Spring 2023 Newsletter

Springing back into action!

Happy Spring (though at this point it’s practically Summer)! It has been another busy season at Havoc Studios and we have a lot of new information primed and ready to share. Before we dive into the contents of the newsletter, allow me to formally apologize for the tardiness of this publication. I’ve been through multiple illnesses, a flirtation with carpal tunnel, and a good week without internet access, so it’s been difficult to get the opportunity to work on this. I just wanted to thank you all for your continued support, patience, and excitement as Havoc Fox presses forward in its development. With that, let’s dive into the news!

Casting Call Update

Back in February, we wrapped up our final casting call and have selected the talented individuals who will be voicing the remainder of our characters. Please welcome the new additions to our cast!

With the full cast in place, we will begin our voice recording sessions over the summer and start including them in future demos and test builds of the game. It’s been quite a few years since we’ve had new lines, so get ready to hear our talented actors once more!

Development Livestreams

We have resumed our development livestreams once more, this time over on Twitch! Multiple times during the week, you can tune in to https://www.twitch.tv/havocduskfox and watch live development of Havoc Fox and associated projects and chat directly with us about the game! Dusky streams more than just development, occasionally playing games, doing art, or simply chatting with the viewers. You can keep up with the weekly stream schedule via our Discord server.

(Art by CasChronon)

Furthermore, subscribers to our Patreon also have access to exclusive development streams on Discord every Friday! If you are a Patron (or would like to become one), you will be able to join in the conversation and discuss development as it happens. Perfect for those of you with Patreon or Kickstarter rewards that require development! We hope to see you there!

Illinois Game Con

Havoc Fox will appear at the Illinois Game Con (formerly known as the BNVGCon) once again this year! We will have another demo of Havoc Fox to play and hope to add an exciting new asset to this convention: stickers! By popular demand, if all works out, we hope to provide stickers of some of the game’s characters, free of charge, to anyone who attends! The convention will be at the Interstate Center in Bloomington Normal, Illinois, on June 24, 2023 from 9 AM to 5 PM. If you are in the area, drop on by and check out the booth! We hope to see you there!

Current Development Update

This season, we’re going on an adventure.

As your adventure continues beyond the snowy village of Cerice, you will experience radically different environments on your quest to stop the evil king. And by radically different, we mean a whole other (mathematical) dimension. That’s right– we truly are taking Havoc Fox into 3D! Well, sort of. While maintaining the pixel art style, we are using a form of terrain generation and working with the engine’s 3D capabilities to produce an overworld environment similar to that of RPG adventure games. And, of course, that includes modifying the combat to compensate.

Much like the shoot-’em-up segment in Retro Ravine, part of the next stage will take on a different genre for a point of time, further diversifying and expanding the Havoc Fox experience. Featuring Grey, Venice, and three new characters that you will meet around this point in the story, you will take your party of five on a little RPG adventure through a world we’re calling The Lightningscape. The governing mechanics won’t be too complicated (and will only exist during this particular stage), so don’t worry if you’re not used to the genre. Havoc Fox is still an action platformer at its core and that will play right into the experience.

Aside from development on the new stage, we’ve also begun working on updating some of the existing content as well. Cutscenes have received the brunt of this new work, and with new voice lines currently being recorded, we’re nearing the final product of these earlier stages and scenes!

Spring 2023 Fan Art Gallery

The following works have been submitted to us through our community Discord server. Check out the submissions from this season!

Venice by Glover on Discord

BURN by Ann on Discord

Honkers by VAdaPEGA on Discord

Grey by Nindota on Discord

Antarc’s Ride by CasChronon 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!

Considering the tardiness of this newsletter, the schedule for the remainder of the year will be adjusted slightly to accommodate. You can expect the remaining newsletters to come in August, October, and December. 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 spring edition of the Havoc Fox Newsletter. We hope to see you again in the summer!

Winter 2022 Newsletter

Happy Holidays and a Havoc New Year!

Merry Christmas! As the first newsletter in the new quarterly format (and therefore the first official update in… well, a long while, it felt reasonable to deliver this end-of-year update all wrapped up with colorful paper and a nice big bow, nestled safely under your tree. Whatever you may be celebrating this year, all of us at Havoc Studios wish you a happy holiday season!

(Artwork by End on Discord)

Casting Call Update

Before diving into the rest of the news, we would like to address the elephant in the room. The casting call which ended back on October 31st is still in review. A lot has happened over the past two months that have gotten in the way of sifting through the hundreds of auditions we received, but rest assured that we’ve narrowed them down to a smaller selection. After the new year, you can expect to see the results of this final casting call! Our deepest apologies for the long delay in this process!

Havoc Fox on Steam

Earlier this quarter, Havoc Fox’s official Steam page was created. Although the release date is still TBA (and certainly at least another year or two away from such an announcement), the page provides basic info on what to expect and anticipate from our upcoming action platformer. Be sure to add the game to your Steam wishlist so that you may access the game the moment it’s available!

For those of you with beta access, we anticipate using Steam in the future for testing purposes. We will let you know through our official channels when these betas are available, as well as how to access them.

Freedom Planet 2

Freedom Planet, one of the inspirations for Havoc Fox, released its long-anticipated sequel back in September. Aside from being influential to us, we helped bring the game to life by contributing pixel art, music, and quality assurance in its final years of development. If you like Havoc Fox, we trust that you’ll love Freedom Planet 2 as well. Support our friends at GalaxyTrail and pick up a copy of their game today! You may recognize our logo upon starting up, and dedicated players just might see some familiar names within…

Current Development Update

This season, we’re wrapping up the Cerice arc.

Cerice is just about finished up! With two entirely separate segments for both Grey and Venice (each made up of three sub-segments) and a finale stage to wrap up the arc, this little wintry town has been the most ambitious stage we’ve developed so far. As of right now, each segment and boss fight has been designed, and much of the following stage is ready to go! The finer details of these stages are still under wraps, but be prepared to get a little creative.

Matiz Village, the hub area before Retro Ravine, has seen significant updates as well. The layout has been overhauled, various buildings can now be entered, and the stage has been populated with a wide array of NPCs, some of which are cameo appearances from our wonderful community and supporters! Along with an update to the shop system, Matiz is ready to greet new adventurers on their way to save the ravine.

Going all the way back to Aqua Rocket Base’s hub, we’ve begun work on some of the minigames you can play in the arcade. Along with Retro Ravine’s shoot-em-up-based arcade cabinet Macaron Magic, you will have access to a pet-raising minigame. The details are being kept a secret for now, but you can look forward to collecting and raising a wide variety of little digital critters!

And much more! Despite the few hiccups in our schedules these past few months, work has been strong for Havoc Fox, and we’re so excited about all the stuff we are choosing to not say!

Winter 2022 Fan Art Gallery

The following works have been submitted to us through our community Discord server. Check out the submissions from this season!

Havoc Runner by KenKun on Discord

Flight Achieved by Kailes on Discord

Venice Creature by FoyX on Discord

Lyle Lyle Grenadile by Veldoodles 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!

That’s a wrap for 2022! 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 winter edition of the Havoc Fox Newsletter. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and we hope to see you again in the spring of 2023!

January 2022 Newsletter

Moving Forward

The new year is now in action and we at Havoc Studios have been hard at work pushing toward our goals for 2022. Check it out!

Backer Rewards

As we progress deeper into the development of Havoc Fox, we are beginning to add in various NPCs into the game’s various locations. Some of you will recognize many of these NPCs; they are you, after all!

Those of you who have pledged $100 and have submitted reference materials are having your likenesses/characters placed into the world of Havoc Fox wherever we see fit. As we continue to populate the world, we will send out updates to the individual backers of their characters in action. Keep an eye out for yours!

Furthermore, those of you who have pledged $50 or more will soon have a new build of Havoc Fox to try out! With some recent gameplay changes, added tutorials, and finished stages to experience, we will be needing plenty of feedback to ensure that the game is working and moving forward. More info will be shared with each of you in the future, including projected release dates and bug reporting procedures.

These implementations will occur until development of the game is finished. We thank you for your support and patience as we work to bring everyone to the exciting world of Vanalia!

Current Development Update

This month, we’ve done some structural maintenance.

As we prepare for our next private test, we’ve spent some time working on the foundation of Havoc Fox. File saving and loading has been in the works for months and is now ready for deployment in the game’s primary adventure mode, saving players’ time, progression, and accumulated gemmes for future play sessions.

After plenty of feedback, we have chosen to redesign Grey’s initial Special attack. Replacing his shielded triple-shot attack is a volley of revolving shots that Grey can fire off to deal heavy damage. These shots also serve as a temporary, damaging shield that can injure enemies that make contact with them. It is our hope that this new ability will be more balanced, encouraging players to make careful use of it while also promoting the use of the abilities gained from defeating bosses along the way.

Lastly, we have given focus to Kiiro, the boss of Aqua Rocket Base in Grey’s story. Kiiro’s new boss fight keeps players engaged throughout the encounter as they dodge a variety of attacks while striking at large, mechanical arms. Previous iterations of this fight cycled between sessions of dodging attacks and a short damage phase. It is our intention to combine both gameplay cycles in the new fight to prevent downtime and keep players interested!

More work has been done beyond these updates, but we are keeping those under wraps for now. Keep an eye on our social media and, if you haven’t already, join our Discord for the most frequent updates!

January Fan Art Gallery

The following works have been submitted to us through our community Discord server. Check out the submissions from January!

Gray by Glover on Discord

Havico T-Posing by SamuraiOfSecrets 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!

Development is going strong! 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 January edition of the Havoc Fox Newsletter. Stay safe, stay healthy, and we hope to see you again in February!

Q3 2021 Newsletter

Happy 2022!

Another year has come to a close. 2021 has been a wild ride for us at Havoc Studios and we are very happy to have been able to share it with you, our incredible community! We hope that you have had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to walk with us into the new year!

(Artwork by Rilao on Discord)

2021 in Review

2021 was a huge year for the studio. We entered the year with little more than an ambitious plan for the future and exited with an established business, project funding, and a much larger community! Walk with us as we reflect on our journey through 2021.

At the beginning of the year, much of our focus was geared toward our Kickstarter campaign. We opened up with our announcement, plans, and demos in preparation for the big event planned for May. To further prepare for our crowdfunding event, we set up a booth at the BNVG Convention in Illinois with a new demo and a very successful showcase of Havoc Fox.

The middle of 2021 saw the largest growth for the studio to date. Havoc Studios, LLC was established in early June to get everything ready for the upcoming Kickstarter. Although the campaign was pushed back to mid-June, it was a resounding success, allotting us $21,792 to bring Havoc Fox to life! Coupled with a new demo and a sizable increase to our community, this summer has left us feeling hopeful and excited for the future!

As the year began to wind down, all of our efforts have been focused on further developing Havoc Fox. After years of updating and polishing the first few stages of the game, we are excited to move forward with the fourth stage completed and a good chunk of progress made into the fifth stage! We are going to be much quieter with new progress updates to help leave plenty of surprises, but rest assured we are hard at work every day to make Havoc Fox the best game it can be!

Thank you for being with us on this incredible journey. None of this would be possible without you, our wonderful community, to help keep our spirits up and share in the excitement for our projects. Help us make 2022 another year to remember!

Current Development Update

This month, we’ve spent some time in the snow.

Cerice, the snowy village set in the rural mountainous region of Vanalia, sets the stage for Grey and Venice following their adventure on the Ethereal Express. This stage is unique in comparison to the others, but we won’t disclose those details at this time. You’ll have to see it for yourself!

As for a progress update, we have developed one stage frame and one boss, as well as having made significant progress on two other stage frames since our last newsletter. The script for Grey’s story is nearing its final revisions with its first half finalized and ready to go. More sprites and assets have been updated as well to accommodate Grey's new moveset and some special stage-specific animations.

Looking ahead, we aim to finish Cerice and the following stage with plans to make developments on further stages for both Grey and Venice. A final casting call will go out soon to cast the rest of our characters (including a small handful of extra voices). With the finalized roster, we also plan to have most (if not all) of the game’s voice lines recorded and ready to go by the end of 2022. And, if all goes well and the conditions are safe, we’re hoping to make another convention appearance this year!

Havoc Fox has come a long way since the Kickstarter Campaign! Most of our updates are being kept secret for now, but we’ll be sure to share bits and pieces here and there to keep you updated, informed, and interested! Keep an eye on our social media and, if you haven’t already, join our Discord for the most frequent updates!

December Fan Art Gallery

The following works have been submitted to us through our community Discord server. Check out the submissions from December!

Venice by Glover on Discord

Baking with Aurelie by Ann 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!

Pardon our dust! The past few months may have been silent, but they’ve been quite productive! 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 December edition of the Havoc Fox Newsletter. Stay safe, stay healthy, and have a happy new year! We hope to see you again in 2022!

Q3 2021 Newsletter

We’re Still Here!

Pardon our dust! The last few months may have gone without a newsletter, but rest assured we have been hard at work on Havoc Fox the entire time! In the meantime, we hope you have had a Happy Halloween and are ready to move into the holiday season!

(Artwork by @Levie)

Studio Update

With the Kickstarter out of the way, we have been able to shift all of our focus back into Havoc Fox’s development. The funding from the Kickstarter has allowed us to expand our crew with vital work done in the realms of sound design, background art, and casting direction (though we won’t name any names for now). This new talent has been very helpful in both refining existing assets within Havoc Fox as well as the development of newer content.

SAGE 2021 also happened earlier this quarter. Havoc Fox appeared once again at the expo with a new demo featuring the return of Aqua Rocket Base, a stage that was absent during the Kickstarter. Further testing was done, additional feedback was gathered, and we have been able to use the experience as a whole to further improve the game! Next year for SAGE 2022, however, you can expect to see something new and different from us. We won’t reveal anything more than that, so be sure to check it out when the time comes!

Development of Havoc Fox is still going strong! The “Current Development Update” segment of the newsletter will dig deeper into this, but know that we have since mostly finished up Ethereal Express, have made some gameplay and quality-of-life changes to earlier stages, and have begun development of the next stage! We’ll give you a hint: it’s well suited for the coming season.

Lastly, I (Austin) just wanted to formally apologize for the lack of updates, both through the newsletter and through our social media channels. The time following the Kickstarter campaign has left me mentally exhausted and I’ve fallen behind in a lot of areas. I have still been working on the game (the main scripts are finished and going through their final revisions at the moment), but with the lack of updates outside of our community Discord server, I understand that the opposite may look true. Rest assured, I am ready to get back into action and will return to our regular posting of the newsletter each month, as well as more frequent updates on social media. Thank you so much for your understanding and continued support of Havoc Studios!

Current Development Update

This quarter, we’ve powered through the express and have begun working on the following stage.

Ethereal Express is nearly complete! The stage is built, the boss working, and we are polishing it up while working on the following level. The cutscenes taking place before Ethereal Express have been implemented as well, designed without the larger talk sprites to keep all of the focus on the main scene. This is a new cutscene style which we are testing out to see how it compares with the scenes of the past.

Following Ethereal Express, our heroes will find their way to the remote, snowy village of Cerice! Despite being far away from the king’s influence, the small town has its own set of perils. We won’t dig too deep into the stage’s story or layout, but come prepared to endure a series of trials!

Finally, aside from the new stages, changes have been made to the existing levels to help liven them up. New enemies can be found and extra puzzles have been placed into Moonlit Cove, Autumn Entropy, and more!

Who might these two be? A side project is currently in the works which we intend to showcase at SAGE 2022 next year! Do not worry; this project is largely being used as a tool to keep our minds fresh and prepared when it comes time to work on Havoc Fox and will not interfere with its development in any way. We are still maintaining our production goals and hope to keep powering through development at an efficient rate!

Q3 Fan Art Gallery

Plenty of time has passed since our last newsletter, which also means that we have plenty of fan art to show off! The following works have been submitted to us through our community Discord server. Check ‘em out!

Antarc by Cas Chronon on Discord

Extreme Venice by VAdaPEGA on Discord

Fortuna by Glover on Discord

Havoc Fox Movie Poster by LillyDragon on Discord

Jim and Venice by TheToppingKing on Discord

Riken by Levie on Discord

Venice by Celabeat on Discord

Venice at SAGE 2021 by Rilao on Discord

Venice Kart by Plom510 on Discord

FNF Grey by SamuraiOfSecrets on Discord

Witchy Venice by EventHorizon 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!

Community Spotlight - LillyDragon!

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 Q3 community spotlight features LillyDragon, developer of the Freedom Planet fan game “Shang Mu Architect” among others!

How did you first discover Havoc Fox?

“I first saw HavocFox because Dusky posting it in #dev-lab on the GalaxyTrail server, what feels like half a decade ago? It's powerful to realize how much the game has changed in that time, as well as the people behind it! I knew I had to be a beta backer when y'all launched the (now successful) Kickstarter, and I can't wait to see where things go from here.”

How long have you been working with game development?

“I've been learning how to make games since I was a 14 year old teen in-front of a Windows 98 computer, snacking away at craisins into the wee hours of the night while mangling Game Maker's Pacman example into a half-functioning platformer. I had always wanted to make video games since I was old enough to hold a controller, so I was happily bumbling my way through those beginning phases. After 40+ shelved 2D and 3D fan game prototypes, and many periods of life dragging me around, at the ripe age of 32, I'm nearing the final stages of finishing what will be my first proper fan game with Shang Mu Architect!”

Your Freedom Planet fan game, Shang Mu Architect, is doing quite well in the community. How has its development helped you as a creator?

“Shang Mu Architect has taught me every painful lesson about game development that every prior prototype didn't! Freedom Planet is a more difficult beast to recreate from scratch than most 2D platformers are. The sheer scope of working backwards to rebuild Lilac, Carol, Milla, 12 of FP's most iconic enemies, and almost all of FP's items, puts the complexity of any Sonic fan game I've ever tried to make to shame. Getting all of those countless thousands of pieces feature-complete and working in unison took a full three years! But I don't regret a moment of it. When I first played Freedom Planet in the Christmas of 2014, I was trying not to cry, it made me so happy. It wasn't just a video game to me, it was an event that changed the course of my life. I knew I wanted to make games before, but it was like my eyes opened when Freedom Planet released. It was that inspiring, and I'm not alone in the GalaxyTrail community when I say that! No matter how hard it was, that driving force of passion kept me going. Shang Mu Architect is above and beyond everything I had ever dreamed of doing with my cancelled Blaze fan game. It is a marriage of ideas from two lost level editors that never came to be: My Blaze fan game's level editor, and Sabrina's stage editor that was intended to ship with FP1, but never made the final cut. SMA is a revival of the content lost on FP1's cutting room floor, as well as mine. It's so surreal when I'm testing and debugging things in SMA, sometimes, to realize how much I have changed since I first started working on it, and how much the game has changed with me. And it's also funny to realize that, when I first started working on SMA, I had no intention of ever making another game like it, if not joking about that harshly absolute statement multiple times. But it's because of working on that fan game, I now have a mountain of ideas for a Sonic clone of my own, which I will be working on after SMA is done! Creativity begets more creativity, who'd have thought? Not me in 2017!”

Would you care to share a bit about your other projects?

“I would like to share more about my next projects, but they still need more time in the oven; SMA's development has kept them on the backburner, unfortunately. But the concept art, bibles, and design docs have been piling up! There's a lot of wonderful people from the GalaxyTrail community behind them, too; you'll know who they are soon enough!”

Anything else you’d like to add?

“I am really happy for Dusky and all of the people behind Havoc Fox, it was wonderful to see the Kickstarter succeed, and it felt great to have given all I could towards the game. Y'all had to work so hard to get this far; it melts my heart to see that many, many others also wanted to see your game become a reality. It's always delightful to see more about Havoc Fox! You have my support all the way!”

Show Lilly some love! Follow her on Twitter or say hi to her on the Discord server!

That's all for now!

Pardon our dust! The past few months may have been silent, but they’ve been quite productive! 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 Q3 edition of the Havoc Fox Newsletter. Stay safe, stay healthy, and we hope to see you again in November as we return to our regular posting schedule!

July 2021 Newsletter

Moving Forward with Funding

In the aftermath of our Kickstarter campaign, we have been plotting and planning our next moves for Havoc Fox’s development. Progress has been moving swiftly and we’re very excited for what the future holds!

Havoc Fox Kickstarter Results

(Artwork by @cyansorcery)

We are very excited to say that the Havoc Fox Kickstarter was a resounding success! In the end, our total was $21,792.40, just shy of 9% more than our target goal of $20,000! None of our stretch goals were met, but surpassing our target has been a major success for our development process. In the time following the campaign, we have been hard at work preparing our budget and managing our resources. Development on Havoc Fox will be much faster with all of the extra help we’ll be bringing in!

With the goal reached, we have begun discussing the pledge rewards. We have already received many of your descriptions and visual references for the cameos and will be responding to them soon. We will work with you to ensure they’re presented in a way that pleases you while still adhering to our guidelines for inclusion in Havoc Fox. For those of you who have beta access, we have sent out invites to join our Discord server for beta testing! We should have some new builds for you to play in August, so make sure you join the community! For the rest of you, your digital game copies, artbooks, and soundtracks will be awarded upon Havoc Fox’s release, so be sure to follow our newsletters, updates, and social media for more information!

Now that Kickstarter is behind us, we’re focusing on our next project: SAGE 2021. For those of you who are unfamiliar, SAGE (Sonic Amateur Games Expo) is an online game expo that hosts plenty of indie and fan games on one large server. Havoc Fox has appeared at SAGE the past two years, making 2021 its third appearance. SAGE 2021 begins on August 21st, and we’ll show off a new demo for the occasion. We hope to see you there!

With our Kickstarter campaign behind us, we’re quickly moving forward to our next goal. Thank you all once again for making it a success!

Current Development Update

This month, we continued to make progress on the Express.

Our main priority right now is finishing up the next stage: Ethereal Express. The scene above is a short snippet from the preceding cutscene, the first of which will differ between Grey and Venice’s separate stories. This similar-but-different theme between each campaign will continue through future stages and scenes as well to give both stories their own identity, ensuring that both Grey and Venice are the main characters of their respective playthroughs.

Ethereal Express is the first stage shared by both Grey and Venice, offering different challenges due to their different play styles. We recently programmed Venice into the stage and will begin working on her routing for the stage soon!

Some parts of the stage are going to be dark, requiring Grey to light his way. To accommodate this, we’ve added a dynamic lighting/shadowing effect to parts of the stage! The effect is purely cosmetic and will not affect gameplay, but it looks cool! Should this affect your system’s processing in a negative way, the effects will have a toggle in the options menu to help reduce lag and other issues.

Aside from Ethereal Express, we’ve been working on a few changes to the overall gameplay. Shown above is an example of how different attacks will affect enemies upon defeat. The more powerful your attack, the farther away the enemy will fly! Additionally, you may have noticed that the HUD has been updated as well. The top meter is thicker and now shows your active special attack as an icon on its left. The bottom meter is more clearly defined as your health with heart indicators.

We have also laid the foundation for the next stage after Ethereal Express, but we won’t be discussing that at the moment. Follow our social media pages for further updates, and be sure to check out our next demo when SAGE rolls around later this month!

Community Spotlight - You!

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 July community spotlight features, well, you!

This month is dedicated to everyone in the Havoc Studios community. Whether you’ve been here since the beginning, jumped in from SAGE, found us through Kickstarter, or are reading this as your introduction to our studio, we could never hope to do all this without you. Havoc Fox has been a labor of love for many years, but it was your help and support that helped it grow into something much greater.

Thank you so much for your support, and we hope that Havoc Fox will become everything you’re looking for! With Kickstarter in the past, we should resume our regular community spotlights in the future!

That's all for now!

Havoc Fox’s development is our sole priority from here on out! 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 July edition of the Havoc Fox Newsletter. Stay safe, stay healthy, and we hope to see you again in August!

June 2021 Newsletter

Nearing the Goal

The Havoc Fox Kickstarter went live this month and we’re growing ever closer to our goal! We still have a long way to go in the next couple of weeks; help us reach that goal before time runs out!

Kickstarter Progress Update

(Art by @veldoodles on Twitter)

Within the first two days, Havoc Fox reached half of its $20,000 USD goal! The following days have seen a decline in activity, but progress is still being made and we’re still on track to succeed if we keep the momentum going strong. At the time of writing (on July 11th, apologies for the late report), the Kickstarter has received $13,141 USD from 139 backers. With two-thirds of the funding done and one-third of the campaign left to go, the goal is still in our sights!

The Havoc Fox demo associated with the Kickstarter has seen its first update as well, fixing up a few reported issues with both Miracle City and the Ulysses dance fight. If you haven’t played the new demo and were hindered by these issues, I encourage you to download the update! Even then, we still have one more surprise planned before the campaign is done. Keep your eyes peeled for our next demo to check it out!

Across the 139 backers, we’ve seen a wide variety of the available rewards taken. Out of the backer reward tiers, we have received:

-1 $1 backer

-7 $5 backers

-50/50 $15 backers

-10 $20 backers

-4 $30 backers

-14 $40 backers

-8 $50 backers

-25/50 $100 backers

-4/10 $300 backers

-7/10 $500 backers

-2/3 $1,500 backers

-0/1 $5,000 backers

For those of you who want to see yourselves (or your designs) in the game, we still have room! With 25 cameos, 6 enemy designs, 3 hub characters, 1 miniboss, and 1 stage boss still available, you still have a chance at being a part of Havoc Fox! However, you may want to act quickly if this is your goal; less than half of these rewards are still available!

We’re in the home stretch! If you haven’t done so, it would mean the world to us if you could back the project! If you can’t, you can still show your support by sharing the campaign with others. Every bit helps!

Current Development Update

This month, we’ve finished up the initial Kickstarter demo.

Unfortunately, there isn’t too much to talk about with this month’s game progress report. With all of the demo’s features ready by last month’s issue, the work done since then has been focused primarily on bug testing and fixing. While there isn’t anything new to discuss, it has been quite the busy month! Across five different builds of Havoc Fox, we have found and corrected over 100 different issues to make the experience as good as we could get it for the Kickstarter campaign!

While we won’t disclose it just yet, the rest of this month’s work has been put into developing and designing another secret boss! Enjoy this preview while we work on finalizing the encounter; it will be available for you to discover soon!

June 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 June!

Fortuna by @FreakyEd on Twitter

Antarc by Cas Chronon on Discord

Riken by @HaikuHello on Twitter

Problem, Havico? by Seth on Discord

Fortuna by DazzlePunctura on Discord

Grey and Brock by @TheDuckGod on Twitter

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!

The Havoc Fox Kickstarter is almost done! Let’s reach that goal! 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 June edition of the Havoc Fox Newsletter. Stay safe, stay healthy, and we hope to see you again with our Kickstarter in July!

May 2021 Newsletter

Kickstart our Hearts

The Havoc Fox Kickstarter is almost upon us! Years of growth and preparation have led us to this moment, and we are so excited to have you along for the ride! Read on to see what we plan to do for the upcoming campaign and the associated demo of Havoc Fox that you can play once the Kickstarter is live!

Kickstarter: June 16th, 2021

(Art by @veldoodles on Twitter)

Our current plan is to launch the Havoc Fox Kickstarter campaign on June 16th of this year! As stated in our January newsletter, the main purpose of this campaign is to ensure that we will have the funding necessary to develop and deliver Havoc Fox in a timely, efficient, and ideal manner. Development of Havoc Fox will continue regardless of the campaign’s success, but its final release date may be farther away than we’d expect with successful funding.

For the Kickstarter campaign, our initial goal rests at $20,000 USD. Each dollar in this funding goal is reserved entirely for Havoc Fox’s development; our budget consists of $6,000 for additional animators/artists/other help, $6,000 for our voice actors, $6,000 for our soundtrack, and the remaining $2,000 to cover Kickstarter’s fees and taxes. If we receive more than the anticipated $20,000, the remaining funds will be channeled back into Havoc Fox’s development to update certain aspects of the game or even add new features!

If you’re interested in backing Havoc Fox on Kickstarter, you will be entitled to a variety of rewards based on your pledge! The cheapest tiers give you a subscription to this newsletter ($1) and your name in the credits of the game as a supporter ($5). Mid-range tiers give you a digital copy of Havoc Fox ($20), a digital copy of the game’s soundtrack ($30), a digital artbook of the game ($40), and access to special beta versions of Havoc Fox during its development ($50). At the highest tiers, you can receive a cameo appearance in the game ($100), design a character for the game’s hub areas ($300), design an enemy that players will face ($500), design a miniboss ($1,500), or even design a whole boss with their own associated stage ($5,000)!

As stated before, we’d like to funnel all of our extra funding back into the game’s development to bring additional features! These goals are as follows:

-Initial goal ($20k): Playable Epilogue

-$25k: Lore Art

-$30k: Extended Epilogue

-$40k: Additional Hub Activities

-$50k: Visual Novel Spinoff Game

-$60k: ???

Alongside the Kickstarter campaign, we will be releasing a new demo of Havoc Fox available to everyone! The demo will feature two stages for each character (Moonlit Cove and Retro Ravine for Grey, Miracle City and Autumn Entropy for Venice) and offer a glimpse into how Havoc Fox’s “Classic Mode” level-select format will work for players that want to revisit the game in bite-sized amounts. Experience all-new moves, abilities, and boss encounters for both characters!

Everything we’ve done boils down to this campaign! If 1,000 people back Havoc Fox at the $20 necessary to acquire a copy of the game, we’ll meet our goal! Spread the word, and if you can, support the project!

Current Development Update

This month, we’ve prepared Havoc Fox for its Kickstarter demo.

Continuing from last month’s work, Venice’s new moveset is nearly finished! Since Venice will not have the ability to dash upward like Grey, she gets an additional aerial boost from Spooky! In addition to gliding across small gaps, Spooky can now lift Venice into the air a short distance before descending into his glide. While being carried by Spooky, Venice uses her sidearm to shoot at enemies in place of Spooky.

As for Venice’s special attack, it is no longer similar to Grey’s barrier ability. When the special meter is full and activated, Spooky will disappear for a moment and seek out a nearby target. Once spotted, Spooky will deliver an onslaught of attacks from all directions, dealing heavy damage to a single target. While Spooky is away, Venice will handle ranged attacks on her own with the use of her sidearm.

Venice will still fight Grey at the end of Autumn Entropy, but we feel that this fight is not suitable for the Kickstarter demo. In its place, Venice will fight against Hera: the new midboss of the stage. We will not disclose the details of her fight at this time; be sure to check it out in the demo!

The demo has been our focus this month, but we’re still working on the rest of the game as well, as you can see in this little preview! We hope that you will enjoy the upcoming demo and that it’ll complement our Kickstarter campaign sufficiently! Be sure to send us your feedback through our email, website, social media, or Discord server!

May 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 May!

Doodle Venice and Fortuna by PizzaGuy20202020 on Discord

Venice CeeJinary.Art on Discord

Riken by EventHorizon on Discord

Furious Riken by Levie on Discord

Grey at his Limit by ZX Games on Discord

Hera by @RocketPotato6 on Twitter

Venice Handstand by DazzlePunctura 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!

The Havoc Fox Kickstarter is only a few weeks away! 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 May edition of the Havoc Fox Newsletter. Stay safe, stay healthy, and we hope to see you again with our Kickstarter in June!

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!

March 2021 Newsletter

April Fools!

Gotcha! We hope you enjoyed our goofy joke newsletter in the spirit of April Fool’s Day. Rest assured we will not be making any transitions into 3D anytime soon. However, we do still have actual news to share!

Restricting Information

Moving forward, we are going to be a lot more secretive about Havoc Fox’s development.

(Artwork by BurgundyBunny)

The past two years have focused heavily on updating the game at its core and polishing the five existing stages. Those of you who have been around for the bulk of Havoc Fox’s development will know that Moonlit Cove, Aqua Rocket Base, Retro Ravine, Miracle City, and Autumn Entropy have been around for a long time. However, as of this month, we are finally at a point where we feel comfortable enough with the game’s style and direction to expand beyond these introductory stages.

As we continue development of the next stage (Ethereal Express) and beyond, we are going to show less of the game’s progress. The conversation will remain as there are still plenty of details to share (non-specific status updates, changes made to the base game or currently-public stages, etc.), but the remainder of Havoc Fox will be kept secret for now. We want players to experience the game for themselves when the time to release it arrives, and to best handle that, we’re going to hold back.

That being said, we still have at least one or two more public demo releases planned for the future! Keep an eye out for details; we’re hoping to release the next one with the launch of our upcoming Kickstarter campaign!

BN Video Game Con

As a reminder, we will be hosting a booth at the BN Video Game Con at the Interstate Center in Bloomington, Illinois on April 17th from 9 AM to 5 PM! A new demo of Havoc Fox will be available to play at the convention, showing off new movesets for Grey and Venice as well as recent updates to Moonlit Cove and Miracle City. Given the current state of the world, however, we are going to take precautions to ensure that the event is safe and welcoming to all. Only one player will be allowed at the booth at a time, the area will be sanitized before and after each visitor, and hand sanitizer will be present for those who stop by. If you are feeling unwell, please stay home and recover! For the rest of you, we hope to see you on the 17th!

Current Development Update

This month, we made various updates and tweaks throughout all of Havoc Fox.

A variety of enemies and bosses have had their designs updated to match the current style of the game, specifically with the first boss for each story. CYGNAY (pictured first) has been redesigned once again with his art matching that of Moonlit Cove’s ruins. For reference, a timeline depicting CYGNAY’s design through the years has been included. Lyle’s Siphon Ship (pictured second) has been remodeled as well to fit the style of Miracle City’s updated design. The bosses will still function the same (with a few minor tweaks made to Lyle’s final phase).

Retro Ravine is nearly finished! The final touches needed primarily rest in the stage’s cutscenes. The two images above are updated scene pieces from the stage, touched-up to reflect the game’s current style. Once these changes are finalized, we will be able to focus more heavily on the next stage: Ethereal Express!

It’s in its infancy, but development has officially begun on the new stage. This screenshot may be the only bit of it we share for the foreseeable future, but we will continue to talk about its development and progress in the most transparent way possible without spoiling anything. Follow along with our social media, Discord server, and future newsletters to stay up-to-date on the game’s progress!

March Community Spotlight - Taylor

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 March community spotlight features Taylor, the voice of Guyle!

How did you first discover Havoc Fox?

I'd heard about if before, but I really took interest in Havoc Fox when my brother got the role of Riken! We like to show each other things we've worked on, and I took a lot of interest in Havoc Fox when he showed me. I played the demos, followed development, and eventually decided to reach out to Dusky in regards to potentially auditioning for the game. She encouraged me to audition for Guyle, so I did just that, and here we are now!

How long have you been a voice actor?

I have been a voice actor for two years now! It's been a blast!

How did you come up with your voice for Guyle? Are there any particular aspects of his character that appeal to your style?

When I auditioned for Guyle I thought Dusky was looking for a higher pitched, chirpy voice, so that was what I went with. Before submitting though, I looked back on it and wanted to give an alternate take which was closer to my own voice, just to give Dusky some more options. She actually ended up liking that take, so that was what we went with. Guyle's all over the place and energetic, but he also genuinely means well and wants to please others, which are 100% feelings I relate to, so I feel very connected to him for that reason.

Has your role of Guyle helped you in other roles? Have other castings helped you with defining Guyle’s voice?

Certainly! In any creative field really, your always learning, and playing Guyle is no exception. When I first got cast as Guyle, I actually got very nervous, because, "Oh shoot, I'm having fun but also I'm in this game with loads of people who are older than me and have been doing this for longer than me, and I'll look like a clown next to them, etc., etc., etc.," and admittedly got a lot of impostor syndrome from it, and I really tricked myself into thinking that I was "just lucky," and that I didn't really deserve the role. However, I was with time able to overcome that and have a little more confidence in my work and myself as an actor, so playing Guyle definitely helped me grow in that regard.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Little cliche here, but thanks for your continued support on Havoc Fox, you guys! This is the first time I've been a part of a game like this, and it's been a blast to be involved in a game with such an amazing team and community. Keep being awesome, you guys!

Show Taylor some love! Check him out on Twitter or say hi to him on the Discord server!

March 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 March!

Venice, Cassie (Starbuster), and Carol (Freedom Planet) by DazzlePunctura on Discord

Grey by Event Horizon on Discord

Grey by KenKun 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!

We’re making good progress! 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 March edition of the Havoc Fox Newsletter. Stay safe, stay healthy, and we hope to see you again in April!

March 2021 Newsletter

Jumping Into the Future

Spring has come around. A time for change, a time for life, a time for something to begin anew. At Havoc Studios, we are excited to bring Havoc Fox into the future and cannot wait to share the news with you! We’ll give you a hint: it involves the number three.

A New Character Approaches!

A third playable character is now in the works, complete with his own campaign! Meet Barkley, the eccentric, energetic, overly-excited poodle!

Barkley’s journey begins in Miracle City where he works as an ambassador for the city’s running club. He joins forces with Grey and Venice when they convince him that saving the kingdom is “identical to running a marathon, but with more explosions.” This excites him greatly, causing him to tag along which unlocks his campaign in the main menu.

Barkley will have a unique moveset that offers both melee and ranged attacks, much like Grey and Venice. At close range, Barkley can use his bite attack to inflict high damage to nearby enemies that are in front of, above, and below him. From afar, he uses his trusty “Chucky Ball” which he can throw at enemies. These balls bounce around the screen multiple times, dealing damage to any and every enemy they touch, sometimes attacking the same enemy more than once! As for his Special attack, Barkley unleashes a powerful bark that hurts all enemies on screen and can even shatter glass, opening up secret areas within the world!

Barkley will take some time to develop, but we’re hoping to have his character finished by October 2025!

Current Development Update

This month, we’ve entered the third dimension.

After conducting numerous studies with our Twitter, Discord, and Facebook communities, we have learned that the retro pixel-art aesthetic isn’t doing too well nowadays. We’ve struggled with this revelation for quite some time, but at last we’ve found the solution. As you can see from the above model, we’re transitioning Havoc Fox’s characters into 3D models (NOTE: these models are only prototypes and not representative of the final product).

We’re starting with just Venice and Spooky for now. As this is an experiment to see what would work best with our player base, we’ve decided that each campaign will offer a different style. Grey’s campaign will remain with 2D sprites whereas Venice’s will make the transition over to 3D. The gameplay will remain the same despite these graphical changes.

In order to ease into this new 3D format, we’re beginning this experiment with a 2.5D gameplay perspective. Character models will be in 3D, but the stage and backgrounds will remain in its current pixel-art style. After additional feedback from the community, we’ll choose to either move into full 3D or revert back to 2D. Your opinions matter! Please tell us what you think of these changes through either our Twitter, Discord, or Facebook communities!

February Community Spotlight - Austin

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 July community spotlight features Austin, the co-lead of Havoc Studios! Wait a minute… that’s me!

How did you first get involved with the Havoc Fox community?

I dunno.

How long have you been involved with Havoc Fox’s Development?

Vibeo gaem.

What is your favorite part about Havoc Fox’s story?

Funny coffee rabbit.

How has the community helped you? How have you helped the community?

Denmark.

Anything else you’d like to add?

I dunno man I didn’t really plan this part of the newsletter out.

Show me some love! Drop in and say hi to me on the Discord server! I’m lonely...

March Meme Gallery

Unfortunately, the fan art gallery hasn’t been too popular amongst the community as it is seen as outdated in this age of memes. As a result, we’re shifting our focus to something more approachable by the community at large. The following memes have been submitted to us by various members of the community through our Discord server. Check out the submissions for March!

Thank you for your submissions! If you would like to have your artwork featured, submit your drawings to the #havoc-memes channel on Discord!

That's all for now!

We’re excited for the abundance of three! 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 March edition of the Havoc Fox Newsletter. Stay safe, stay healthy, April Fool’s, and we hope to see you again tomorrow!

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!