes into a clean game with nothing unlocked, but I still want to have enough there that players want to spend more time with the game will have a sense of progression, completion, and even be rewarded for exploration. This is pretty much a problem inherent with Flash games, and probably part of the reason that they’re usually quick fix games.

I’d like to imagine that World 2 is accessible enough to give a player a quick gaming fix, yet has enough substance to reward any time investment (not saying it’s anywhere near as long as a commercial game, though)…

Any thoughts?

Comments ‘Menu’

Story

8

Yep, that’s right. World 2 will actually have some sort of story. Don’t worry, nothing too long, not much dialogue, I promise!

So that’s the mayor.  And he’s giving you some ice cream as a present. Yes, I based the entire plot of World 2 on the mayor of Squiggleville giving you some ice cream.

You’ll have to play the game to see why he gives you the ice cream and what happens once you take it from him, but I think it’s an awesome plot.  Sure beats saving a princess, no?

Comments Story

Platforms

24

So here’s a quick bit of update, I want to start making quick progress update posts on here, since I wont be burying older, more important posts like on Newgrounds. So, last night I was finally able to get the new platform code working, so now the platforms (any ground that can be jumped through and landed on), can be curved surfaces too now. really doesn’t sound like much, I know, but its one of those features that should have been in the game all along, but sounded like far more trouble than it’s worth. Really, though, any feature is only as good as the levels that use it, so I guess we’ll see.

Next mini-update should be more interesting than this one, promise.Who else thinks that Fancy Pants Man needs to be in Smash Bros. Brawl? Someone email Nintendo for me.

Comments Platforms

Cameo Levels

10 

In World 1, I included trophies as collectibles throughout the game. If you're actually reading this, then you probably know more about the game than you should, and have all the trophies in World 1 (or not).
Trophies were my way of giving a nod to a few Flash artists whose work I really enjoyed, though I filled most of those spaces with characters related to projects I was working on or had worked on. This time around, there's going to be about twice as many levels as before, so that means a lot more trophies that I have to find.
The good news is, people actually know of The Fancy Pants Adventures this time around, so it's a lot easier to ask artists whose work I dig to let me use their property as collectibles in World 2. That means the trophies will hopefully be more recognizable in World 2.
Of course, tons of big levels and trophies means tons of tiny bonus levels for me to plan and draw out. My solution? the next logical step from cameo trophies, and the revealing part of this post: cameo bonus levels. Still working out the details with some artists, but they're definitely guys you'll know. Step into a different style level, grab a trophy from that artist... should be pretty fun.
Feel free to recommend artists who you'd like to see cameoed in World 2. And if you think you deserve a level and trophy in World 2 yourself, show me how awesome you are, we'll talk...


  


 


 Gorgeous, isn't it? 

			Comments Cameo Levels

Frames

7

For World 1, I was proud that when Fancy Pants Man just stood there, he swayed back and forth, 72 frames of continuous, 30 frames every second (when the game is running full speed, it animates faster than Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) animation. Mario had 1 frame of idle animation, Sonic had something like 5. Donkey Kong Country doesn’t count, it was computer animated.

For World 2, not only does Fancy Pants Man continuously animate, even when not moving, he’ll go through a few different idle animations while he’s getting bored. In the demo, he just fell asleep, but in the full game, he’ll do a few, more interesting things. Currently, FPM has 514 frames of idle animation, which I’m quite sure is some sort of record.

Here’s a shot of the latest idle animation that I was working on:


Think that’s crazy? You should see the other timelines!

So why does this actually matter? Who actually watches FPM while he’s just sitting there? Really, I want to give the little guy much more personality this time around, and I think this is a fun way to do that.

 

Comments Frames

Hair 2.0

10 



For your enjoyment, a picture of Fancy Pants Man's hair blowing in the wind as he rides on a moving platform. Yes, his hair reacts to motion in game now even if he's not running, and yes, I am really that insane.


 


 

			Comments Hair 2.0