Fancy Pants Adventures
Encyclopedia
Fancy Pants Adventures is a series of free side-scrolling Flash games created by Brad Borne. Two worlds have been released so far, World 1 on 14 March 2006 and World 2 on 9 January 2008. Borne had announced that after the 2009 Comic Con, he would officially start working on World 3. A console version developed by Borne and Over the Top Games was released by EA 2D
for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade
on April 19 and April 20, 2011, respectively.
with spiky, choppy hair, wearing only a pair of triangular-shaped pants. (original pants' colour is orange).You can change his pants colors. Fancy Pants Man's home is Squiggleville, a small country town run by the Mayor (first introduced in World 2).The mayor is introduced more in world 3. Players guide Fancy Pants Man through open levels which feature obstacles to overcome and enemies to avoid or defeat. These enemies include spiders, snails, and mice armed with guns. Enemies can be defeated by being jumped upon and crushed by Fancy Pants Man, who can also launch off them to perform an augmented leap. World 2 introduced the snail enemy, which retracts into its shell when jumped on, after which it can be kicked to stun other enemies. Originally the snail shell was merely a novelty feature in the World 2 demo, however during development, BETA testers made a game out of getting the snail shell to hard-to-reach spots. Brad, the game designer, used this as inspiration to incorporate "Snail Shell Golf" which adds replayability to World 2 by allowing the player to gain access to different colored pants for the playable character. It is possible to earn a combo by keeping the snail shell in the air. As Fancy Pants Man runs through the different levels, there are many "squiggles" floating in mid-air. They serve two important functions. Firstly, they refill Fancy Pants Man's life meter by 5% if he has been damaged, and they also give the player an extra life for every hundred collected. In the source code, these "squiggles" are referred to as "coins"; possibly as a reference to Nintendo
's Mario
video games series. Another possible reference comes in the form of a box which can be jumped at from beneath to release several squiggles, like the coin boxes in ario]Both worlds of Fancy Pants Adventures contain different kinds of small trophies that can be collected while playing the game. At the end of each world of Fancy Pants Adventures players fight a boss
. In World 1 the boss is an angry penguin, who Fancy Pants Man accidentally falls upon and wakes from sleeping. This is the extent of the story in World 1, while World 2 has a more significant plotline. In World 2 an angry rabbit steals Fancy Pants Man's ice cream. Players must pursue and ultimately defeat the rabbit in a confrontation at the end of the game in order to reclaim the ice cream.
A secret move, the wall jump
, was obtainable in World 1, level 1 as a secret power-up
from a pit that you travel to through a cardboard box and was noted by Borne that it was still work in progress. Soon after obtaining the wall jump, you had to employ the uses of it straight away to avoid an inevitable death from the slowly filling pit of ink. The wall jump became an official move available in World 2s increasing repertoire of moves. This was first shown in a demo that was made available by its creator, Brad Borne, on Newgrounds on March 13, 2007.
In The Fancy Pants Adventures for consoles, there are a few new additions to the gameplay. These include the ability to swim, which includes being able to kick off flat surfaces whilst underwater, and the ability to use a weapon later on in the game, which features a chargeable attack. The game features a main story mode, in which the player must save his sister, Cutie Pants Girl, who has been kidnapped by a band of pirates who make her their captain. Each level contains two bonus rooms, a 'Micro-Trial', in which players must quickly chase a line of yellow squiggles, and stars which unlock extra content, including remakes of the first two worlds. The game also features local and online multiplayer for up to four players, as well as various challenges. Playing through the game allows the player to unlock hats, pants and weapons to customize their character's appearance.
The player starts World 1 in a dark corridor, then enters the menu through a door. In World 2, before the menu appears, the opening credits and the Armor Games logo scrolls up, with the option to skip the credits. The menu opens with instructions at the top-left hand corner of the screen.
The Fancy Pants Adventures series was created by Brad Borne, who had previously created games with the help of Mark Fleig Jr. Fleig provided all of the computer graphics
on their collaborations. The previous games provided experience and allowed for more complex designs. Before using Macromedia Flash Borne had experimented with the TI-BASIC
programming language on a TI-86
graphing calculator, his first involvement with Macromedia's software was stop motion animation. The stop motion experience was built upon with Flash's action script, used to create video games, which lead to further interest and ultimately Borne felt he "knew enough to make something that I thought was worth playing." Despite not having a background in art, Borne created the graphics for Fancy Pants Adventures himself, resulting in the "sketchy" graphical style. The World 1 penguin boss was originally named "Pauly Penguin" and was created by one of Brad's friends, Paul Downs.
After the release of World 1 Borne began freelancing, but stated in an interview that he views his own projects as a hobby, and that he doesn't "get as consumed by the process as much as I used to". According to Borne "Trophies were my way of giving a nod to a few Flash artists whose work I really enjoyed." In World 1 these trophies are located within standard levels, or at the end of a simple level designed by Borne. Several trophies from World 1 represent Borne's own works in progress, In World 2 however the developer worked directly with the artist each trophy represented in order to design a unique level for obtaining that trophy.
Bornegames is the hub for Borne's work and blog, which quickly became an integral part of the beta testing process. With new betas being released on a regular basis that no other websites had, players visiting the site act as beta testers and report software bugs. It became the central hub for the latest bug-fixes and BETA news. Borne has also used his blog to post question and answer videos to reply to questions sent in by fans, he has also posted a "Behind the Fancy Pants" video as well as an "Official Snailshell Golf Guide". In May 2008 Borne completed a Fancy Pants Man move set and character design for the fighting game
Newgrounds Rumble. In Newground Rumble Fancy Pants Man was supposedly invited for free ice cream in the Newgrounds world until he finds out that it was a setup for revenge by the other characters in the Newground universe. Newgrounds didn't appreciate "kiddy" games unlike killing, shooting, violent, etc. games. Fancy later fights characters like S'asshole, Hank, P-bot, Nene, and the Newgrounds mascot Pico.During the Pico and Nene stage, Pico's rival Piconjo joins Fancy's side. Fancy later tries to find whose idea was the setup.
Story
World 1 doesn't have an original story, other than The Fancy Pants Man going around the world and accidentally giving the angry penguin a rude awakening. Borne began to improve his game in world 2.
Story
Fancy Pants will appear in a type of golf-shell course with his pencil as golf stick and Snail Shell as ball. When he gets the ball inside the hole that says Pants, the mayor of Squiggleville will appear. He will give him an Ice Cream, then the Angry Rabbit appears and steals Fancy Pants Man's Ice Cream. The mayor tells Fancy Pants Man to fight for the Ice Cream, so he enters the golf hole. After beating all 6 Levels and 5 Extra Levels, Fancy Pants Man will enter The Angry Rabbit's Rabitty Hideout. Then they will fight. If Fancy Pants Man wins, his Ice Cream will come floating down slowly.
Borne has released some art for the new game and asked followers of his site for feedback. Elements in World 3 that have been confirmed:
announcing a home console version of The Fancy Pants Adventures for Xbox Live Arcade
and PlayStation Network. The game is a collaboration between Borne Games and development studio Over the Top Games, and was published by Electronic Arts
, under the company's EA2D label. New features include a two to four player mode and a brand new set of levels, as well as World's 1 and 2. The game was released on April 19, 2011 for PlayStation Network and April 20, 2011 for Xbox Live Arcade
.
Borne announced in an FAQ on his website, the console game is not World 3, but World 3 will be something of a devolution of the console game.
and Armor Games
". Both worlds have featured on numerous "Best Games" articles; on sites including TechCult, ExtremeTech
, and GamesRadar
.
As of May 2011, World 2 has been played over 14.8 million times on Armorgames. World 2 had been played over 17.8 million times on Addicting Games, and over 5 million times on Kongregate
. World 1 has been played about 7 million times on Armor Games, almost 7.8 million on Addicting Games, and over 2.3 million times on Kongregate. World 2 won the 2008 Newgrounds Tank Award for Best Flash Game, and is the fifth most played Flash game of 2008 in the Mochi Media Flash game advertising network. The game was also nominated for Nick's Most Addicting Games Showdown.
IGN
gave The Fancy Pants Adventures a score of 7.5, praising its parkour style gameplay, but criticising the inclusion of weapons and the lack of drop in multiplayer.
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
on April 19 and April 20, 2011, respectively.
Gameplay
Fancy Pants Adventures features Fancy Pants Man as the playable character of the series. He is a two dimensional stick figureStick figure
A stick figure is a very simple type of drawing made of lines and dots, often of the human form or other animals. In a stick figure, the head is represented by a circle, sometimes embellished with details such as eyes, mouth or crudely scratched-out hair. The arms, legs and torso are all...
with spiky, choppy hair, wearing only a pair of triangular-shaped pants. (original pants' colour is orange).You can change his pants colors. Fancy Pants Man's home is Squiggleville, a small country town run by the Mayor (first introduced in World 2).The mayor is introduced more in world 3. Players guide Fancy Pants Man through open levels which feature obstacles to overcome and enemies to avoid or defeat. These enemies include spiders, snails, and mice armed with guns. Enemies can be defeated by being jumped upon and crushed by Fancy Pants Man, who can also launch off them to perform an augmented leap. World 2 introduced the snail enemy, which retracts into its shell when jumped on, after which it can be kicked to stun other enemies. Originally the snail shell was merely a novelty feature in the World 2 demo, however during development, BETA testers made a game out of getting the snail shell to hard-to-reach spots. Brad, the game designer, used this as inspiration to incorporate "Snail Shell Golf" which adds replayability to World 2 by allowing the player to gain access to different colored pants for the playable character. It is possible to earn a combo by keeping the snail shell in the air. As Fancy Pants Man runs through the different levels, there are many "squiggles" floating in mid-air. They serve two important functions. Firstly, they refill Fancy Pants Man's life meter by 5% if he has been damaged, and they also give the player an extra life for every hundred collected. In the source code, these "squiggles" are referred to as "coins"; possibly as a reference to Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
's Mario
Mario
is a fictional character in his video game series, created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation...
video games series. Another possible reference comes in the form of a box which can be jumped at from beneath to release several squiggles, like the coin boxes in ario]Both worlds of Fancy Pants Adventures contain different kinds of small trophies that can be collected while playing the game. At the end of each world of Fancy Pants Adventures players fight a boss
Boss (video games)
A boss is an enemy-based challenge which is found in video games. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight...
. In World 1 the boss is an angry penguin, who Fancy Pants Man accidentally falls upon and wakes from sleeping. This is the extent of the story in World 1, while World 2 has a more significant plotline. In World 2 an angry rabbit steals Fancy Pants Man's ice cream. Players must pursue and ultimately defeat the rabbit in a confrontation at the end of the game in order to reclaim the ice cream.
A secret move, the wall jump
Wall jump
This article is about the video game move. For its real-world counterpart, see wall flip.A wall jump is a technique players can execute in several video games.-Technique:...
, was obtainable in World 1, level 1 as a secret power-up
Power-up
In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...
from a pit that you travel to through a cardboard box and was noted by Borne that it was still work in progress. Soon after obtaining the wall jump, you had to employ the uses of it straight away to avoid an inevitable death from the slowly filling pit of ink. The wall jump became an official move available in World 2s increasing repertoire of moves. This was first shown in a demo that was made available by its creator, Brad Borne, on Newgrounds on March 13, 2007.
In The Fancy Pants Adventures for consoles, there are a few new additions to the gameplay. These include the ability to swim, which includes being able to kick off flat surfaces whilst underwater, and the ability to use a weapon later on in the game, which features a chargeable attack. The game features a main story mode, in which the player must save his sister, Cutie Pants Girl, who has been kidnapped by a band of pirates who make her their captain. Each level contains two bonus rooms, a 'Micro-Trial', in which players must quickly chase a line of yellow squiggles, and stars which unlock extra content, including remakes of the first two worlds. The game also features local and online multiplayer for up to four players, as well as various challenges. Playing through the game allows the player to unlock hats, pants and weapons to customize their character's appearance.
Menus
The menus for each game are interactive. That is, you control Fancy Pants Man through them exactly like in-game levels. The menus contain boxes of which jumped on from beneath to change the pants colors, or to view collected trophies, as well as links to Brad Borne's site and Armor Games's site. They also serve as level selectors for the game.The player starts World 1 in a dark corridor, then enters the menu through a door. In World 2, before the menu appears, the opening credits and the Armor Games logo scrolls up, with the option to skip the credits. The menu opens with instructions at the top-left hand corner of the screen.
Development
Computer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
on their collaborations. The previous games provided experience and allowed for more complex designs. Before using Macromedia Flash Borne had experimented with the TI-BASIC
TI-BASIC
TI-BASIC is the unofficial name of a BASIC-like language built into Texas Instruments 's graphing calculators, including the TI-83 series, TI-84 Plus series, TI-89 series, TI-92 series , TI-73, and TI-Nspire...
programming language on a TI-86
TI-86
The TI-86 is a programmable graphing calculator introduced in 1997 and produced by Texas Instruments. The TI-86 uses the Zilog Z80 microprocessor. It is partially backwards-compatible with its predecessor, the TI-85....
graphing calculator, his first involvement with Macromedia's software was stop motion animation. The stop motion experience was built upon with Flash's action script, used to create video games, which lead to further interest and ultimately Borne felt he "knew enough to make something that I thought was worth playing." Despite not having a background in art, Borne created the graphics for Fancy Pants Adventures himself, resulting in the "sketchy" graphical style. The World 1 penguin boss was originally named "Pauly Penguin" and was created by one of Brad's friends, Paul Downs.
After the release of World 1 Borne began freelancing, but stated in an interview that he views his own projects as a hobby, and that he doesn't "get as consumed by the process as much as I used to". According to Borne "Trophies were my way of giving a nod to a few Flash artists whose work I really enjoyed." In World 1 these trophies are located within standard levels, or at the end of a simple level designed by Borne. Several trophies from World 1 represent Borne's own works in progress, In World 2 however the developer worked directly with the artist each trophy represented in order to design a unique level for obtaining that trophy.
Bornegames is the hub for Borne's work and blog, which quickly became an integral part of the beta testing process. With new betas being released on a regular basis that no other websites had, players visiting the site act as beta testers and report software bugs. It became the central hub for the latest bug-fixes and BETA news. Borne has also used his blog to post question and answer videos to reply to questions sent in by fans, he has also posted a "Behind the Fancy Pants" video as well as an "Official Snailshell Golf Guide". In May 2008 Borne completed a Fancy Pants Man move set and character design for the fighting game
Fighting game
Fighting game is a video game genre where the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent. These characters tend to be of equal power and fight matches consisting of several rounds, which take place in an arena. Players must master techniques such as...
Newgrounds Rumble. In Newground Rumble Fancy Pants Man was supposedly invited for free ice cream in the Newgrounds world until he finds out that it was a setup for revenge by the other characters in the Newground universe. Newgrounds didn't appreciate "kiddy" games unlike killing, shooting, violent, etc. games. Fancy later fights characters like S'asshole, Hank, P-bot, Nene, and the Newgrounds mascot Pico.During the Pico and Nene stage, Pico's rival Piconjo joins Fancy's side. Fancy later tries to find whose idea was the setup.
World 1
The first installment of the series The Fancy Pants Adventures. It was created by Brad Borne, and released March 14, 2006. It is a platforming game with trophies and different colors of the pants (red, green, blue and orange).Story
World 1 doesn't have an original story, other than The Fancy Pants Man going around the world and accidentally giving the angry penguin a rude awakening. Borne began to improve his game in world 2.
World 2
This is the second installment of the series The Fancy Pants Adventures. Also crated by Brad,it was released in January 9, 2008. It's a platforming game with circled slopes and new tricks included. It has more levels, trophies and colors than the first installment.Story
Fancy Pants will appear in a type of golf-shell course with his pencil as golf stick and Snail Shell as ball. When he gets the ball inside the hole that says Pants, the mayor of Squiggleville will appear. He will give him an Ice Cream, then the Angry Rabbit appears and steals Fancy Pants Man's Ice Cream. The mayor tells Fancy Pants Man to fight for the Ice Cream, so he enters the golf hole. After beating all 6 Levels and 5 Extra Levels, Fancy Pants Man will enter The Angry Rabbit's Rabitty Hideout. Then they will fight. If Fancy Pants Man wins, his Ice Cream will come floating down slowly.
World 3
The third installment of The Fancy Pants Adventures is currently in development and although Borne himself is not entirely sure when World 3 will be released, most expected that the game would be in a beta stage by mid-2011. You can play the demo on www.bornegames.com There also is a new character in this game and new enemies. In this installment, Fancy Pants Man's little sister, Cutie Pants Girl, is kidnapped and Fancy Pants Man has to save her.Borne has released some art for the new game and asked followers of his site for feedback. Elements in World 3 that have been confirmed:
- Water-based levels and swimming.
- The little sister of Fancy Pants Man named Cutie Pants Girl (who wears a dress) will be introduced. She has the ability to swing from ceilings using her pet cat, Kitten Kabootle. It is unknown whether or not she will be able to swim.
- A longer, more complex plot involving pirates and ninjas.
- Pencil combat. Fancy Pants Man will employ a pencil as he does in Newgrounds Rumble. There are different ways of attacks the pencil and the kick.
- Spin attack.
- Improved animation, backgrounds, and moves(ie. the character will no longer fall off of wall jumps, just slide).
- Special rooms where you perform a string of move combos for points
- New enemies including angry ducks, frogs, bats, pirates, and ninjas.
- Up to four player multi-player.
The Fancy Pants Adventures (Console)
On November 10, 2010, series creator Brad Borne released a video on his website and on YouTubeYouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
announcing a home console version of The Fancy Pants Adventures for Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
and PlayStation Network. The game is a collaboration between Borne Games and development studio Over the Top Games, and was published by Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
, under the company's EA2D label. New features include a two to four player mode and a brand new set of levels, as well as World's 1 and 2. The game was released on April 19, 2011 for PlayStation Network and April 20, 2011 for Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
.
Borne announced in an FAQ on his website, the console game is not World 3, but World 3 will be something of a devolution of the console game.
Reception
The Fancy Pants Adventures games received a positive reaction from video game critics and "drew in crowds on sites like NewgroundsNewgrounds
Newgrounds is an American entertainment and social media website. Founded on July 6, 1995 by Tom Fulp, the site primarily hosts Adobe Flash animations and games, but also features a music-oriented page, along with an art portal...
and Armor Games
Armor Games
Armor Games, formerly Games Of Gondor, is a website based in Irvine, California, that hosts free Flash-based browser games. Armor Games was founded by Daniel McNeely. Under its former name, it hosted The Lord of the Rings-themed content, such as the games "Hob the Hobbit", "Battle for Gondor", and...
". Both worlds have featured on numerous "Best Games" articles; on sites including TechCult, ExtremeTech
ExtremeTech
ExtremeTech is a technology weblog about hardware, computer software, science, and other state of the art technologies which launched in June 2001...
, and GamesRadar
GamesRadar
GamesRadar is a multi-format video game website featuring regular news, previews, reviews, videos, and guides. It is owned and operated simultaneously in the UK and US by worldwide publisher Future Publishing...
.
As of May 2011, World 2 has been played over 14.8 million times on Armorgames. World 2 had been played over 17.8 million times on Addicting Games, and over 5 million times on Kongregate
Kongregate
Kongregate is an online games hosting website owned by Gamestop Corporation, which allows users to upload user-created Adobe Flash or Unity3D games. It features an API that Flash and Unity developers can integrate into their games which allows users to submit high scores and in some games, earn...
. World 1 has been played about 7 million times on Armor Games, almost 7.8 million on Addicting Games, and over 2.3 million times on Kongregate. World 2 won the 2008 Newgrounds Tank Award for Best Flash Game, and is the fifth most played Flash game of 2008 in the Mochi Media Flash game advertising network. The game was also nominated for Nick's Most Addicting Games Showdown.
IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
gave The Fancy Pants Adventures a score of 7.5, praising its parkour style gameplay, but criticising the inclusion of weapons and the lack of drop in multiplayer.
External links
- BorneGames.com Brad Borne's Website
- Play World 1 at Armor GamesArmor GamesArmor Games, formerly Games Of Gondor, is a website based in Irvine, California, that hosts free Flash-based browser games. Armor Games was founded by Daniel McNeely. Under its former name, it hosted The Lord of the Rings-themed content, such as the games "Hob the Hobbit", "Battle for Gondor", and...
- Play World 2 at Armor GamesArmor GamesArmor Games, formerly Games Of Gondor, is a website based in Irvine, California, that hosts free Flash-based browser games. Armor Games was founded by Daniel McNeely. Under its former name, it hosted The Lord of the Rings-themed content, such as the games "Hob the Hobbit", "Battle for Gondor", and...
- FancyPantsAdventures.com Fancy Pants Adventures