Havoc Studios
February 2021 Newsletter
Business as Usual
As the year begins to move forward and reveal itself, we at Havoc Studios continue to progress with the development of Havoc Fox. This month’s newsletter will be a little shorter as we don’t have any special announcements or other details for our opening topic, but we hope you enjoy reading about our progress updates nevertheless!
Current Development Update
This month, we’ve reached the end of the Ravine.
Retro Ravine, which was absent from the latest public demo of Havoc Fox, is nearing completion on its redesign! The stage has been overhauled from its 2019 state (as we’ve been showing through the past few newsletters) and is nearing completion. While some of the stage’s layout, mechanics, and story beats remain intact, much of these aspects have been redone to better fit the game’s style.
From a general gameplay perspective, we have changed the way gems appear in the world. The old variety of gems have been scrapped in favor of a single design that is larger and easier to notice. Gems in the world will not always be affected by gravity, allowing for them to be placed in the air for easier collection and visibility. When defeating certain enemies, gems will fly out of them in a flashier manner. The tougher the enemy, the greater the reward!
Retro Ravine’s boss, Wolf Wrecker, hasn’t changed too heavily from his previous build. The location, however, has changed quite a bit. As you can see in the GIF above, the cave has been replaced with a high-speed chase through the world’s stormy jungle, the calamity affecting more than just Grey.
The second phase of this boss has been entirely redesigned as well! As for the changes, we’ll leave that as a surprise for now. Be sure to keep an eye on our social media for updates; you may have a chance to experience these battles in the near future!
Community Spotlight - West
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 February community spotlight features West, one of our community moderators!
How did you first get involved with the Havoc Fox community?
For a lack of a better way of putting it, it was by pure luck. My earliest memory of Havoc Fox is way back when I was still active on Deviant Art, and one day I noticed that an artist I watch on that site, Dusky, made a post about a game she is making, where she is asking for playtesters and feedback. I decided to try my luck at it, and that's where my involvement with the game started. It was back in a time where the game only had one level, and the only character in it was Grey, it doesn’t even have any voice acting if I am recalling correctly, I played it, gave Dusky whatever feedback I was able to give, and continued on with my life. It was not until some time later, with another announcement by Dusky with regards to the creation of a discord server, did I start to involve myself with the game again, being one of the first few people to join the server, and, well, the rest is history.
How long have you been involved with community moderation?
I was not a moderator upon the founding of the server, so I would say I have been involved with the moderation of the community for almost two years now, maybe a bit shorter. The moderation of the community isn’t a tiresome affair, the vast majority of server members are reasonable people and have the proper respect for each other during their interactions in the server. There are the exceptions, but they are usually dealt with, with an appropriate degree of disciplinary action depending on the severeness of their actions.
What is your favorite part about the Havoc Fox and Havoc Studios community?
I think my favourite part about Havoc Fox as a game, is seeing just how far it has come from its origins, the difference between the initial version I played, and the current version still in development cannot be described with just “night and day”, it’s more than that. And seeing the growth and change the game experienced over the years fills me with glee, it evidently demonstrates just how much effort Dusky had poured into both improving the game and improving her own skill set.
For the community in general, my favourite part about it is simply how friendly and welcoming it is, and it is this friendly nature that allowed my continued active participation in it. It is one of few places that I know I can destress in after a long day, and just have fun with the friends I have made over the years thanks to this server.
How has the community helped you? How have you helped the community?
By my own admission, I am not a game designer, I am not a programmer, I am not a musician, I am not an artist. There is very little I am able to offer in the development of the game, instead, I would like to think that I tried my best in helping the community by ensuring that it stays a welcoming and friendly environment. As mentioned above, throughout the existence of this server, most server members are sensible people, but there exist some that are not, with some even actively polluting the server’s environment with their actions, through either the attempted subversion of server rules, or comments/actions that is making other members uncomfortable. I try my best to bring up these types of problematic server members to the rest of the mod team, if it hasn’t been brought up already, and actively work with the other mods to continue monitoring the situation and take action if needed. I think this is the least I can do for the server given what it has done to help me, I can name at least a dozen or so people on the server who had given me joy, been there to help me out whenever I am experiencing difficulty, cheered me up whenever I was having a less than ideal day, there is no way to quantify the help this community had given me in one form or the other, and thus the least I can do for the community is the continuation of the diligent enforcement of my duty as a server moderator.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Not really, haha. I am not the type of person that has a lot to talk about when not given a topic to do so. I do wish I can think of more to discuss and share for this newsletter, but in the end, the only thing I can think of is, how grateful I am to be a part of this game’s journey, to be a part of this game’s community, to watch both of them grow from their infancy to where they are now, it is an experience for sure, an experience I won’t be forgetting for a very, very long time.
Show West some love! Drop in and say hi to him on the Discord server! He’s always watching...
February 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 submission for February!
Venice by DazzlePunctura on Discord
Thank you for your submission! 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!
We’re one step closer to completion! 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 February edition of the Havoc Fox Newsletter. Stay safe, stay healthy, and we hope to see you again in March!
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