The Dancer

He stood up and stretched, his limbs almost seemed to detach from his joints. He stretched his neck from side to side and then looked at me curiously.

“I think it’s best we move away from them.” he said, motioning to the sleeping mother with her young.

He moved away and as he moved I noticed how he seemed to blend in with the grass. There was no jarring motion to him but energy seemed to come out of every limb. There was power there. Then suddenly he began to turn, swiftly, I felt myself getting dizzy as he moved over the ground. Continue The Dancer

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The Doe

After my encounter in the woods I had begun to shy from my daily walks. Left with nothing that could empty my mind I had taken to sitting on my back porch and staring into the valley it overlooked.

It used to be active, with children running over the hills and animals shying away from the noise, creeping low in the grass. Now it was silent and gray. The flowers that were once saturated with color had become dull. They still bloomed but there was no life in their petals. I could see the grass swaying in the wind, but I couldn’t hear the birds calling to one another.

I shifted uneasily. It was Spring, yet everything felt like it was sleeping.

or fading.

Continue The Doe

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The Dream

The feeling of wading through seaweed. The tiny hands grasping you, slowing you down, forcing you to push forward or you risk drowning in them.

I wasn’t in the same place. Everything was in shadow. I was surrounded by a deadly sense of calm, like I’d already been caught and was resigned to my fate.

I didn’t want to be resigned to my fate. Continue The Dream

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The Woodcarver (Patreon 6/23, Public 6/27)

He stood in front of me. A slight man with a thick beard. He had a brown hood that shaded his eyes so that his face was more beard than man. On his back he carried an assortment of wood, it was almost impossible to understand where the tree limbs ended and his limbs began. I felt his eyes glace over me, sizing me up. Continue The Woodcarver (Patreon 6/23, Public 6/27)

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The Camp/The Boy

The Camp

People are moving.

No, they aren’t moving. They’re being recruited.

I’m not sure where Lesco came from or what his beliefs are but he has a hold on my town that I can’t describe. We were all once . . . happy.

There was a young boy who lived down the street from me. He used to play happily with whatever was available to him. I remember once as I passed him he told me that he’d found the perfect stick to slay some imaginary dragon he’d created out in the forest. He was a boy on a mission. But now, now he only sat, staring across the street at a nothing he couldn’t even imagine. He didn’t speak of dragons or swords, the adventures he was going to go on. He spoke of Lesco. Only Lesco. Continue The Camp/The Boy

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Bittersweet

Bittersweet

I don’t think I need to tell anyone that 2020’s been a crazy year for everyone. The ‘death of Flash’ was one of the bizarrities of last year that were more personal to me than most. It’s difficult to see an entire workflow be deleted from the internet that I almost entirely credit as my entry point into game development, my outlet for creativity, the ‘tool of my trade’, so to speak. The freedom, the ease of sharing work, the personal nature of most Flash games, I don’t think there will ever be anything similar to Flash again.

But, with Flash’s death, there’s been more attention on Flash, Flash developers, and Flash games than there has been in quite awhile, it’s, well, bittersweet. I’ve been taking some time off of development and trying to not take the whole ordeal too personally, but I’ve been talking about Flash, games, gaming, and all that quite a bit lately, so I won’t go on too long here about it, but I think I owe the brave souls who listened to me ramble for far too long a link below if you’d like to hear more from me about it.

The end of Flash: What legacy will it leave behind? – Amelia Hansford

Flash Game History – Jonas Richner

It’s from awhile ago, but I haven’t made a post in even longer, so please check out Flash Game History if you haven’t already. I shouldn’t be surprised to see so much love and admiration given to Flash developers, but it still stuns me to think that have any sort of place among them.

Flash Developer on the Dead of Flash – Me

I made this video that long ago?? Should be no surprise that I forgot to link it on the site anyway. I don’t think my thoughts have changed all that much, though I do need to make an updated video now that Flash is finally actually completely dead.

So what’s the future look like for Borne Games, then? I’ve been taking a bit of a break from the stress of trying to get the next game funded / published, but there’s still some plans creeping forward in the background, so we’ll just have to see how 2021 plays out.

Don’t worry, though! Flash may die, but Fancy Pants will live on! I’ve been pretty terrible about using the site for any sort of collection of information, so I’ll give that list it’s own post soon.

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FPA: World 4 now online!

I haven’t released anything online in forever, and now seems like a pretty good time to do that, with everyone stuck inside…

So! I’m finally releasing Super Fancy Pants online as World 4, in pieces (it’s a pretty big game, after all), part 1 will be the Basement Spire, part 2 (not to be confused with SFPA ch.2!) Squiggleville Plains, etc.

Enjoy some good ol’ fashion Fancy Pants and stay safe (and fancy)!

Part 1:

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The Fancy Pants Adventures: World 1 Remaster

In case anyone hasn’t seen it, the World 1 Remaster is live for PC on itch.io, and on iOS and Android!

The Fancy Pants Adventures: World 1 Remaster on itch.io

And free (ad supported) on mobile!

The Fancy Pants Adventures: World 1 Remaster on iOS

The Fancy Pants Adventures: World 1 Remaster on Android

Not convinced, check the trailer!

Already got the game? Here’s the official 100% Walkthrough / Dev Commentary:

Stay fancy my friends.

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FPA World 2 Christmas Edition

Merry Christmas, internet!

Site’s been even more dead than usual, unfortunately. But on the plus side, the FPA Discord server has more activity than the site ever did, so make sure to come say hi!

Discord

Patrons get an exclusive channel where I post as much behind the scenes content as I can, give patrons early builds, and if you’d like to make suggestions for the future of FPA, that’s the best place to do it.

Borne Games Patreon

Patrons are going to get access to the World 2 Remaster as I make it, so you’ll get a closer view of development than ever before.

Standalone builds of classic FPA games are available to patrons, but for Christmas, I’m making a standalone build of World 2 Christmas Edition available to everyone!

Click for a full size wallpaper version. Sheesh, that image is over a decade old!

Download for Mac

Download for PC

Backup links in case you get an error:

Download for Mac

Download for PC

(my Mac bros: right click the app and hit open, that’ll let you play the unsigned app)

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Legend of Excalipurr

“Oh! I can’t watch this!” she said as she curled up in her chair covering her eyes.

“No! No, it’s fine! I got this, I just have to figure out how I want to jump.” I said, concentrating.

I have to admit, it’s always nice to see a member of a development team reacting to someone playing their current project. I’m so used to feeling that sense of worry or watching it cross Brad’s face that I don’t even think about other developers/artists going through it.

I was at the local game dev meet up, where a few people (including Brad) had brought their games for people to try out. I actually hadn’t planned on trying anything out but had been handed the controller by someone who was finished playing. You don’t exactly want to say “no thanks” when someone who made the game is nearby, but being one of the few females in the group it was bit nerve wracking. I also have this anxiety when it comes to people watching me play games. It’s that inner feeling of your gaming skills being judged. I have no idea if it’s because I’m a girl or what but its there.

Anyway.

Continue Legend of Excalipurr

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BorneGames Site

Hey guys!

As you can see if you’re here the site is back up and it’s gone through a little redesign. Please be patient while we figure out what we need to add and alter, if you have any suggestions feel free to post them in the comments!

The forum is no more since we’ve moved onto our own Discord server. If you haven’t joined the Discord chat feel free to check out the “Follow Us” drop down menu to get to the invite link!

Brad will be starting up livestreams again soon and we’ll be doing our best to keep this site as updated as possible. Thank you for your patience 🙂

– Fairly

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Fancy Pants Design: Combat

Let’s talk about some game design!

Fun fact, the last time I stuck my face in front of the camera was 7 years ago 😐

Apologies for being woefully out of practice at actually looking at a camera. What do you guys want to see next? Interested in seeing how everyone responds to videos about games that are already out instead of still being worked on…

Don’t worry, we’ll be seeing some new content too 😀

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Anti-Anti-Skeuomorphism video rant

During the development of Super Fancy Pants, I just never had enough time to work on development videos, now that things are starting to settle down (wrapping up the Android build, woo!), I’d like to start up with some post-dev videos, especially since I’m still updating and adding things to the game (join the beta to get the latest builds!).

Figured I’d start off with the biggest design challenge for the mobile version: touch screen controls. It’s difficult to figure out the balance between keeping the controls out of the way, and giving players subconscious cues for button press-ability. I think I followed the anti-skeuomorphism trend a bit too far with the first release, so here’s a look at next update’s revised buttons.

I feel out of practice and the video might be terrible, but that’s just making me want to record another one soon, so there’s something (if I had a dollar for every time I said I wanted to post more videos…).

Anyways, anything you guys want to see? Tutorial style videos for the combat, movement, or guides for the more difficult challenges would be the obvious ones, let me know!

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Super Fancy Pants Update #1

First off, WE DID IT! After 3 years of development, Super Fancy Pants Adventure has launched on Steam!

Let’s Plays and reviews have so far been overwhelmingly positive. Hearing about how nostalgic players have for the series has gotten me choked up at points, and the enjoyment I’ve seen players get from the game is really what making games is all about for me.

A huge thank you to the No Good Terrible Game Breakers that have been helping track down bugs, and of course my family for dealing with my crazy addiction of making and releasing games.

Anyway, what’s in the update??

Game Freezing / white screen

Some older GPUs were not triggering the fallback rendering style in the game and just showing a white screen. I’m manually checking compatibility now, so this issue should be resolved.

Performance Improvements

Some changes slipped through when updating the framework, and the game ended up rendering everything twice, the new update should see a massive performance increase, especially on GPU limited systems.

All The Bug Fixes

So many fixes, guys. So many.

The Future

Everyone wants it, so it looks like local multiplayer is going to be the first major content update for SFPA. It’ll take some time to get the main levels working properly with it (lots of camera problems to solve), but I have a handful of test levels created during development that should work without much modification, so I’ll try to get something to test out multiplayer up sooner rather than later.

Also have some new multiplayer modes in mind that I think will be really fun 😀 I haven’t forgotten about multiplayer, just wanted to get the core mechanics of the game completed and polished first!

If there’s something you want to see in future updates, let me know!

And all updates are planned to be free, so no, World 5 will not be added to SFPA 😛

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