New Ideas for Pen Abilities & Upgrades!

[Akane]

So let me just say, I played through the entire game just now and I loved it! It felt like there was a lack of content, like some of you guys have pointed out, but I think he'll update that later on. I thought the powers we got for the Pen were awesome, so I wanted to talk about ideas for upgrades or new abilities we could see added to the Pen later on. First I’ll start by mentioning the abilities we’ve seen so far.

1. Inkboarding: Whenever a large piece of blank paper is present, we can use the Pen to draw a path on it and let Fancy Pants ride it. We have free reign to travel anywhere across the paper, but controlling the Pen while you ride it can be tricky! Unlike other abilities, this does not deplete our ink supply.

2. Ink Gun: By pressing “D” we can use the Pen as a gun and rapidly fire out tiny shots of ink in the direction we are facing. This can be used to attack enemies from long-range, but it can also be used to create solid blocks of ink anywhere that we see an outline of a square. This ability quickly depletes out ink supply if we use it without pause.

3. Ink Dash: By pressing “Shift” we can use the Pen to quickly rocket us forward a few feet, even while we’re mid-air. If we use it to pass through ink enemies we will gain a few more feet for each one we pass through, and if there are a chain of enemies then we can continually pass through them until the chain ends. This ability uses a large chuck of ink supply each time we use it.

So now I’ll talk about some of my ideas for ways the Pen could simply be upgraded in various ways, either by Ice Cream or some other source, and then I’ll talk about ideas for new abilities all together. Keep in mind that I am a big fan of Legend of Zelda, so I will probably base all my ideas off items from that series.



Upgrades:

1. More Ink: This upgrade is pretty simple, I’m sure plenty of people thought about it on their first play through. So what if we could simply increase the maximum amount of ink our Pen contained, similar to how we could steadily upgrade our health and power through Ice Cream. By adding this upgrade we could use our new abilities more freely and go longer between each Ink Sprout refill.

2. Ink Gun Upgrade: The Ink Gun is a pretty cool ability, but due to the fact that the floor is usually uneven, and several enemies can float in the air, it’s sometimes hard to get your bullets to actually reach the enemy. One way to reduce this issue would be to make the bullets of the Ink Gun much larger with a greater range, while still only using up the same amount out of your ink supply. It could also be upgraded by having the Ink Gun fire several steams of bullets at different angles all at the same time.

3. Ink Slash: Based off the Master Sword, if Fancy Pants is full on health and ink, his Pen will start overflowing while he preforms attacks. This allows him to automatically fire an offensive ray of ink every time he preforms a charged attack, or at the then end of a successful combo. This does not deplete his ink supply. If he gets hurt or uses any of his ink, he will have to wait until he refills both to use the Ink Slash ability again.

4. Bonus Drain: This upgrade allows you to drain more ink each time you attack an ink enemy, thus allowing you to refill your ink supply in battle more quickly. Right now it does not take long to refill our total ink supply, but if we were able to upgrade it to a much larger quantity, then it would be nice to gain more ink from each monster we defeat.



New Abilities:

1. Scribble Shot: Based off the Hookshot, the Scribble Shot is an ability that allows you to travel around the screen in new ways. Similar to Inkboarding, it requires something to already be present for you to use it. Whereas Inkboarding requires a blank piece of paper for you to ride, the Scribble Shot requires a target to latch onto. By pressing “F” Fancy Pants will hold up his Pen and the tip of it will start glowing, by clicking on the glowing tip you will start to draw a line around the screen by using the mouse. By drawing a line that connects the tip to a target, Fancy Pants will suddenly be pulled along the line until he reaches the target, almost like a reverse of Inkboarding. The limit to this is that you have to make sure the line doesn’t bump into a wall, spike, or pass through enemies. If it crosses a wall, the Scribble Shot will automatically undo itself and you have to start over. If it passes through a spike or enemy, then you can still connect it to a target, but once Fancy Pants starts to ride it he will be stopped midway if he takes damage. Scribble Shot can go in any sort of loop or curve so long as you don’t draw over an obstacle, so make use of its agility to reach the target. Scribble Shot could also possibly connect to certain enemies, but that would likely damage Fancy Pants unless he attacked them at the last second. This ability probably wouldn’t use up any ink supply.

2. Ink Geyser: Based off the animation at the end of Boss 1, the Ink Geyser allows you to shot yourself into the air anywhere there is an Ink Sprout. By standing over an Ink Sprout you automatically have a full ink supply, but by using the Ink Geyser you will deplete a large portion of it by the time it finishes propelling you up into the air. This ability cannot be used without an Ink Sprout to launch you up.

3. Slick Slide: In some of the older Fancy Pants game, some of the platforms had oil or ink on them which allowed Fancy Pants to slide down them at an increasingly fast rate. By unlocking this ability, you can ride on the Pen as it creates a slick path of ink to slide on, while sliding on it. By gaining more momentum going down a hill you can get higher in the air when you jump. This can also be used to attack enemies on the ground as you slide into them with the tip of your pen.

4. Burst Blot: Get it? Like an ink blot? Heh. The Burst Blot is a charged version of the Ink Gun, where, instead of rapidly firing tiny ink pellets, we fire off a huge ink projectile that erupts in a violent explosion. The Burst Blot is like a bomb, capable of destroying sturdy rocks that we couldn't chip away at with just our Pen. Before being fired, the Burst Blot can carefully be aimed and directed. Unlike the Ink Gun, it has a 360 degree radius that it can be fired off in, but no matter which direction you choose it will always go off the instant it hits the first thing it makes contact with, be that an enemy, wall, spike, or tiny platform. However it's explosion has a large range of impact, so you don't always have to directly hit your target to deal damage to it. The Burst Blot uses more ink with each firing than any other ability. It's activated by crouching down while you press "D", with the Pen then being held like a bazooka instead of a gun.

5. Double Jump: A pretty simple, but efficient new ability. The Double Jump is used by first jumping, and then jumping again in mid-air by using the Pen to squirt a shot of ink that propels us up even further. The Ink Dash ability is already very similar to a double jump, but it is mostly used to propel us horizontally and is somewhat hard to control where you land. The Double Jump uses up a tiny bit of ink each time you use it, and cannot be used twice per jump or if your ink supply is out.

6. CMYK Ink Powers: So far in the game, the only color ink we've seen is all black, except at the end of the game where it looks like the volcano is made of paper smeared with red ink. That got we thinking, what if there were a variety of colors we could unlock and use with different effects for each color? So for this idea, we would eventually get a content update where we unlocked 3 different colors of ink to use instead of new ink abilities. The four different colors together make up CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key). We already use Key ink (Black), but whereas Black ink is used mainly for destroying inklings, the other color inks all have special effects tied to them.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1159538487
Cyan: The Cyan ink has the icy ability to freeze to inklings in their tracks. By using the Ink Gun or Ink Dash on them, instead of being destroyed, they will merely be frozen. Even flying enemies will be frozen right at the spot where they were hit with Cyan ink. Frozen inklings can still be killed, either by switching back to Black ink or simply using your Pen as a sword to shatter them. Frozen inklings will instantly be destroyed by Black ink or physical attacks.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1159534249
Magenta: The Magenta ink has the ability to give inklings elastic qualities like rubber or gum. Inklings mixed with Magenta ink can not be harmed, but can now be jumped on like the enemies in the early parts of the game. Jumping on the elastic inklings can propel you upwards like a spring, whereas swinging your Pen at them will cause them to shoot off and bounce around the walls rapidly. The only way to destroy inklings, after they've been mixed with Magenta ink, is to mix them with another color ink thus turning them into a new color, or by sending them into a bottomless pit.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1159533039
Yellow: The Yellow ink has the ability to turn inklings into bioluminescent versions of themselves. Inklings mixed with Yellow ink give off a bright glow like fireflies, which allows you to see around better in dark areas. Although bioluminescent inklings still brighten normal areas, they offer little to no help in well lit areas of the game. Yellow ink cannot be used to harm inklings, but bioluminescent inklings can still be destroyed with Black ink or Pen attacks.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1159531554
To clarify, we would probably not have 4 different supplies of ink for each color we unlock. Rather we would use the same supply of ink for each color. After we unlock a new color of ink, we can pause the game to switch between the different colors we've unlocked thus far. Attacking inklings or standing over Ink Sprouts will still refill our ink even if we are using a different color. Also, the abilities of other ink colors do not affect boss inklings.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1159535855


So yea, those are all my ideas. Do you guys have any cool ideas for new Pen upgrades or abilities?

[Spike]

Being a long time fan of the Fancy Pants franchise, I was overjoyed to see an official steam game to keep the train rolling. I played through the game, and I also felt a lack of content. Seeing someone take as much interest in the development of the game as you are had made me feel so warm and fuzzy inside. You have so many good ideas, and I hope they get included in future updates.

[Akane]

Originally posted by spike71137:

Being a long time fan of the Fancy Pants franchise, I was overjoyed to see an official steam game to keep the train rolling. I played through the game, and I also felt a lack of content. Seeing someone take as much interest in the development of the game as you are had made me feel so warm and fuzzy inside. You have so many good ideas, and I hope they get included in future updates.

Aw yea I loved the Fancy Pants series ever since the second game came out on Newgrounds. Would you have any cool ideas you'd like to see make their way into this game one day when Brad updates it with new content?

[Spike]

Originally posted by Akane:

Originally posted by spike71137:

Being a long time fan of the Fancy Pants franchise, I was overjoyed to see an official steam game to keep the train rolling. I played through the game, and I also felt a lack of content. Seeing someone take as much interest in the development of the game as you are had made me feel so warm and fuzzy inside. You have so many good ideas, and I hope they get included in future updates.

Aw yea I loved the Fancy Pants series ever since the second game came out on Newgrounds. Would you have any cool ideas you'd like to see make their way into this game one day when Brad updates it with new content?

Honestly, you've listed about everything I could think of. If anything, although it wouldn't quite fit with the ink theme, some sort of time slow down for fine tuning jumps or just having more time to think while in midair. When the time is slowed, your ink bar would slowly deplete, and your ink shots from the pen would also be slowed. ( firing speed and projectile speed. )

[Akane]

Originally posted by Dankasaurus Reks:

Originally posted by Akane:

Aw yea I loved the Fancy Pants series ever since the second game came out on Newgrounds. Would you have any cool ideas you'd like to see make their way into this game one day when Brad updates it with new content?

Honestly, you've listed about everything I could think of. If anything, although it wouldn't quite fit with the ink theme, some sort of time slow down for fine tuning jumps or just having more time to think while in midair. When the time is slowed, your ink bar would slowly deplete, and your ink shots from the pen would also be slowed. ( firing speed and projectile speed. )

That may not fit with the ink theme we've seen so far, but if Fancy Pants ever gained the ability to manipulate the environment around him simply by doodling items then he could slow time down by drawing a clock.

[Akane]

Originally posted by Dankasaurus Reks:

Originally posted by Akane:

Aw yea I loved the Fancy Pants series ever since the second game came out on Newgrounds. Would you have any cool ideas you'd like to see make their way into this game one day when Brad updates it with new content?

Honestly, you've listed about everything I could think of. If anything, although it wouldn't quite fit with the ink theme, some sort of time slow down for fine tuning jumps or just having more time to think while in midair. When the time is slowed, your ink bar would slowly deplete, and your ink shots from the pen would also be slowed. ( firing speed and projectile speed. )

Oh wait! Remember the red wheels in the pirate forest levels that we could shoot to make them spin around? What if there was a strange level with magic clocks scattered all around it that we could shoot to wind up them up, and whenever they started ticking they temporarily slowed down time like you said. Even if we could only use it in those levels, do you think that would be a cool idea?

[Spike]

Originally posted by Akane:

Originally posted by Dankasaurus Reks:

Honestly, you've listed about everything I could think of. If anything, although it wouldn't quite fit with the ink theme, some sort of time slow down for fine tuning jumps or just having more time to think while in midair. When the time is slowed, your ink bar would slowly deplete, and your ink shots from the pen would also be slowed. ( firing speed and projectile speed. )

Oh wait! Remember the red wheels in the pirate forest levels that we could shoot to make them spin around? What if there was a strange level with magic clocks scattered all around it that we could shoot to wind up them up, and whenever they started ticking they temporarily slowed down time like you said. Even if we could only use it in those levels, do you think that would be a cool idea?

That would be awesome! I think that would add just a little bit more content to the game, and even just little additions like that would make the game a thousand times better.

[Akane]

Originally posted by Dankasaurus Reks:

Originally posted by Akane:

Oh wait! Remember the red wheels in the pirate forest levels that we could shoot to make them spin around? What if there was a strange level with magic clocks scattered all around it that we could shoot to wind up them up, and whenever they started ticking they temporarily slowed down time like you said. Even if we could only use it in those levels, do you think that would be a cool idea?

That would be awesome! I think that would add just a little bit more content to the game, and even just little additions like that would make the game a thousand times better.

By the way, I'll continually update the list as I come up with new ideas if you want to read them later. So far all I've added is Bust Blot, Double Jump, and CMYK powers, but later on it might have some cool new ideas on there.

[Akane]

Just wanna check back and see if anyone new has any ideas.

[Fancy2209]

2 idea Brad himself are
Beeing able to throw ink on the floor to propel yourself, just like the inky surfaces in World 2 and World 3, and ink shoes, that allow you to stomp and slide on ink enemies.

These are all great ideas btw, I hope SFPA 2 uses them

[An Obtuse Bagel]

Damn bro these are some actual good ideas, I love the Fancy Pants Series and stuff like this makes me so happy