BY JOHN CARTER JR
In 2009 Cartoon Network launched its biggest game ever in the form of the Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) FusionFall. FusionFall was one of the biggest crossovers is in Cartoon Network history featuring many characters from their famous shows. Codename Kids Next Door, the Powerpuff Girls, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Samurai Jack, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Dexter’s Laboratory, Ben 10, Ed Edd n Eddy, Johnny Bravo, Courage the Cowardly Dog and many more were to be featured in this game.
The game involves a protagonist, originally, being sent to the Future by Dexter only to find that the future is one where the majority of the Cartoon Network Heroes have been defeated by the invasion of planet Fuse, ruled by their leader Lord Fuse. You as the protagonist must collect Cartoon Network characters in the form of Nanos, small power fueled cartoon characters, with the goal of defeating Fuse and his minions. You are eventually able to be sent back to the past with the help of the remaining heroes and villains, including Numbuh 2 (KND) and Mandark (Dexters Lab) for example. This is so you can stop Fuse before that terrible fate can occur.
Sadly, in 2013 the fight against Fuse and his forces seemed to come to an end as Cartoon Network shut down the servers for FusionFall. This warranted a group of fans who wanted to revive the game. Through various highs and lows, the FusionFall Universe would be born.
The FusionFall Universe is the amalgamation of two projects surrounding FusionFall. FusionFall Retro, a game that emulates the original game at launch including the future section of FusionFall, and FusionFall Legacy, a reimagining of FusionFall with all new content for players to enjoy. While FusionFall Legacy is still in development the FusionFall Universe team has already revived FusionFall through the launch of FusionFall Retro in 2018. This project has been years in the making and has produced an ever-growing community. Now Tiger Media Network has had the opportunity to discuss the FusionFall Universe with a member of its development team, Brendan Przywara, known as Przzyfied by the FusionFall community. Let’s get to it:
John Carter JR (JCJ) – What is your specific role in the development for Fusionfall Universe/Retro/Legacy Respectively?
Brendan Przywara (BP) – For Legacy, I normally just like to tell people I’m a writer. My main job is to create and maintain our design documents, as well as write the text that will appear in game, but I honestly do a little bit of everything. I’m a world designer, I do our social media and PR, I “do research” (a glorified way of saying ‘watching TV shows’), I’m currently learning 3D animation, and I’m one of the community managers for the project. For Retro I’m not involved as much on the game development side of things, but a lot of my job crosses over between the two projects pretty well, like social media and writing.
JCJ – How long have you been involved in this project?
BP – I found FusionFall Legacy on Facebook in 2015 while I was bored in class, and made a short video on one of their recent developments for fun (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6QwyRLlfEA). Since it was a super small project at the time, the development team saw it and invited me to do a more formal interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEZeH7FJaOo), and ever since then we’ve all been really good friends. A few weeks after that, I was invited to join the Community Team (basically the moderation team), and after doing that for a year and a half, in late 2016 I was formally invited to join the development team as a storyline writer. Since then, I’ve learned a lot about game development and such, and my amount of jobs has expanded from there.
JCJ – What are your personal goals with this project?
BP – My personal goal with Legacy is to create an experience that makes people smile, and use that knowledge to break into the game development industry. I have so much passion for these FusionFall projects and I love watching people get hyped and excited for what we’re doing. I just want to help create the ultimate crossover game, and FusionFall is the perfect game to do that with.
JCJ – What makes you feel so directly connected to this game that you would want to be involved in its revival, is it simply nostalgia?
BP – FusionFall is more than just nostalgia, it’s the concept of crossovers. I love crossovers. Honestly if I gave you a list of my favorite games of all time, pretty much all of them would have some form of crossover in them. When I was a kid I used to spend a lot of time writing about the original FusionFall, things like “what if this character was in the game?”, or “how can this show be represented?”. I’m sure nostalgia has something to do with it, but the combination of the Cartoon Network crossover and the MMORPG gameplay makes FusionFall the perfect game for a kid at heart like me.
JCJ – How have things been different for the development since the launch of Fusionfall Retro?
BP – It’s been a lot less stressful, which is great. Now that people can play the game, we all get far less angry messages in our inbox about a release date. Now we can have fun and update Retro with new content, while taking notes and working on Legacy at the same time.
JCJ – How has the Fusionfall Universe community affected your life, and simply how has Fusionfall?
BP – I’ve spent way too much time with this game. I spent too much time playing it when I was a kid, and I spend too much time working on it now. It sounds silly, but honestly this game has defined my life just as much as going through school did. When I was in middle school, I had some really bad anxiety issues. FusionFall was what I turned to when I felt like garbage after a day of school. In that virtual world, it didn’t matter what you looked like, or if you stuttered, or if your face was covered in acne and you were too shy to talk to people. You were just a hero saving the day with people from all over the world. I’ve gone through so many highs and lows, from the indescribable joy watching the community genuinely excited about the game, to having a panic attack the day I found out we had to delay Retro’s release again, the development team and I have been through a lot together, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
JCJ – My favorite question, Who are your favorite NPCs and Nanos in either Legacy or Retro?
BP – There’s so many to choose from, man. In Retro, my favorite NPCs are probably Mojo Jojo, Juniper Lee, and Eddy. As for nanos, I would probably say Juniper Lee again, Fourarms, and Numbuh Four. If I had to pick a favorite new Legacy NPC, I would say Rolf, and if I had to pick a favorite new nano, I would definitely say Dexter’s Dad. Although we haven’t shown them off yet, the voice lines for his powers are incredible.
JCJ – When do you anticipate an update on the progress of Fusionfall Legacy? Will Pic of the Day Return (excited to potentially see Eustace from Courage make an appearance)? Is there anything you want to say about the progress on Legacy?
BP – Currently Legacy development is happening (trust me, I still spend hours every day in my ‘FusionFall Universe’ Google Drive folder), but it’s happening in the dark. When we were constantly being pressured to release updates every other day through Pic of the Day, it led to such a stressful environment that it was actually less productive. And Legacy changes a lot, especially with all the breakthroughs happening with Retro, so a lot of the things we’ve posted about Legacy are outdated now. It’s a lot more fun (and better for the end product) to develop things at our own pace, and create only things that are necessary for the game, rather than creating things just to show them off in devblogs or pics. I’m not saying Pic of the Day will never return, but if it does it means that we’ll have all the pictures ready to go on day 1 this time. Currently, finishing and updating Retro is a priority so expect way more from us publicly on that end as of now. I guess to answer your question, I have no idea when you’ll see new Legacy information, we’re just gonna keep working on it until we feel its ready to show off again.
As it is my favorite video game from my childhood it is exciting to see that this project has developed and grown to the impressive extent that it has. I am very hopeful to see what the development team of the FusionFall Universe has next for both projects (Retro and Legacy). I cannot wait to be playing alongside players of this game in FusionFall Retro both developers and community members alike. I’m so excited to be able to acquire my Numbuh 5 Nano and Battle it out with dark Fusion versions of famous Cartoon Network characters.
This is something I truly never believed to be possible, the Revival of such a fun and entertaining game. A major thanks to the FusionFall development team and Brendan (Przzyfied) Przywara for this opportunity and for bringing back such a beloved game.
The FusionFall Universe Social Media:
https://www.fusionfalluniverse.com/
Mr. Przywara’s Social Media:
https://www.youtube.com/przzyfied
https://www.twitch.tv/przzyfied