Creator Spotlight 22 - Foofles
Foofles
Guns, Fun and Bun(nnies)
Interview conducted by xkappax
What do you think of when I say the name Foofles? Do you think of great platforming? Maybe. Do you think of fun boss fights? Perhaps. But more than anything, when I say Foofles, the first thing that springs to mind is “Bunnies, bunnies and MORE bunnies!” Robotic Bunnies, Space Bunnies, and Giant Bunnies that step on me and kill me; they’re all there, and they’re all brilliant.
But Foofles’ levels are more than just a bunch of bunnies hopping around and shooting you in the face. They are a marriage between humor, good mechanics and polish. This combination rarely exists in the world of LittleBigPlanet. The levels don’t take themselves seriously, but they’re seriously hilarious, and that’s really what LittleBigPlanet is all about, isn’t it? But enough of my yappin’! Let’s get on with the interview and see what makes this creator tick... Er, I mean ‘hop’.
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Shortly after Cog is hired by the Creator Spotlight crew, he learns that he's bitten off more than he can chew!
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All right, this one isn’t really a question, but if you would be so kind, please list the levels you’ve published to date and any statistics you’d like to share with us, i.e. plays, hearts, how many rocket animals per level, etc. Whatever you feel like sharing.
Mystic Garden - This is a level I published during the pre-release beta. 476 Plays and 30 hearts. It took me a short time to make, I published it the last day of the beta and it got one heart :D I was so happy.
Mecha-Bunny Mayhem! - The first bunny level. 1,710 plays and 176 hearts. It's a short level but people seemed to have enjoyed it. There are 9 real bunnies and 28 mecha bunnies. Outnumbered, but the Q-tip of doom cannot be beaten!
Hare-Razing Heights! - Second bunny level, first one with a boss. 1,843 plays and 193 hearts. First level I started using intermediate logic like permanent switches, also plenty of little details I like in here. Like when you're riding in the elevator shaft there are these little robot bunnies in the background who run away as the lift nears them. :) Had a video review on the LBPreviews blog.
Tundra Trouble! - The third Bunny level and probably one of the hardest. 1,400 Plays, 92 hearts. I republished over a dozen times because people had trouble with the twin serpent boss.
Ghostly Grove - No bunnies! 640 plays, 59 hearts. There is a lone point bubble stuck in the wall that you cannot get. Oops :). There are 34 spotlights in the woods to simulate the moonlight, and I love the effect. I changed the character design of the ghost enemies and bosses like 10 times before it was published.
Cosmic Conundrum - Act 4 of Bunny series. The first level I tried making with the MGS kit. 299 hearts and 2,492 plays. This was on Media Molecule's front page once! The area where the bunny hotwires the rocket has enemies that respawn infinitely until he is done, so the faster you kill the more points you get!!!
Factory Frenzy - Act 5 of the bunny series. 771 plays and 77 hearts. The things that fall down rails in the background were a last second add and I think they look great. The section from the race end to the level end takes up 1 bar on the thermometer, and the last bar was left to finalize the visuals.
Bunnies in Space - my level for the GOTY disc. Does this count? I don't know how many plays or hearts there were here, but I get a lot of comments on it. Mixed bag. Some people say they love it, other half complains of glitches. I can't fix the glitches and couldn't get anyone to test it for me. :( Trivia: When I first started working on this it was actually...
Wild Adventure in the Woods - My latest but not last bunny level. 824 plays and 82 hearts. Character design went through 5 different revisions. That bird! He kept looking ugly.
Kitchen Katastrophy - 188 plays, 40 hearts. New level! No bunnies. /lie Ok there may or may not be one if you have a keen eye :)
No rocket cheetahs were harmed in the making of any levels.
Now, tell me... of these levels, which is your favorite? And why?
That's so hard to say. I'd say I like cosmic conundrum most because it's full of action, but I also really like the atmosphere I made in Factory Frenzy, Ghostly Grove, and Wild Adventure in the Woods. I think I really nailed the look I was going for in Factory Frenzy the most.
How long have you been playing LBP?
I followed the game since it was announced and got into the pre-release beta the last few days it was running. I got the game on day 1 so I'm a veteran. :)
What was the first full level you ever built? And what was it like?
Mystic Garden, from the beta. You can see for yourself! It's short, not terribly complex, and a little frustrating towards the end. I did it to see how well I knew the tools.
What creators and levels (if any) have inspired you to create?
Media Molecule mainly. They have a certain charm to most of their levels and they don't feel overly complex or crowded. I'm trying to really nail this idea in my next bunny level.
Aside from drawing inspiration from other creators and levels, is there anything in the world outside of LittleBigPlanet that inspires you? This could be a hobby, profession, or even a particular movie or type of music. Pretty much it can be anything in your personal life that has contributed to your experiences as well as inspired you as a creator.
I get inspired by everything! So many games across many genres I'll play and think, "This would work great in LittleBigPlanet!". Even mean games like God of War have that effect. I'm starting a new series where I'm mostly inspired by the regular world we live in but from the POV of a few inch tall sackperson. :) Huge, huge, huge inspiration for me are old school platforming games like Donkey Kong Country and Sonic the Hedgehog.
What are some of your favorite video games (excluding LBP) - new and old?
Donkey Kong Country, Grim Fandango, Duke Nukem 3D, Commander Keen series, Final Fantasy 8, Super Mario RPG, House of the Dead 2 for Dreamcast with the light gun, Demon's Souls, the Hugo adventure series for DOS.. pretty much most of the 8 and 16 bit era platforming and adventure games!
If you could list your favorite things about LittleBigPlanet, what would they be?
Very powerful toolset, great community, great soundtrack.
And your least favorite thing(s)?
The tools are a little annoying to use sometimes, especially working between layers.
The graphics. Yes, you heard me Sony / MM, your graphics suck! I think they can be a lot sharper and less bland. There's this fuzzy effect on everything and it looks horrible, like the camera was smeared with vaseline or something.
The prompt when someone invites you or wants to join you, it steals focus from whatever you were doing. Who thought of that? I hate it so much.The fact that it's so hard to make something that looks genuinely good. Everything looks so flat, works great for some things, works poorly for others.
What’s the worst thing that’s happened while creating?
Many times I published levels to have them then break and everything in the level unglue and fall apart and I'd have to go back and fix it over and over again. I don't think this happens anymore.
On a sort of similar subject, have there ever been any great ideas you had that failed or for any other reason you never implemented?
Hundreds. Usually I end up recycling the idea when I get better at the game. Actually in my Wild Adventure in the Woods level, I wanted to do some kind of setup where you'd have to punch the boss with these spring loaded boxing gloves. It kept breaking though, I will have to recycle the idea later.
In my new Kitchen Katastrophy level, in the part with the mouse, I originally planned to have dangers like gas that you'd have to avoid but then got into issues with player respawns and things and simplified it so there are obstacles but none are lethal. Thought I could work it out but just wanted to get the level out, even considered removing the mouse part altogether but left it for variety.
If you worked for Media Molecule, what would your first order of business be? This could be anything from adding materials or tools to eradicating H4H.
I'd improve the rendering engine and shaders. Like I said, it looks awful. It should look a lot crisper. I'd also put in more variety to the materials, especially metals. I'd also like the ability to make objects have ACTUAL rounded edges, if you know what I mean. I hate how everything looks so rectangular along the Z axis.
I think I'd also like more variety to the corner editor, like maybe a "smooth" brush to round out edges, I think that would be divine.
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I would NOT want this guy on my bad side!
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So, all right. This is the first question that has to be asked. Foofles, if that IS your real name, what is the deal with you and bunnies? Are you particularly fond of rabbits, do you have a pet rabbit or is there some other reason you chose them as the main subject matter for your levels?
Bunnies are cute. Ok, embarrassing story - There was a show on TV for kids, I think it had a puppet called Lamb Chop and it had a little song about Little Bunny Foo Foo, and my mom called me that ever since. It stuck and I'd use Lil' Bunny Foo Foo online, and then I'd start shorting it to 'Foo' variations and happened upon Foofles eventually, and the bunny stuck. The bunny design in my avatar is ancient. I had one pet bunny but I had to give him away. I love bunnies but actually cats are my favorite animals!!! SHOCK AND HORROR!
You are a big fan of guns and a big advocate of second amendment rights. I also see that a lot of your levels use the Paintinator. Am I sensing a correlation here?
Not necessarily. I feel guns are not toys, so my paintinator usage wasn't really to turn LBP into call of duty, but I felt it was really action oriented and fun. I'm also trying to shy away from using paintinator as I think for now I've exhausted my creative juices on paintinator bosses and I think I've relied on the gimmick for too long.
Oh who am I kidding, I love shooting stuff until it blows up.
We have talked many times about this subject, but you have told me many times that it feels like the magic has left the game and that you feel that LittleBigPlanet hasn’t lived up to your expectations that you had of it in the beginning. What were these expectations and what are you hopes for the future of LBP and LBP2?
It's really hard to put into words. I suppose when I first saw the videos of LittleBigPlanet pre-release, I got this warm feeling inside just full of childish abandon. Like nothing but joy and silly fun. Even just dancing around with feathers on your head like a Kindergartner made my heart flutter with delight. Everything seemed so playful and warm, but it seems like the community isn't bringing that out in the game. Myself included. I am going to try my hardest to bring these feelings into my next bunny level, due within the next couple of weeks.
You like to use alliteration in the titles of your levels. Ghostly Grove, Cosmic Conundrum, etc. Is this something that you decided to do from the very beginning, or did it just happen?
It just kind of happened because I liked the sound of it, then the 2nd level I had a good pun and then I figured, why not? It's cool enough if I don't have to force it. Like in my latest bunny level and my next one, I didn't happen upon any good titles like that so I'm not using it.
You were one of the lucky creators chosen back in the winter of 2009 to work on the Game of the Year Edition (you lucky bugger!). That had to be extremely exciting. Can you talk a bit about your experience?
I'm not sure, can I? :) It was very interesting, it started with a PSN message that I thought would end up being for some blog and then I eventually started getting emails from SCEA producers. It was tough, I think the thing that really bothered me was that I couldn't actually get any opinions on my work or get anyone to test it, otherwise I might not have the few known issues there are now that I can't even fix.
It was also very exciting to work with the camera crew, I actually improvised my little dialogue on the spot. I also cut my hair since then, so rejoice or cry. :)
I was under a very strict NDA about it, so I couldn't talk to anyone about it even though I was excited. As soon as it was lifted I told everyone the good news. Yup I didn't tell any of my friends. I can keep secrets amazingly well :)
One thing that has always been memorable about your levels, aside from the bunnies, are your boss battles. What sort of process goes into making these battles? Do you plan them out meticulously, or is it something that just happens when you are in the level messing around?
I think you can judge that from the quality. With things like my serpent battle in Tundra Trouble, I imagined the design and creation in my head for days before I actually started it; I planned all the logic in advance even before I started the level. The same with the boss from the 2nd bunny level, the one that stomps his hands on the ground. To be honest I could make him more stable and less cheap now, so maybe I should rerelease some older bunny acts.
The second boss in Factory Frenzy was totally just thrown together. I'm running stale on the Paintinator bosses so that's one more reason I'm not going to be using paintinators as much anymore.
This isn’t exactly related to LBP, but you started making your very own 3D Game engine a little while ago. I remember seeing concept art of giant cheese enemies, evil bananas that looked like Duurps, and my favorite, the Grapes of Wrath. Can we expect to see a full game by you in the future featuring these wacky creatures? Talk about anything you want about this Foof-engine, we’re here to listen. ^__^
The Foof Engine has been on hold for a bit, I am trying to work a client-server setup instead of what was there before. To be honest, I didn't go into it with intentions of having a game with all the fruit and alien characters but I think it could work, it seems cooky enough that people would want to play it. I'm always rewriting it to make it better, and the engine as a whole will support a scene editor. Not like Unreal Ed exactly, but something similar.
Right now the Renderer is for DirectX10 only, ie. Vista and up. But I will put in support for OpenGL, DirectX 9, etc. It's a small part of the engine to code, really. Modular design. :)
Latest video here: http://www.youtube.com/user/MrFoofle.../0/P0vjZh8MsGg
You can see that it supports full collision against scenery and movable scenery. Graphics wise, it supports a lot of effects but not all of them are perfected enough for me to display. I'm still working on things like particle systems, I also am working on better lighting algorithms. I also temporarily disabled animation blending as I make it better...
Uses my own Model format which supports skeletal animation with 256 bones per mesh, 4 bone influences per vertex. I also have a plugin to export from 3DS Max. So really, if I ever release the engine in a format that would allow people to create their own games, you could easily create art assets in 3DS max and export them into the engine. :)
To be honest my engine is the framework for a much larger and extremely serious game idea. I don't know if I wish to disclose it here :) I am actually trying to talk to sony about helping me get this project started, it would be PS3 exclusive in that case! :D
You are excellent at injecting just the right amount of humor into your levels. Even your more serious levels are peppered with humor here and there. You just can’t help but smile at robotic bunnies, even if they are trying to kill you. Is it hard for you to achieve that mix of humor and polish in a level?
Humor is always something that came naturally to me, I find the humor that works best is always something spontaneous and that just happens naturally. If you force humor it tends to feel stale.
What can we expect from Mr. Foofles in the future (LBP future, not real future, lol!)?
I will start working on LBP levels again. I am going to toy with a new series that pits you in regular human environments but as a few inch tall sackperson. The first one was in a Kitchen and I hope everyone enjoys it. I will also be working on a new bunny level but I would really like to show people I can do more than bunnies. You'll find I'm starting to stray away from the mecha-bunny theme, but I may return to it eventually. The next bunny level will not have evil robotic armies trying to kill you, just other things :)
And now, a light-hearted question: Your levels feature giant, gun-wielding, evil bunnies. What would you do if you came across one of these giant bunnies in real life and would it require more firepower than currently at your disposal?
Firepower? All I got for firepower is my Yorkshire terrier Tiger and a bunch of toy guns. And of course my guitars and amps. I'm sorry, I hate to say it, but if NYC were really invaded by an army of evil, mechanical bunnies... I think we'd be done for.
Finally, is there anything you, as a creator, would like to add to this? Or any other experiences you’d like to share? If not, I’d like to ask one more question of you: If you could give any bit of advice to new creators out there who are thinking about entering the wonderful world of creating, what would it be?
Have fun! Don't stress out over making things in the game, it's a game and games should be fun, not a chore! I know I always have fun when I'm creating, and if I'm not having fun I stop :) I don't do anything I don't enjoy.
Other than that, some general advice: give things depth! Don't just slap a huge color sticker on big flat blocks... flesh them out a bit! Use stickers, you have to really think outside the box but you'd be surprised at what you can use these things for. Some more obvious things are the gradients... I use them all the time to shade things in, makes them have a little more depth.
Animate things! Use different materials! Give things life. And don't forget sound!!! Remember, a key point of animation in general is that everything is exaggerated! Especially sound, if you knock down a door in your level don't just rely on the game physics to play a little "bang" sound. Put in sound effects to make it sound like a wrecking ball is knocking down a 50 foot door made of solid steel!
And use clean color combinations. You should stick to 3 main colors for each of your areas in the level. And shapes, don't worry about getting really elaborate shapes, LBP favors a sort of cardboard cutout character style anyway, if you try to make it too realistic and detailed it actually looks awful.
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Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!
He's got huge, sharp... er... He can leap about... LOOK AT THE BONES!
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It's the battle of the bands. This is the moment that BoxGhost has been waiting for her whole life. She gets up on the stage, confident that this is going to finally be her time to shine... but wait.... what is that awesome music? And where is it coming from?! Find out in this exciting installment of RemoteMoonProductions' Creator Closeup! And just so y'all know, Foofles recorded all of his own guitar music for this one! ENJOY!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfOk3Du7J6M
For those of you with shiny ipads and iphones, here's the direct link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfOk3Du7J6M
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Foofles has been rockin' the pop-it since the very beginnings of the game and is very good at it. With a PSN name like Foofles, you just can't help but smile when you're blasting through the hoards of evil mechanical bunnies that he sets you against. His levels are about something that I truly believe has been lost by many creators since the very beginning of this game: Fun. It's what the game is all about. Sure, his levels also have all the polish and bells and whistles that it takes to be a top creator, but they also have that "Media Molecule" quality about them. I think that's one of the things that sets Foofles here apart from the rest. Well, that, and I challenge you to find another who can maintain the level of humor and fun in their levels as long as he has. And if Foofles ever does choose to abandon the Epic Bunny series, perhaps he will treat us with another weapon-wielding animal adventure, such as Kitten Kraze or Puppy Pandemonium? I know I'd play it.
Well, that's all, folks! We hope you have enjoyed this installment of the Creator Spotlight. For past spotlights, please visit this link. See you in two weeks!
