Get to Know the SCS Team!

Damion, Parker, and David sat down to talk about their past with classic games, and their experience creating our upcoming project "Fella's Figments" (closed testing October 2020).

See a transcript below!

PARKER: Hi, my name is Parker Hughes-

DAVID: You can hear my footsteps, you gotta wait.

DAVID: Hello, my name is David Hartman and I'm the lead programmer at Sacred Combo Studios.

DAMION: Hi, my name is Damion Lance and I'm the lead level designer at Sacred Combo Studios.

PARKER: Hi, my name is Parker Hughes and I'm the marketing director at Sacred Combo Studios.

What is your favorite classic 3D platformer?

DAMION: Oh man, okay. I think my favorite 3D platformer ever is probably the same answer as my favorite game of all time, which is the original Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast and the Gamecube.

PARKER: My favorite was probably Conker's Bad Fur Day. It was my first, like, big kid game. DAVID: My favorite 3D platformer has either got to be Mario 64 or Mario Odyssey. Mario 64 defined the genre and Mario Odyssey was a fantastic attempt to modernize it.

What about games, new and classic, inspired you to make "Fella's Figments?"

DAVID: The thing that inspired me to create Fellas Figments was the fact that a lot of modern games really lost a bit of that magic that older games had. These newer games focus so much on cinematic graphics and 80 hour storylines, but the gameplay just isn't quite enough to really keep me coming back for that long, which these older games, they were shorter, but the gameplay was fun throughout the entire thing.

PARKER: There's this picture of like this mom on a Gameboy and all her kids and like his friends are around her and she's helping them be like a level. There's a certain way that that photo like makes me feel.

Where can players see the nostalgic influence in the game?

DAMION: For players to see the nostalgia kind of baked into our game, I think you can see it a lot in some of the movement techniques that are available.

PARKER:In the world that we've created.

DAVID: Our main focus was to have the lowest skill floor we could, while having the tallest skill ceiling we could as well.

DAMION: Some of our worlds will like feel like old Mario titles. Being able to explore them, like finding nooks and crannies with coins and secrets and collectibles. That's one of my favorite things about old school platformers that like desire to explore. And I think that really comes through in our game.

What makes "Fella's Figments" stand out?

PARKER: I think that Fella's Figments is going to stand out because it fosters such a player-led environment.

DAMION: Fella's Figments sticks out compared to other 3D platformers - I think - because we've put a lot of effort into making our movement system really smooth and really fast.

DAVID: We took a lot of inspiration from older Mario games and a lot of the modernization from the newer Mario games and I think we really came up with something very good here.

DAMION: Skilled or beginner players still have a great time and feel like they are engaged in the movement but also more advanced players are able to kind of harness some of the more hidden techniques or the advanced options.

PARKER: I think that it's honestly and always has been at the core about being fun to play and being somewhere the player can ask, "can I do this?" and seeing if they can.

What surprised you most about the process?

DAVID: The thing that surprised me the most about this process is just how much artwork we need to create. I went into it knowing we would need to take a lot of time to work on it, and it still blows me away every single day.

DAMION: I'd say the thing that surprised me most about making Fella's Figments is probably the difficulty of designing engaging platforming puzzles.

PARKER: I mean, this video game is kind of like its own living thing that sounds so hippie crazy. But Fella surprises us every single day.

What are you most excited for players to see in closed testing?

DAMION: When the demo comes out, I'm really excited for players to see kind of the breadth of different platforming challenges that we've put into the demo.

PARKER: When close testing starts, I am so, so excited for people to meet Fella. Fella is, I think, just like the cutest player character that's ever been made. He's so freaking adorable.

No context, what's your favorite NPC or enemy in the game?

PARKER: Okay, I have two two picks for my favorite NPC in the game. There is a character in the waterpark level. I don't know if I'm supposed to mention that level yet. But she's just got like these floaties on her arms and this big floatie around her midsection and like goggles on her forehead. And the minute I saw the concept art for her, she hasn't left my mind.

DAVID: My favorite NPC has got to be the ankle biters.

DAMION: One of them is much more theory than the other, but I'm gonna sneak it in the final product, I promise. And I'm not allowed to tell you why, but hopefully you will find out when the game comes out. But my first answer... is probably this pirate that we're designing. He's this old hermit pirate. My second answer for one of my favorite NPCs in the game is I'm gonna be somewhere selling sandwiches.

Keep an eye out for clothes testing October, 2023.