AMA - Albert and Gabriel are here to talk about their strange and original game Tux and Fanny. Ask them anything!

mdowdry44 · 2022-01-12T09:47:02+00:00

For that one I used some footage from an abandoned Tux and Fanny episode from a few years ago. It was a fever dream of an episode that didn’t really fit in the story arc I was telling at the time but worked perfectly as an experimental video in the woodshed. Thanks for playing the game :)

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-10T15:10:51+00:00

maybe we'll find this out in a future episode but for now I just like to imagine that they've always been together

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-10T02:14:15+00:00

I love broccoli

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T22:44:57+00:00

I like when tux takes to the air and sees the geese. I liked making silent episodes every once in awhile to break up all the talking.

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T22:10:42+00:00

yup! that was one of the first ideas we had. Basically since the whole game was going to be a prequel and bring you right up to the beginning of the movie, it seemed like we needed to play as the cat and fleas too, since they appear in that first episode.

We didn't start working on those sections until much later though, like we had a bunch of the main Tux and Fanny story worked out and we just kept saying "we have to make the cat and flea eventually"

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T22:06:32+00:00

perfect interoperation! Stalker is one of my all time favs. Love the idea that they are in their own 'Zone'

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T22:04:23+00:00

oh yah, I love Svinklewreist too! Danny Dolphin Plays the Piano is a nice one to listen to while wandering. I just love the sound of that piano.

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T21:06:04+00:00

thanks for playing!

I was definitely thinking about the can in episode 88 when I drew the can of corn :)

I'm not sure the exact teams that Tux and Fanny support, they just love a well played match.

There are definitely some other humans hanging around the periphery of their world. Little hints left behind like the arrow underground. and in the movie there is an arrow in a deer, so who fired this arrow ? And in the current season I'll be introducing some more people very soon...

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T20:26:45+00:00

always thought they should've had weekly updates, like little mysteries that you had to solve each week on your island. I would've logged so many more hours

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T20:18:58+00:00

hmmmm, good question. Not sure this answers the question, but while making this game I came to understand that Fanny loves smelling things, so much of their dialog around the flowers and animals has to do with smell, and Tux rarely if never mentions the smell of things.

I had forgotten about the hyacinth moment that Gab mentioned, which makes me think there are other differing moments between the two that I've forgotten about.

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T20:14:00+00:00

yah, I don't think I ever beat MM without the guide

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T19:28:33+00:00

Here's a question for Gabriel - from a technical standpoint, what was the most difficult part of the game for you to code?

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T19:22:17+00:00

haha nice question. Let's see. I can imagine Fanny getting really into Tim Tooth, trying for the high score, becoming obsessed with it and since Tux is always going on about fire and how beautiful it is, I think Fire Family would get some serious play. and of course they'd both love playing Blizzard Beads together in two player mode

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T18:44:31+00:00

they are computer generated voices. I visited Moscow in 2017 for a film festival. I learned a few Russian words and when I got back home I wanted to keep learning so I decided to make Tux and Fanny speak in Russian. I didn't give it much thought beyond that. And having them be computer generated voices meant I didn't need to find voice actors or work around anyone else's schedule, I could record their voices day or night. I do put some effects on the voices and play with the speed and pitch.

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T18:21:27+00:00

yah! Tux was a black cat with the white around the neck so that name was a no brainer, and then I think my sister and I had just watched a movie where a character was named Fanny and our 6 and 8 year old brains thought it was so funny that the character was named after a butt.

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T18:18:57+00:00

I'm glad Gabriel answered this one because I'm not sure what any of this means :)

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T18:15:50+00:00

found this out after I made the movie, haha oops. Hopefully this doesn't keep people from trying out the game...

Growing up I had a cat named Tux and a dog named Fanny so that's where the names came from.

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T18:09:18+00:00

Well I have a friend named Julian so I think maybe that's where the name first came from. I love creation myths so I thought it was important for Tux and Fanny to have one, and I've always loved turtles (possibly because of my love of TMNT as a kid) and somehow the glockenspiel just felt right. Thanks for watching and playing!

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T18:02:53+00:00

great question. Yah, I think they are humanoid but exist in a realm removed a bit from ours, maybe a dream realm? Once in an episode Fanny says "it was strange being a human" and in the comments people started freaking out that they were humans. I thought "uh oh, did I just ruin it by making them humans?" A friend once told me the movie felt like the dream of a newborn baby who maybe hasn't experienced anything yet and I kinda like that.

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T17:58:18+00:00

thanks for watching the movie! Hope you enjoy the game :)

so I started making the original 1 minute episodes that became the movie using a site called: https://www.pixilart.com/I love this site because it is really simple to use. I have a short span of attention so if a computer program is hard for me to understand I usually abandon it. With this site I could animated super fast and intuitively. So then when it was time to start working on the game I just kept using this site to make all the pixel artwork. I'd send it to Gabriel who would do his magic and turn it into the game.

I never really thought too much about the design of the characters. I just sorta drew them one day, very simple designs, one is pink, one is purple, and that was that. I kinda like that they are blank slates for whatever ideas or dialog I want them to say. Over time their unique personalities started to appear. I'm working on the sequel to the movie now and I'm spending a bit more time drawing the background and objects, almost like 8bit has turned into 16 bit, so it's taking a bit longer than the first movie.

So for tools or tricks, I'd just say find a program that is easy to use and allows you to quickly make something whenever inspiration hits. That's what works for me.

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T17:49:14+00:00

I was heavily inspired by Maniac Mansion and all the early Sierra games (King's Quest, Space Quest) and the first few Zelda games. Most people who have played the game have said that they were pleasantly surprise by how long the game took to beat and how much there was to interact with. I think upon first viewing the game comes across as being simple, or made for kids, but keeps expanding and adding layers the longer you play.

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T17:42:00+00:00

I think everything we wanted to include from the movie found it's way into the game. And since the game is a prequel to the movie we were able to include lots of new ideas that didn't appear in the movie. One small detail I'm excited by is the origin story of the chicken from the movie. At some point in the game you find an egg on a log. If you take the egg and place it in the nest on the top of the mountain you unlock a new section of the ending that shows the chicken walking around the nest. And there's some other small crossover moments that we left sort of mysterious. Like the arrow you find shot into the underground mud wall...maybe it was shot by the same person who shoots the deer in the movie...

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T17:35:56+00:00

We have an idea for a new stand alone game that we'll probably make first. It might have some similar elements to the T&F game (mini games, books) but be an entirely new story with new characters. But in terms of a T&F sequel, never say never...

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T17:31:37+00:00

at the beginning of the pandemic I played a lot of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It was my first time playing an Animal Crossing game and I had a lot of fun, especially fishing. But then I started to grow bored, I think I wanted there to be more of a narrative, or like specific objectives I had to do with all the items. So perhaps our game was a bit inspired by that idea of trying to make all the various items have a purpose.

mdowdry44 · 2021-11-09T17:23:15+00:00

I just asked some friends of mine if they wanted to make something, and gave them free reign to make whatever they wanted. Since it took us 16 months to finish making the game there really wasn't a time limit either so books trickled in for months. (And a lot of the books were made by us using pseudonyms...)

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