Most games don’t have this problem as they’re either one or the other, however some realistic games may shift towards fantasy elements when ideas are slim (ahem, not to say that’s what I’m doing…. Fantasy is just a lot quicker to produce). The advantage of fantasy is that you’re not working inside of a box, you can use any idea at your disposal. Once you go back into that box there’s just going to be some things you won’t be able to do.

So how does this apply to me? In a series about talking animals with table manners aren’t I already in the fantasy realm? Well the only thing I focus my fantasy on is the world itself. It’s nearly impossible to make a stage based on a realistic landscape with a path so conveniently laid out for you. In addition to that, you’d be left with a limited variety of environments when focusing on reality. The physics themselves however, I try to follow very closely, with Felix’s jumping and wall jumping possibly being a bit of a stretch. You wont’ see any magic or ghosts or psychics or a zombies or Felix getting shot 50 times  only to hide behind a corner for 5 seconds to make a full recovery. You may also have noticed I’ve never used a floating platform in the more realistic themed games. Where fantasy is concerned I tend to only use science fiction (e.g.The thylacine)

So enter World of Whimsy, a game full of floating platforms and bouncing mushrooms and bizarre landscapes. It’s very easy to get caught up working outside the box and think to yourself going back in the box would make for a very boring experience. Games are all about fun right? I myself am a story based designer, meaning the game itself is an extension of the story which can limit the things I can do. Then there’s the Miyamotos out there whom make the story an extension of the game, which can limit the versatility of the story. I must note though, games aren’t always fun because of good game mechanics, they can also be fun because they’re immersive experiences and the world you’re playing in is actually interesting and you can understand it.  I don’t believe a game has to be nonsensical in order a game to be more fun. As long is the game is enjoyable in some form, I really don’t think it matters. I’m a firm believer that there are no rules in terms of creativity. I think of games as art so sorry for the hippie artist rant. : )

On the subject, it does frighten me that future titles could dramatically differ from World of Whimsy due to level design limitations. I’m not worried that I won’t have any ideas, I worry how the genre will be affected making the game too different from the last. Ironically people tend to complain that the sequels are too much of the same. The term realistic-platformer is a bit of an oxymoron, so I can see people thinking that the platforming elements aren’t as strong in future titles. There’s nothing like watering down a part people liked. I really hate steps backward.

As usual, I”m probably getting ahead of myself. Even so, if this game does well I’m not going to shift towards a fantasy theme. That certainly won’t mean future titles won’t be as good but I do feel people may not find there’s not enough platforming, which seems to be a dying breed as it is. Well I can’t please everyone, but the wonderful things about archived ideas is that that can spin off into other projects.

(One of my career goals is to approach Nintendo about a game involving a certain dinosaur. That however is getting way ahead of myself)

While there won’t be any development news, there’s plenty of my rambling to go around.Today I’d like to ramble about one of the goals of my next game, attention to story.

If I haven’t said it once, I’ve said it a million times, I’m trying to put a lot of attention towards story. Some may see that as a double-edge sword, but it was really the direction I always wanted to go. Even so, it really isn’t just the story I want to get into. I want to put a large amount of focus towards characterization.

I don’t want any character to seem two-dimensional. I want my characters to think, behave, and react as realistically as possible.This probably puts me in the realm of a writer more so than a game designer, but I don’t see anything wrong with that. I think it’s good to have game designers with different styles. You have Mario games with barely any story that turn out great, and you have Professor Layton which is simply filled with puzzles centered around a large story that turn out great. I don’t want to put story above gameplay, but I do want to give that area much more attention.

It’s extremely easy to paint Felix as flat character, a generic happy fox who saves the day and wouldn’t harm anyone. But it’s far from that simple. I don’t know how well I’ve displayed this, but Felix can be easily profiled as an INFJ personality. Actually, if Felix seems a little bit generic or enigmatic to you, it’s probably because INFJs themselves tend to conceal their personality. Ha I may be portraying him better than I thought. I’ll note, I don’t follow any personality guideline when creating characters, so Felix probably isn’t going to be the perfect example of an INFJ.

I’m sure the ins and outs of Wiley will be well displayed in World of Whimsy. The depth of Felix, as well as Karina will likely be well shown in Lithodora of Despair.

One thing I never really go over is the game background, leaving people asking “Why are these wolves jumping out of trees?” I’ll do a much better job trying to layout the whole story in future games but I’d like to try explaining things a bit now. I don’t think my games are complex enough to give make you feel lost in the story but I believe most of them are set up in a way to make you not even care there is one (I’m a fox, I guess that blue guy’s a fox too, lets kill stuff).

Evergreen Haven - Evergreen Haven is a very small community of forest animals forming somewhat of an establishment. The environment is very village like but not cohesive enough to be considered one. A few inhabitants include, Sarah the loudmouth squirrel, and Warner a very laid back, old-timey raccoon known for warning of trouble. Felix and Wiley live in two separate locations further out in Evergreen Haven. Outside but near the Evergreen Haven area, lives a devil worshiping striped-skunk, Lilith.  Evergreen Haven has a relatively older population.

Wiley – Wiley lives in a “forest housing” in Evergreen Haven by himself. He spends most of the day lounging on his couch and watching TV through an antenna. His home is furnished with a fair amount of low-end swag originating from the city. He likes to keep to himself and hates Lisa’s sessions. He is, like many other forest animals, illiterate.

Lisa – Lisa is currently taking a temporary stay at Evergreen Haven. She frequently visits the place as Wiley’s personal tutor. Her goal is to make Wiley more city accessible by teaching him basic knowledge. She visits a lot more frequently now that she’s more comfortable with the area. She’s considered to be apart of Evergreen Haven, and has a guest house to prove it. She likes the progressive feeling but is easily exhausted by the work.

Heather – Heather is Lisa’s little niece. She doesn’t know who her father is and her mother isn’t around much so Lisa often looks after her. It’s gotten to the point where she actually prefers it that way and a lot of Lisa’s habits seem to be rubbing off on her. She enjoys traveling with Lisa to the forest when she gets the chance  to, and has done so a few times already. This time she writes a book called “Felix and the World of Whimsy,” to read to Wiley. Felix was first introduced to Heather when she was depressed about the unusual overbite on one side of her mouth. She’s a fan ever since.

Felix – Felix is far away on his own little quest while this story takes place. Even so, there’s still plenty of him to see in Heather’s book.

The game won’t give out a lot of this information but I will do what I can to provide a well informed setting. The game itself may take place inside a story but that isn’t to say there isn’t a lot occurring outside it.

I tend to use maturity as the subjects you won’t really want to delve into with kids.

• Death
• Teen Pregnancy
• Homosexuality
• Speciesism (yes it’s a real word)
• Homicide
• Politics and Political Corruption
• Religion

Sex, pointless gore, and vulgarity however aren’t really my forte. While humor is usually glazed over these subjects I intend to approach them in a serious and realistic fashion. “So you say got raped yesterday, did he call you back?” probably isn’t something I’d write. Some people are turned off by serious situations but writing wouldn’t really be fun if I were catering to people.

So where is this proposed maturity? Vulpicide on dream rainbows? It sorta comes and goes on its own as opposed to forcing it. However, I may have to force a few things to maintain a consistent rating. I can’t have a game full of unicorns that’s family friendly, and then a have a scene of dead horses next game. If my games were longer my rapid change of tone would be less of a problem.

Regardless of the scenario I want to present  things in a realistic thought provoking manner (when story is actually important), and to me that within itself is the key to maturity. But of course that alone won’t do you a lot of good if your game cover looks like Teletubbies.

This isn’t so much a post to give details about the story, but more about to give a better idea of the series I have on paper, where story is a lot more inclusive. I’m trying to transition that to game a bit. (not too much I hope)

At the head of the family is Walter. Walter is a very benevolent businessman with an eye for potential. Though, considerably unemployed, Walter makes much of his money investing in and buying businesses. He enjoys spending his free time with his family, at least when they’re around. He has a great relationship with his two daughters.

Catrina and Karina are the two daughters. Catrina is much like Walter in many ways with her polite mannerisms and passive nature, while Karina, though elegant, displays a sharp retort and a cut-throat approach towards life. Although somewhat opposite of each other, they tend to get along well with one another. Karina can mistreat her sister at times but it’s all in good sport.

The mother of the two, Katalina, is the most vacant of the bunch. Katalina is the only member of the family concerned with wealth and status. She doesn’t seem to display interest in her family unless finance and achievement are the points of interest. Her hands off approach to parenting can leave many with the feeling that she doesn’t even have children. Though Catrina enjoys her mother’s company, Karina hates her mother with every fiber of her being.

Working with collision leaves me with very boring things to show, and feeling so far behind prevents me from really creating any web content. I really wish I had someone for that. So to combat this dry spell I’d like to talk about a chapter from (what will hopefully be) the later Felix game. I’ve touched up on it a few times already.

Snowfall (tentative) is a village in Everblue which, well, rarely if ever stops snowing. There, lives a mink named Yukiko whom is a cousin of Lisa. Yukiko is a baker in the village. Yukiko exchanges letters with Lisa every so often simply  to keep tabs on each other. When Yukiko stops sending letters, Lisa becomes worried and Felix, happy to assist,  is sent on a trip to the village to check in. When Felix  arrives to the village and meets Yukiko for the first time, he finds her  to be different from what Lisa describes of her. She’s withdrawn and appears as though she’s prepared to kill someone. It also seems her occupation has changed to a sword smith. After getting to know each other better, it is eventually revealed that her fiance was killed by Boris, a musk ox reigning over the town with his clan of oxen. Boris not only thrives as a parasite to those weaker than him, but enjoys it, always masquerading his divine power. The village cowers under Boris, but Yukiko is determined to attempt to kill him with or without aide. Yukiko’s weapon of choice, of course, is her sword. Her sword training and much other knowledge all stems from being a sparring partner to her late fiance, who liked to start spars at random. Felix joins Yukiko on her suicide mission after undergoing a bit of sword training with a false edge blade. His experience with using sticks as weapons help  speed up the process.

Felix is unsure what to do should Yukiko actually get the chance to kill Boris but he’s certain he won’t leave her alone to die as a martyr for justice.

A picture of Catrina has been added to the art section. Because I don’t have a profile, I guess I’ll add a bit of information here.

Although I’ve pretty much overshadowed her with Karina, (it’s a bit ironic actually), Catrina plays a very active role. Contrary to having access to the same funding as her sister, her wealth often plays a more positive role on the environment rather than a negative one. On occasions where Felix may need money, Catrina is usually his go to person. Likewise Catrina considers Felix her personal escort. Her bubbly and outgoing personality can become taxing at times.

There are 3 territories, green, red, and blue. Each territory is respectively named, Evergreen, Everred, and Everblue, each containing one city named after the territory. Each country has varieties of biomes and climates but are relatively named after their obvious extremes. Evergreen is the middle man with a cool climate and grasslands, Everred can get hot with deserts and rocky mountains, Everblue is water oriented with a lot of rainfall, it also has artic regions.

Lithodora takes place in a temperate blue district. Expect rain!