The making of FIGGO THE FLEA
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It all started as a simple idea, to make a physics-based platform game where the player play as a flea jumping from head to head spreading baby fleas among cute kids.
I was joggling lots game ideas at the time, this one was selected to be the first game I make as a professional artist due to its simplicity. Eventually though, it took over 6 months to make. It was a big learning curve for me. From concept developing, defining visual style, designing UI/UX, preparing assets, animating, creating promotional materials, to publishing and maintaining the game, the process was challenging but at the same time rewarding and lots of fun.
So I needed lots of kids to provide their heads as the platform for Figgo the flea to jump on and spread baby fleas to. 🙂 The environment was set in a Asian style elementary school. I was taking some inspiration from my own childhood, but ultimately I made an ideal version of it. Here the kids get to study in a diverse group where everyone is free to do what they love and express their personality.
My goal is to make lots of vivid kids with different personalities for the different levels. For some of them I used people I know in real life as inspiration, including myself.
Here are a few of the kids.
Meet Minna who provided the super cute voice of Figgo in the game.
And here I was wearing the dress my grandma made me, hanging out with my toy pig Bunny. 😀
Here is a short evolution of Figgo.
The game over high score scene and the high score scene were both inspired by events from my elementary school time, though personally I was a low performer in both high jump and height measurement. :p
The graphics in Level Selection scene and Store Menu scene was inspired by scrapbooks. In the Level Selection scene, the levels are represented by photos of different kids, but at the same time they are photos of moments from flea Figgo’s life.
Players can create many baby fleas which we call baby Figgos during the game and that is our in-game currency. One can use them to remove ads, buy extra lives and accessories to dress your Figgo. Check it out, here is a Figgo for the glamor and a Figgo for the pink-lovers. 🙂
Below is the design of the Baby Figgo Farm / in-game currency store scene. A pair to twins farms baby fleas in their hair and sells the them in a schoolyard sale. 
Last but not the least we came to the Credits scene. I was in charge of the blackboard educational&propaganda drawings and writings design in my class for whole 6 years of elementary school. Every week me and my teammates devoted hours into a new creation on a 4-meter wide blackboard(sadly this was before the time of digital cameras and no visual materials were left). During my time in school a small red flower on a board under your name was as much reward as one could get for performing well. So it all seems fitting this is how the Credits scene should look like.
Big big thanks to my partner developer for the amazing ability of making a vision come to live.
