Let's Meow with Fabraz about Bubsy 4D

What the report says


 
 To celebrate Bubsy 4D's brand new (and completely free!) Black Hole update with oodles of great and challenging new content, I sat down in a giant stinky litter box with Fabian Rastorfer from Fabraz to discuss this ridiculously fun over-the-top platformer.Video Chums loves promoting hard-working indie devs so check out our Indie Game of the Month Awards and Rapid Fire Reviews. 👍A.J. ▸ Now that folks have been enjoying Bubsy 4D for a while, what elements are you happy to see players resonate with and can you share any moments in the campaign that you particularly enjoy seeing folks play? v1d30chumz xzyewyzteyzcFabian ▸ Hard to pick!

Probably the moment when the gameplay clicks and the player suddenly realized how they can "skip" part of the level in clever/tricky ways to shave off a few seconds of time! Whenever that happens on a stream and I see the player attempting it over and over again... That never gets old! Or people reacting to his "That's it! I'm going to die today." line.A.J. ▸ Going from Demon Turf to Bubsy 4D, what gameplay changes were the most exciting to bring to life and were you given any guidance or restrictions for how Bubsy controls?Fabian ▸ Atari wanted an Expressive Platformer and we were happy to oblige!

The addition of the more physics-driven hairball was our ambitious attempt to shake up the gameplay and it ended up becoming a favorite among fans which is great!A.J. ▸ With such large levels that have so many things to see and do in them, did you have any inspirations for the stage designs and which segments are you particularly proud of?Fabian ▸ Our main goal was to provide a somewhat abstract landscape that allows for some exploration but most importantly is tailored for you to speedrun through on your second, third, or eventual 967th attempt.

Key details

A lot of the game's long-term appeal comes from that loop and the levels are specifically designed for that.A.J. ▸ There have been so many 3D platformers released over the decades and I was wondering: which ones do you have the fondest memories of playing?Fabian ▸ What to pick! Neon White was a spectacular arcade-y first person platformer... Another Crab's Treasure was a beautiful and novel souls-like platformer... Rollin' Rascal's demo was a spectacular sonic-like... Haste was a blood rushing one-button-only joy of a platformer... Each of them brought in new ideas, explored new subgenres and delighted me to no end in recent memory.A.J. ▸ I understand there's a new update for Bubsy 4D!

Can you tell us about that?Fabian ▸ Really excited to finally launch the Black Hole update! We started working on it literally days after launch and it quickly turned into quite the passion project! I hope everyone has a blast with the new, very TOUGH but also very rewarding, 15 levels.A.J. ▸ Finally, the silly question of the day: if you could patch Slime-san into any classic Atari arcade game, which one would it be and why?Fabian ▸ Breakout! Competitive multiplayer. One player controls Slime-san to platform across the blocks while another tries to break them and make Slime-san plummet to his death.