{"id":2647,"date":"2016-07-22T10:39:36","date_gmt":"2016-07-22T08:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thegamebakers.com\/?p=2647"},"modified":"2016-09-16T16:42:51","modified_gmt":"2016-09-16T14:42:51","slug":"furi-and-creating-memorable-moments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thegamebakers.com\/furi-and-creating-memorable-moments\/","title":{"rendered":"Furi and creating memorable moments"},"content":{"rendered":"
Emeric Thoa is Creative Director and Co-Founder at The Game Bakers.\u00a0Follow The Game Bakers: @TheGameBakers<\/a> \/ @EmericThoa<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Furi is a character action game in which you fight only bosses. You can get an idea of what the game is about with this trailer: Furi Trailer<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n We launched\u00a0Furi and received\u00a0a truly incredible response from some\u00a0players: they are crazy about the game, they love it more than I could\u00a0have ever dreamt. In the meantime, other\u00a0players, some reviewers didn’t enjoy the game or felt rejected by it. And they criticized the game\u00a0for that. That\u2019s pretty fair, but here is a thing. Not every game is for you.<\/strong> That\u2019s what is called diversity. That\u2019s a good thing (Ken Wong explains it better than I would ever do<\/a>).<\/p>\n Of course, there are games that are bad or average. They missed something and very few people actually love them. But\u00a0I don’t think it’s the\u00a0case for Furi. As it was very well summed up in some reviews, Furi is a love-hate kind of game. And believe it or not: it\u2019s by design. It\u2019s a game that was designed to create intense satisfaction, and it succeeded in doing so, even if it frustrated some along the way.<\/p>\n In this article, I\u2019ll explain how we came up with this intention, and how we made it happen.<\/p>\n After we made Combo Crew on mobile, my partner Audrey and myself started thinking about what our next game could be. We were in 2013. Indie gaming was already big, but we knew it would grow bigger. We knew the market would be even more saturated, even more fragmented. We knew that, by 2016, iOS and Google Play would be nothing like in 2010. Steam would be flooded by releases every day, and even the very young new consoles (PS4 and Xbox One) would have their stores full of games and sales of any kind.<\/p>\n We realized that, in order to be in the top 10 of the indie devs, we needed to make something \u00ab outstanding \u00bb. A game that stands out<\/strong>, in every possible way.\u00a0A game with an edge<\/strong>. A game that I call a \u00ab Triple i \u00bb or \u201ciii\u201d.<\/p>\n This picture was in the very first document for Furi<\/em><\/p>\n Triple AAA games have the budget, the talents, the teams to achieve greatness with a huge scope. Story, visuals, characters, gameplay features, game modes, game length\u2026 they try to have everything in order to please everybody. Their aim is mass audience.<\/p>\n We believed that, in order to be competitive, smaller studios must go the opposite way. We are too small to be the best at everything, but we can aim to be the best at one thing. We can make something edgy. We can choose not to please everybody<\/strong>. We can choose to make something that most would actually dislike, in order to make sure a niche of gamers will find it truly memorable.<\/p>\n This was the foundation of our strategy for the three years to come.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Every decision in Furi was made in order to make it memorable for a niche of gamers who were\u00a0somewhat starved: the Japanese character action game fans. Every decision was made in order to make the game outstanding, unique and focused.<\/p>\n The art direction stands out, with colourful and surrealistic environments.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The character design is stylish and unique, as we can expect from Afro Samurai\u2019s creator Takashi Okazaki.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The combat is (very) fast paced, inspired by Japanese game design.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Its use of both shoot\u2019em up and beat\u2019em up mechanics is totally unique.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The soundtrack is made up of original compositions from\u00a0amazing\u00a0electro and synthwave musicians.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n If we compare with the direction taken by\u00a0a recent mainstream beat\u2019em up like God of War, it’s clear to\u00a0see we just went the opposite way. They go for realism, we opted for surrealism. They went\u00a0for an orchestral soundtrack, we decided on electro. Let\u2019s not fight head to head with these guys, right?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They aimed for mass appeal, we didn’t. No compromises. No consensus.\u00a0We developed a game for a niche audience, but with the intention on casting a spell on our fans forever.<\/p>\n This is a bold strategy to start with, but it\u2019s even harder to make it actually happen. Especially during two years of production where as a creative director you are constantly challenged, by the team, by the playtesters, by the press in previews, by trailers comments\u2026 by anyone who is slightly\u00a0involved in the game really.<\/p>\n I remember, during the heat of the production, tweeting this:<\/p>\n
\nFuri is a Love-Hate game<\/em><\/p>\nPart one: On making a game that doesn\u2019t try to please everyone.<\/h4>\n
Part two: On fighting half-measures. On making strong choices.<\/h4>\n