Go Fight Fantastic! Developer Interview and Mini Game Review!

Go Fight Fantastic Key Art

A Little Bit About Go Fight Fantastic (The Studio)

Go Fight Fantastic is a two-person indie studio in Stockholm, Sweden. The team consists of Lina Andersson (Art Director) and Johan Albrektson (Technical Director), a nerdy couple with a passion for any and all creative projects. Prior to making games, the team did everything from visual production for retail, advertising and product launches to unique interactive experiences, such as custom-built arcade machines for events or machines that could print news-tweets on the foam of your beer.

Interview

In this interview, you will find out how these talented people got where they are today, as well as get some amazing tips and advice for solo devs.

So, Go Fight Fantastic, tell us a bit about yourselves!

Go Fight Fantastic developer Lina Andersson (photograph)

Lina Andersson: I’m Lina Andersson. I do all the art, animations, VFX, story and level design. I’ve always been interested in art and graphics, I studied 3D-art at a school named Futuregames in Stockholm. After school I worked for a little bit at Overkill Starbreeze on a game Payday the Heist, after that, I ran a production company together with Johan where we worked with marketing and events. Doing a lot of visual concepts and weird inventions for H&M, Volvo, Audi etc.

Go Fight Fantastic developer Johan Albrektson (photograph)

Johan Albrektson: I’m Johan Albrektson, I’m in charge of all the technical bits of the project like programming, visual pipeline, ai, etc. I’ve Been running my own companies doing tech and creative stuff for almost 20 years, everything from doing 3D visualization for retail and advertising to making crazy interactive experiences and inventions for events/advertising. such as building custom arcade machines, sound systems so small you can swallow them in order to turn the human body into a speaker, flight simulators, etc – pretty much every crazy idea ad agencies could think of. Lina and I, have been a couple for 9 years now, and been working together for as long, and we’ve been working on Go Fight Fantastic (the game) for the last 4 years.

How did you get into making games? What was the thing that inspired you?

Johan Albrektson: I’ve always been playing games since I was like 6 (started playing on the Atari 2600, back when video games were basically just pong or Pacman). Started making my own text-based adventure games when I was about 8 and figured out how to write simple programs in DOS and Qbasic (before we even had Windows). So it’s kind of always been there. And being into both tech and 2D/3D art, making games just kind of made sense… just something I did on the side as a hobby I guess. Started teaching game development and Unity at Futuregames in Stockholm in 2008 which is where I met Lina, I think what’s always inspired me about games is that you can do anything, especially when you make the game yourself. It’s only limited by your imagination and skills, if you know what I mean It’s like the perfect creative art form – and it’s so much fun! So ever since me and Lina first met at Futuregames, we’d been dreaming of making a great game together


What is Go Fight Fantastic about? Does it have a story?

Lina Andersson: So the game is about a crew of teenage mercenaries and their space dog captain Bowie (we put our own dog in the game, and made him a captain! ), one day when they are on a standard delivery mission they accidentally stumble into an alien invasion. Our main characters Super Nova, Dark Matter and Max Sparkles have no choice but to help the poor bird people who live on the invaded planet to fight back!

Go Fight Fantastic Screenshot

Johan Albrektson: We wanted to capture that cozy old school RPG-vibe, so the story is intentionally a bit cheezy.

Why are you making this game? What are your reasons?

Johan Albrektson: Well, we’ve always dreamt of making games, so when we finally had the chance to start working on a large scale production about 4 years ago, we dropped everything in a heartbeat and just started prototyping. We knew we wanted to make a co-op game as it’s something we’re always on the lookout for ourselves. So we started looking at the things we were personally most excited about, such as 3rd person characters, hand-drawn aesthetics and cozy RPG-elements – and combined those with more modern mechanics that inspired us, such as the asymmetrical combat abilities from Moba, etc. So it’s really been a passion project from the start, with the hopes that others would also find it fun and interesting!

What are your plans for Go Fight fantastic? Any upcoming features or crowdfunding?

Johan Albrektson: Like I said, the game has been in development for about four years and we still have a few years to go before it’s completely done. We did a successful Kickstarter in June of 2020 which was so much fun! The plan is to release the game on Early Access this summer and continue working on additional content and features until it’s done. We’re aiming to have all core features and mechanics in place for the Early Access release, so we’re mostly expanding on content (more levels, additional characters, upgrades, etc) during early access. We’ve also been getting a lot of interest for console releases, so if everything goes well, we’re hoping to put the game on the Switch, Playstation and Xbox soon after the full release, Since we’re such a small team, we really need to prioritize and do things in the right order, you know

Go Fight Fantastic Screenshot

What is your favorite game of all time?

Johan Albrektson: I think my personal favorite of all time is A Link to the Past (Zelda) for the SNES. It plays so well, has such an interesting and cozy world and still looks absolutely stunning! I’ve spent countless hours in the game and still play it from start to finish every now and then! We’ve definitely drawn some inspiration from that game when making Go Fight Fantastic!

Lina Andersson: I think my all-time favorite is Zelda Majora’s Mask. It’s the game that I’ve put the most hours in, I think. I just love how you can follow someone for 3 days, learn their routine and help them out. I’m also in love with the atmosphere, the dark impending doom that looms over the whole world but at the same time feels cozy and magical. it’s very different from all the other Zelda games, it’s much darker and one of the few Zelda games that I really enjoy.

What or who motivates you to keep on creating and stops you from giving up?

Johan Albrektson: I think for me personally I’m a maker at heart. I sorta can’t -not- create things… So much so, that I’ve pretty much always turned my hobbies into my work, so I’ve always been creating things. And I think you just sort of find inspiration everywhere, movies, nature, and of course in the excitement you find in each other when discussing new ideas. when you get to create something you love, the hardest part is not working too much. Crunch is like the enemy of creative motivation, so you really need to pace yourself and think of it as a marathon, not a sprint.

Lina Andersson: One thing that really motivates me is that we’re able to work together on something that we really love. It comes with it’s hardships being an indie, both economically and working way too much, so it’s really important to be able to lean against each other when things are though, and since we both are super creative people I think we have a bit of a hard time to stop creating new things, games, furniture stuff.. everything, haha!

Go Fight Fantastic Screenshot

What is your best advice for other indie developers?

Lina Andersson: To not overwork yourselves, it’s super easy to go all in because you’re inspired, working nights and weekends. But game development takes a very long time, it’s important to remember that it’s a marathon not a sprint. And it’s okay to take breaks, you can’t always give a 1000%, you have to rest as well. The best ideas often come when you take breaks and are well rested! we’ve learned the hard way that it doesn’t work in the long run. So we’re trying to be more careful these days, but it’s hard.

Johan Albrektson: Start showing your stuff early! It’s super scary to show off a rough idea or prototype, especially if your a bit of a perfectionist, but it’s super important to build a community from day one no matter what! Marketing is often way harder than making the game, so you really need to get a head start on that!

A Little Bit About Go Fight Fantastic (The Game)

Developer:Go Fight Fantastic
Releases: Summer 2021 (early access)
Price: €20.00 (early access) €25.00 (full price)

Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux
Available on: Steam
Engine: Unity

Go Fight Fantastic! (the game) is a super vibrant 1-3 player Hack ‘n Slash game where you and up to two friends play as the Tank, the Striker and the Healer, each with their own set of abilities. The game puts heavy focus on teamwork as you work together to fight off an alien invasion, find upgrades to get stronger and customize your characters’ abilities along the way!

The game features a rich, colorful aesthetic with hand-drawn environments and characters, a multi-level Story Mode as well as a ton of challenges and a Horde Mode arena for those looking to really put their skills to the test!

Review

I have played very little of this game but from what I played with my boyfriend, I must say it was very fun. The characters are so cool with heir amazing abilities. I especially enjoyed the healer since I could help the other player in my game, and amazingly I still did fair amounts of damage. Overall, the game seems very balanced and fun! As someone who has played plenty of co-op games, I think this is finally that one game that will revolutionize the co-op scene, so I’d recommend trying it with your friends once it comes out.

General score: 9.9/10

Go Fight Fantastic Screenshot

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