Havoc Studios
April 2021 Newsletter
Getting Ready
Summer is upon us (in the northern hemisphere, at least), which brings us one month closer to our Kickstarter! We’ve been hard at work getting Havoc Fox ready for its next public release to help promote the crowdfunding campaign. In the meantime, we took a shorter demo of the game and presented it at our second convention!
BNVG Con 2021
(artwork by @veldoodles)
The Bloomington Normal Video Game Convention took place on April 17th where we set up a booth with Havoc Fox for eight hours of demonstration. Unfortunately, Dusky was unable to attend the convention, but she was there in spirit! We’d like to thank Donny Myers for helping to run the booth and draw extra attention to Havoc Fox at the expo! While the convention was only a single day (as opposed to the two days we spent at Kami Con last year), we had a larger number of attendees stop by the Havoc Fox booth to check it out!
The demonstration build of Havoc Fox was structured similarly to Kami Con’s demo: both Grey and Venice had their first stages available to play with story elements removed. Grey’s level showcased his new move set, allowing players to use his long dash, upward dash, eight-directional shooting, and heavy slam attack. A couple of changes exist with the stage itself, most notably in its appearance. Venice’s level still uses her previous move set (see the Current Development Update for information on her new moves) but features her new fight against Lyle at the end of the stage.
At the end of the day, Tim's Tiny Arcade, a YouTube channel that covers various game conventions and arcade-related topics, stopped by to interview us on Havoc Fox! In the interview, we discussed the basic concept of Havoc Fox, its story, and its future plans, as well as showing off an in-depth play through of Grey’s stage. Check out the interview on YouTube!
BNVG Con was a lot of fun, but for now, we’re setting our sights on Kickstarter. Stay tuned for an announcement on its start date, initial goal, and backer rewards!
Current Development Update
This month, we’ve begun work on Venice’s new move set.
Much like Grey, Venice’s move set is being reworked to allow for better control of the character, as well as to help set her playstyle apart from Grey’s. Although only her upward strikes are shown in the above GIF, her melee attacks will still have a longer reach than Grey’s sword. Spooky’s shooting attack will not change by much, but he’ll truly shine with Venice’s new Special! Spooky will fly onward, seek out a target, and attack them independently of Venice. While Spooky’s on his own, Venice takes ranged offense into her own hands with the help of her new sidearm!
Venice’s run cycle has received a much-needed update as well! After plenty of comments that her animation looked rather horse-like, we’ve redone her movement to look more natural for her species. While this doesn’t affect her run speed, it should look a little more consistent.
As for the rest of the game, development on Ethereal Express is still going strong! We won’t disclose much, but here’s a sneak preview of one of the many train cart challenges you will encounter!
Grey and Venice’s new move sets, as well as their updated stages (excluding Ethereal Express), will be available to play when our Kickstarter campaign goes live. Keep an eye out for our announcements on the matter!
Community Spotlight - Nate
In each edition of the Havoc Studios monthly newsletter, we will highlight the works and/or relations of a member from the community or studio. We are grateful for everyone within the community and would like to recognize those of you who help bring life to the community. Our April community spotlight features Nate, the voice of Riken!
How did you first discover Havoc Fox?
My first paid role was the role of Sticky, the protagonist of an indie game on Steam called Sticky Paws. The game's developer, Jonnil, did some streams which I tuned in to, and during one of them he played Havoc Fox. I was honestly really impressed, the game looked so good, and I'm pretty sure I was viewing the 2019 build of the demo. It looks significantly better now, which is saying a lot if you ask me. Y'all have been able to take an already good looking game and make it amazing. I dipped my toes into the community a bit, and me and Dusky started chatting about voice over and Havoc Fox and the like. She mentioned a “snarky adventurer kid” character, and showed me a rough sketch of Riken’s promo art, and at that point I just really wanted to audition for him if I got the chance, and turns out I did. This rough sketch also had some additional sketches of Riken, and I really hope Dusky shows those off someday, because they’re adorable.
How long have you been a voice actor?
I started in 2018, and I've been doing voice over for over two years! Coming up on three years soon.
How have other roles (such as Sticky in Sticky Paws) affected your acting style for Riken?
As with any role, I feel like voicing Sticky has provided some more experience for me. I got that role when I was still trying to get into the groove of emoting properly for characters, so I don't think my performance aged all too well personally. I remember when Vinesauce played Sticky Paws, he mentioned that the voice over could use a bit more emotion in it, and I kinda just had a "Dang, yeah he's right." sort of moment. I started placing a lot more of my focus on emoting properly, which honestly I should have been doing to begin with. I guess that hasn't really affected my acting style for Riken exclusively, but for roles overall. And while it's not a role I played, Melissa Hutchison's performance as Komasan in Yo-Kai Watch was a pretty big inspiration when it came to Riken's voice. Listening to her performance helped me get a bit of a grasp on how to do that country accent without going too over the top with it.
Would you care to share a bit about your other projects?
I’ve currently been working on revamping my channel’s content, and moving forward I’m going to be doing some game-related videos. I’ve never really done commentary, but I think I can get better with a bit more practice. These videos also have skit-styled segments, and I got some lovely actors to help me out with that. Namely Marquiz Moore, ProfKranc, and John Patneaude. (Who voices Ulysses in Havoc Fox!) I also have my friend HaikuHello helping me out with animatics, storyboarding, and channel art. They’re really talented and I definitely feel like I owe a lot to them, haha. Check them out if you have the chance!
Anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks for supporting the game, you guys! It’s cliche, but I do appreciate it. Being a part of this project means a lot to me, and knowing that people are actually fans of it and are interested in it means even more. It’s really crazy to me, and I still don’t feel like it’s fully settled in for me yet. I never really thought I’d be a part of a project this big, voicing alongside actors I look up to, but it’s been a pleasure, no doubt.
Show Nate some love! Follow him on Twitter, subscribe to him on YouTube, or say hi to him on the Discord server!
April Fan Art Gallery
Each month, we will be showcasing Havoc Fox fan art in our newsletters. The following works have been submitted to us by various members of the community through our Discord server. Check out the submissions for April!
Venice by “the” on Discord
Venice Clipping out of Reality by Ionic Slime on Discord
Thank you for your submissions! If you would like to have your artwork featured, submit your drawings to the #havoc-fan-art channel on Discord!
That's all for now!
Kickstarter is just around the corner! If you haven't already, be sure to follow us on Twitter @havocfoxgame. Join the conversation on the official Discord server. Support us on Patreon! Check out the original soundtrack and development live streams on our YouTube channel! Like us on Facebook and Instagram!
Thank you for reading the April edition of the Havoc Fox Newsletter. Stay safe, stay healthy, and we hope to see you again in May!