Project Apple Pie

AKA, my OC fighting game project

At the start of 2024, I decided that I want to dedicate my time to a singular goal, learn new things, and sorta make a "magnum opus" that I can call my own.

Before this point, I've had a ton of disjointed idea and many abandoned dreams and projects due to a variety of circumstances. I want to do better, and I want to prove to myself that I can not start a project, but also complete it. And so, Project Apple Pie was born.

Project's Goal and Scope

Since I'm mainly an artist, don't have any experience with coding (other than with this website), and I don't know anyone who would have the skill to help and/or be willing to do so (the one person I do know who does code is my brother and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want to help me considering what I wanna put in it).<.p>

Before, I was using the M.U.G.E.N. engine. but after discovering how maddening sprite art is to work on I've decided that I'll be using Universal Fighting Engine 2 to create this game since it allows me to work with art at a size that I'm able to work at.

My ultimate goal with Project Apple Pie is as such:

- Create and implement 8 original characters into the engine and have them be satisfying to play as and against in the game

- Create custom stages, UI, and music for the project

- Create and implement a basic Arcade styled story mode akin to the Arcade Story Modes of KOF games and Blazblue

These are pretty lofty tasks for a single person to try to achieve, especially for a person who's never animated for a game, nor has a history of M.U.G.E.N. coding. But if I never try, then I'll never learn these skills so better now then never.

If there's a point where I can't find myself about to complete the project as a fighting game, I'll consider it a victory to at least one character. And if I can't make it into a FG, then I'd like to at least to make it into a comic or webcomic of sorts.

Current Progress

Right now, I'm in the EXTREMELY early stages of the project. As of writing, I'm working on a single character's animations right now. It'll be a while before their complete but some progress is better than no progress.

Playable Characters

The following are the 8 characters that I plan on creating for Project Apple Pie:

Audrey the Monster Centaur

Audrey can be considered the defacto main character of Project Apple Pie. She'd be beginner friendly with simple inputs and have a bit of an "Unga Bunga" playstyle to fit her wild and free personality.

Azealia the Feliaetaries

Might be selfish to insert my own fursona into my own work, but this is my project and nobody can stop me. As for how they'd play, they'd be a Taokaka-esque rushdown character that's super mobile, frail and excells in aerial combat. Additionally, I'd like to implement a "flight mode" where Azealia can fliy like Petshop in JJBA: Heritage To The Future and do aerial specials. I have no clue if I can implement that, but I hope I can.

Xermargua the Robotic Anteater

If I had to describe Xermargua as a person, she's immensly cocky and self-confident since she's able to analyze everything she sees and get stats on things like in that headshot mode in the Fallout games. Playstyle-wise, she's an all-rounder shoto like Ryu with a simple gimmick: Counter Power-Up. Basically, if Xermargua is hit during her counter, she gets into a temporary powered up state where her specials do more damage. It's prediction based and pretty risky, but it's something that fits an overly proud person like her.

The Catamount

If the four arms didn't clue you in, The Catamount is the game's grappler. Not like a grappler like Zangeif, Iron Tager (big, bulky, and slow powerhouses), and Texas (violation of the Geneva Conventions), but a grappler like Shermie (mobile and strong, but predictable). In this case, I'd like to give The Catamount a teleport move where she sinks into the ground and rises out like a zombie either in front of the opponent, behind the opponent, or in place. Other than that, she's be a bit slow frame data-wise like other grapplers, but not unbearably slow. Though there is one more little gimmick I'd want her to have: a Dark Phoenix revive. Basically, if she dies with the max amount of super meter, she'll be revived in a hyper offensive and greatly powerful form but her health will be draining the whole time. A last resort condition that I hope isn't too frustrating to deal with. Last thing I want is Texas 2.

The Meng mian Alejibre: Three Tails

(RIP to the accents on the e and a) Refered to as Three Tails for short, Three Tails would be the game's rekka fighter of sorts. Imagine Angel from KOF and her Unchain Wheel, and that's what I imagine Three Tails's main selling point would be. Besides that, Three Tails would have a couple specials that let them move around quickly like Chris from KOF (did you know that I like KOF?). They wouldn't have any good defense against projectiles and zoning, so that'd be a major weakness, but the unpredictable movement and high execution would hopefully make up for it.

Mattias

The zoner of the game, Mattias is the smallest charaacter in the roster who's playstyle is a bit hard to describe, I think. He'd have an Ammo Meter that gets filled by landing melee hits, and by filling the meter, it gives him access to powerful long ranged moves. The main risk is that Mattias has the melee range of a T-Rex and doesn't do much damage before getting his guns, so he has to play a hit-and-run game to get to his win condition. You might say that that's a pretty risky playstyle, but I say it fits his personality: a hot-tempered 9 year-old brat that thinks he's the greatest thing since sliced-bread that learned every slur under the sun from 1,000+ hours of CS:GO and StarTrooper-esque elementary - military schooling. He takes risks that no one else would because he thinks he'll win.

Zander the Hero of the Phantom Empire

The swordfighter of the cast, where disjointed pokes are the name of the game. Much like Mattias - his wife's son - he's a hit-and-runner but for Zander he's more hit than run since he has long reaching sword attacks, but these attacks can leave him vulnerable for a bit/be easily countered, so it's better that he plays defensive. But with alot of character's here he's got his own gimmick: His Monster Form! Because of lore reasons, he can go from a human form to a monster form at semi-will like a werewolf. In his Monster Form, Zander becomes and orb user and zoner. He can toss out orbs like Nidra from TFH to flood the field with projectiles, and can also fire out slow but powerful projectiles like a cannon. But there's a catch: to way to switch between the forms, you'll have to fill a "Form Bar". you start with the bar empty in Human Form and throughout the battle it fills up. Once it is full, you swap to the Monster form. The bar drains and landing more hits can fill it up slightly, but once it drains you revert back to Human form. This is likely the most complex of the proposed character concepts, but I think it'd be cool to see become real.

Orielle - Servant of The Ember King

Perhaps one of the most bizzare looking member of the roster, Orielle would essentially be a character from JJBA: Heritage to The Future. What I mean is, Orielle would play something like Kyo or K' with linking firey moves but with a certain input she can summon The Ember King aka her stand. It'd be able to fight alongside her and add extra fire power to her attacks, but the opponent is able to attack The Ember King and cause them to be disabled for a time. Not as complex as your average puppet character, but something close. Something that I really hope I can include is a super "Fiery Terrain" where you set the ground on fire and while the opponent stands on it they recieve chip damage. It's an idea I haven't seen before, but the idea is too good to not include. Just hope I can make it work.

Hypothetical DLC Characters/Concepts

So... hypothetically if I not only complete this project, it gets the TFH or Skullgirls treatment and becomes it's own game, AND I haven't died in that time... would I add anymore characters?

Of course I would! I've had a couple ideas bouncing around my head about this very idea, but getting over ambitious is how I've failed alot of my projects in the past, so what I'll share is the hypothetical characters I'd add if Project Apple Pie went big and became a professional game series:

- Muchi the Nue: A foil to Three Tails, Muchi's hasty, greedy, vengeful and extremely expressive, but pathetically easy to beat. The Dan to Ryu (but evil!)

- Dwayo the Caniaetien: If you didn't know, I made 3 furry species based on dragons. Feliaetaries = Western Dragons, Vulpalucapra = Eastern Dragons, Caniaetiens = Wyverns. So far I haven't included A Caniaetien because I can't come up with a playstyle for one. Maybe something parry-based and grappler-based? Has potential.

- The Snallygaster: I think it'd be neat if you could fight a dragon in an FG. Just a giant beast. Would be a challenge to see how it'd work.

- Irene the Garden Chemist: One day I thought, "What if there was a person who knew the science behind Anima - Feul and was able to use it to their advantage?" and I came up with Irene. She'd live in a long abandoned graveyard that she renovated into a laboratory to study and harvest Anima - Feul from old and new corpses and turn the graveyard into a garden of plant and fungus people that'd help her in a fight. She has breathing issues so she'd be the only one who can't run, but she'd be able to summon her floral and fungal friends like Arakune from Blazblue so it balances out.

- Camila and Loxo-Reclusadae: One time on Twitter, there was a stupid guy complaining about how characters in wheelchairs didn't belong in fantasy stories because, "it's not realistic and takes people out of the story" and it got me thinking, "My OC FG thing is pretty fantasy aligned, how could I implement a wheelchair bound character?" and so I thought of a, "walking fortress with cannons" character with the approximate look of Tron Bonne from UMvC3. It'd be neat it have a character like that.

- Mausk-Prime: You know those funny computer mice that are everywhere on this site? Those are Mausks (MAH-oh-sk), and I wanna punch people as one. Use your imagination onto how that'd happen.

- The Pawn: In the game, Mattias would have a childhood friend that he'd be seperated from when he dies/becomes a monster. This friend would be adopted by Mattias's dad Zander, and become a high ranking soldier in the Phantom Empire. This would be Mattais's foil, to see the true evil he could've become.

- Contest Character: If this game ever became it's own thing, I wanna pull a KOF XIV and hold a contest to have fans create their own characters with their own movesets, and the winner would be included in the game. I think this idea is incredibly cool, and I'd like to see something like that happen again but for myself.

~ More to add later ~

- And Now the Mausks -

Woah, wacky right?