Interview | Fusty Games on Hover: Revolt of Gamers

By Jorge Ba-oh 11.05.2014

Futuristic, open-world rebellion is coming in Hover: Revolt of Gamers, with a crowdfunding campaign to see the project realised. Avoid the authorities to recover confiscated game consoles, help citiizens and fight back in a world devoid of entertainment.

Cubed3 caught up with the team at Fusty game to discuss the concept, how the project came together, ideas for a Wii U version and plans for the future.

Image for Interview | Fusty Games on Hover: Revolt of Gamers


Cubed3: Please introduce yourself and the team working at Fusty Game.
 
Fusty Game: Fusty Game is composed by three young indie developers:
 
Marine Baron takes care of everything character-wise, from their design to the 3D modelling, texture-sheets and animations.
 
Charles Vésic creates all the environments, from the level design to the 3D modelling, the implementation into the game engine, texture-sheets and lightning.
 
Pierre Raffali manages all the Programming, and designs both gameplay and gamer animations.
 
We met each other two and a half years ago when we were still students. We immediately began to create our first game, The Secret of Space Octopuses, during two years full-time and without any funding. At the end of the development, Midgar Studio contacted us and they were interested in publishing our game on mobiles. It was then that our partnership began, and it's thanks to them that we can launch a Kickstarter campaign today.
 
We also won a Retro Game Jam in November 2013 for which we've developed old-school game Super Commodore Holy Tank Soccer Deluxe in 32 hours.
 

Image for Interview | Fusty Games on Hover: Revolt of Gamers


Cubed3: So how did the Hover: Revolt of Gamers concept come to be?
 
Fusty Game: We've had two fantasies for a long time: First, we dreamed about a 100% free and interactive game in a vast futuristic city like Star Wars full of flying cars, neon lights and holograms everywhere. All the games full of freedom like Grand Theft Auto almost always take place in a contemporary context and common cities like New York or LA.
 
Moreover, we dreamed about a first person game that would be extremely dynamic, fast, and which would offer thrilling sensations.
 
Cubed3: How would you best describe Hover: Revolt of Gamers?
 
Fusty Game: Hover is a next gen parkour game. It makes you travel through a unique universe that is futuristic, fun, and colorful, whilst offering new, yet unseen sensations based on speed, bounces, grinds and tricks. What's more incredible is that you'll keep that same freedom in multiplayer, and even more so since you will be able to create your own challenges, cooperate in missions or rival other players. All of this is done in a dynamic and non-linear way.
 

Image for Interview | Fusty Games on Hover: Revolt of Gamers


Cubed3: What's the storyline behind the game?
 
Fusty Game: The game takes place in a vast futuristic extra-terrestrial megalopolis. A new mayor declared war to all sort of entertainment, and especially video games. A new synthetic police has appeared, taking away consoles and hunting down their owners. A gamer team decided to revolt against this. Equipped with high tech suits, gamers can run at high speed and jump to incredible heights, making it easier for them when they have to take part to the anti-propaganda missions, helping citizens or infiltrating gigantic warehouses to gather confiscated consoles.
 
Cubed3: What games, films or animé have helped inspire and shape the project?
 
Fusty game: With video games, our inspirations are obvious. We wanted to combine the interactivity and the dynamism of Mirror's Edge with the crazy fun and colourful atmosphere of Jet Set Radio.
 
On the movies side, we were marked by movie scenes like Leeloo's fall in The 5th Element, the escape of John Anderton jumping from one car to another, Obiwan who crossed Corruscant hanging from little flying droid, the chase on rooftops in Total Recall 2012's city...
 
All those scenes offer thrilling sensations and such an atmosphere that we've always wanted to feel in video games, all of this with a total freedom. That's what we are doing with Hover and it was about time!
 

Image for Interview | Fusty Games on Hover: Revolt of Gamers


Cubed3: The graphical direction looks stunning so far, how does the team go about creating these futuristic worlds?
 
Charles: I'm alone at the task of creating this gigantic city. The work is huge, and kind of frightening sometimes. However, I work step-by-step, street after street, one neighbour after another. I am determined in creating an original universe, that's why I'm driving myself into bringing designs that I've never seen before. If a building looks too much like real life buildings, I delete it and start again. I really want to make people travel as far as possible, with everything being interactive.
 
Marine: With the characters, I wanted to come back to the era where mascots weren't realistic soldiers or knights... With Hover it's a good opportunity for me to create lots of fun and colorful characters, all belonging to different extra-terrestrial races. It's wonderful!
 

Image for Interview | Fusty Games on Hover: Revolt of Gamers


Cubed3: What made you decide on a cartoon/stylised world instead of opting for something more realistic?
 
Fusty Game: There are too many realistic games! And when there are cartoonish and colorful games, they're for kids with simple gameplay and incoherent artistic direction...
 
We wanted to offer a very cartoonish, colorful style yet having all the qualities of a great game made for gamers. That was the case during the N64/Dreamcast era, and we hugely missed it!
 

Image for Interview | Fusty Games on Hover: Revolt of Gamers


Cubed3: The blend of Jet Set Radio and Mirror's Edge seems to work well - why the decision to have multiple camera perspectives?

Fusty Game: If we made the game just for ourselves, we would have only chosen the first person view which offers more thrilling sensations and a better immersion. However, many players like seeing their characters and it was a technical challenge to create identical animations for the first and in third person views, which is in fact never the case in other video games. It enhances the game while making everybody is happy!
 

Image for Interview | Fusty Games on Hover: Revolt of Gamers


Cubed3: How does the skill system come into play?
 
Fusty Game: While playing the game, taking part in challenges, doing combos, etc....  you'll gain experience. Step-by-step you'll unlock points, allowing you to buy skills in order to fill up your grid. The skills go from a speed or a jump bonus, to a special trick or even a new ability. You'll be able to customize each unlocked gamer building a balanced and diversified team. We haven't finished designing this part yet, we'll get to that again soon.
 
Cubed3: What multiplayer options will be available?
 
Fusty Game: The playground, the story, and the missions are exactly the same in both solo and multiplayer mode, allowing you to switch between the two modes at any time. In multiplayer other players will be able to evolve at your side, in a good way or not. They might want to help you progress through the story, or on the contrary try stand in your way in completing a mission before you.
 
You'll also have the possibility to create challenges like races or scoring tournaments, to take on other gamers and prove whose better. You will also be able to bet virtual money on other gamers during their challenges to enrich yourself. We haven't finished talking about all possibilities and if we reach the 100k target, there'll be a local multiplayer mode!
 

Image for Interview | Fusty Games on Hover: Revolt of Gamers


Cubed3: The prospect of Hideki Naganuma, composer for Jet Set Radio, working on the project is exciting! How did that come about?
 
Fusty Game: Yeah it's amazing! We unveiled the game for the first time in 2013 when we put it on Greenlight. It met a big success and lots of players requested Hideki for the music! It is the gamers that contacted him over social networks, introducing the game and begging him to work with us. We ended up contacting him and he said yes! Thanks, gamers!
 
Cubed3: What sort of sound direction and compositions are you hoping to incorporate into the project?
 
We're barely starting to discuss the sound direction with Hideki. We can't say anything for now but we're hoping for something fun and original!
 

Image for Interview | Fusty Games on Hover: Revolt of Gamers


Cubed3: If the game does come to Wii U, how would you imagine using the GamePad controller?
 
Fusty Game: The Gamepad is full of possibilities. There are some aspects of the game that would suit the Gyroscope perfectly! The touchscreen will be perfect to use the interface and we have many ideas for asymmetrical multiplayer modes. We'll get into details very soon.
 

Image for Interview | Fusty Games on Hover: Revolt of Gamers


Cubed3: What are your thoughts on Nintendo's approach to indie developers in recent years?
 
Fusty Game: We have next to nothing to say about that. We've got the possibility of developing Hover for the Wii U and it's awesome! We're only 3 small indies, unknown and without financing. A few years back it would've been impossible for us to make a console game.
 
Cubed3: If you could both work on any Nintendo franchise, what would it be any why?
 
Fusty Game: We've never really asked ourselves that question. We'd rather create new licenses rather than working on existing ones. As gamers, we love Nintendo's big hits but we don't want to work on them.
 
Cubed3: When are you planning on releasing the game, and what are your plans for the future - could Hover: Revolt of Gamers become series?
 
Fusty Game: We're hoping to finish the game for Spring 2015. The alpha will be available before the end of the year. If we don't sleep nor eat, everything may be ready earlier! We don't want to make promises, have to be realistic.

We have lots of ideas for various games, new gameplay and universes! We like diversity! This is why there is little chance that we'd do a sequel to Hover. Maybe, we'll find another talented team to do it in our place?
 

Image for Interview | Fusty Games on Hover: Revolt of Gamers


Cubed3: Finally, any parting words for potential Kickstarter backers?
 
Fusty Game: With Hover we've started to create something different and very fun. We want to get back the colorful and arcade game spirit from the N64/Dreamcast era, mixing this with really modern technologies.
 
We also want to create incredible sensations, allowing you to experience crazy performances. We're a very small team and it's only with your help that we can make Hover into a great game!


 

Fusty Game need to raise $100,000 on Kickstarter to ensure a Wii U version - click here to support the campaign.

What are your thoughts on the Hover concept - will you support the project?

Box art for Hover: Revolt of Gamers
Developer

Fusty

Publisher

Fusty Games

Genre

Action

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  n/a

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date None   North America release date None   Japan release date None   Australian release date None   

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