Hey everyone,

I wanted to talk about how development has been going for all of the active POPGOES projects and be as transparent as possible about all of it, so that you can know exactly what's going on and what to expect in the near and far future. I don't like leaving people in the dark, so even though news isn't always positive I do feel a need to share what's going on.

POPGOES Evergreen

Development on Evergreen has been a bit all over the place in the past few months.

Firstly however, I want to reiterate something that I've had to clarify to some people in conversations lately: POPGOES Evergreen is not a remake. Or, at least, it is not just a remake. It is true that a portion of the game is a reimagining of the original POPGOES game, with the same five characters in the same pizzeria. But in reality this is only about 1/3 of Evergreen's content. Maybe even less when you consider collectibles and stuff like that.

After every night, you play a second gameplay section in an entirely new location, where you must survive against a Toy/False animatronic until a certain requirement is fulfilled. Following this, there is a smaller third section, which is essentially some downtime that immediately follows the False section which is more focused on lore with no survival. And then the cycle continues - you move to Night 2. We have shown a lot of the "Night" gameplay because of course it's the least spoilery part of Evergreen. But there is much more to the project. So when someone asks "Why is a remake of a FNAF fangame taking so long to make?", it is now your duty, as a reader of this very sentence, to tell that person "Where the hell was False Freddy in POPGOES?!"

But on top of this, development has naturally run into roadblocks over the past 4-ish years. Indeed we did actually spend a while of those years developing and releasing quite a large RPG game. Twice. Which was announced before Evergreen. But even disregarding that, yes, this game is very difficult to make, and I unfortunately can not say that it's nearly finished, even though a LOT of content has been made for it. Sorry about this.

I want to give some information about a recent issue that has really messed up my motivation for the project. In December I gave an important 3D modeller, who I won't name, an important directorial role over the environments for the post-night gameplay section. Essentially, I organised a very large commission and a big plan for this one person to handle a lot of the 3D visuals for these large and detailed rooms so that we could finally get them all out of the way. They are one of the biggest and most daunting tasks left for the game. The modeller agreed, and to my surprise they were able to complete one of these environments (out of five) in very little time. Super impressive, and a massive relief.

Unfortunately, a month or so later, this modeller completely disappeared. Not just from my DMs, or Evergreen's dev chat, but from everywhere. And not only that, but we never even received the model file for that massive area that they completed. And even though that area was finished so quickly by this person, it's a task that I've been wanting to see finished for months if not a year now, and to see it finished with amazing looking renders, but NOT actually available for us to use or continue from, is extremely frustrating.

I do blame myself fully for this outcome. It was my fault for not asking for the environment to be exported and given to us frequently. And believe it or not, but this same modeller has disappeared in a similar fashion, without backups of the model work, TWICE before. I trusted that they would not do this again, because the content they produce is genuinely fantastic, but evidently it was the wrong move to not prepare for this potential outcome. I messed up here, and the result is a rather massive hit to the morale of me and the other active team members. This sucks.

My proposed solution is to move this task to @GarrettMcKay , who has been a very loyal and dedicated contributor to Evergreen from the start. He will be tasked with recreating the first post-night environment based on the renders we were given, and then continuing with the remaining rooms in the same style. For context, Garrett is the person who modelled basically every other location you've seen for Evergreen so far. He is great. I'm very much hoping this works out, but we may end up needing another modeller to help (again).

Even disregarding this secret "second half" of Evergreen, there are ambitious parts of the project that need lots of work done. Dialogue, which requires scriptwriting and voice acting. Cutscenes, which require even more environments and animating. Menus, which require UI assets and programming. And these are all major undertakings that should make Evergreen worth its wait, worth its price, and worth all of this effort. The game is undoubtedly huge. And I appreciate all of your patience and your continued passion for the project - it will definitely be rewarded! But definitely not any time soon, sorry.

POPGOES Arcade

In July it'll be two years since POPGOES Arcade's Steam release, and none of the ports have come out... Why not?

Well, it's for a few reasons. And most of it comes down to finicky programming shit with Clickteam Fusion that we have not had any control over. So in the meantime we've worked on other stuff like myPOPGOES and FNAC Fur and whatnot. But recently we were given the heads up that the port process can begin properly, so Emil has been working on it and talking with Clickteam's staff quite frequently.

Unfortunately, the process is genuinely very tough and to be honest I don't understand most if it as a mere "ideas guy"... But I can share how the game looks right now on Android:

Uh... yeah. So, I mean, the game RUNS on Android. But it's a complete mess visually and it's also exceptionally slow. We are still investigating how the shaders (the tech that makes the pixel art big on the screen, mostly) are processed on Android, as well as things like cutscene files and touchscreen interactions.

I will say, when the game decides to behave and I get a good streak of being able to control Popgoes in the overworld, it actually feels very nice and I can imagine it being fun to play the game like this. But for now it's probably still a ways off. But it's being worked on, alright?

myPOPGOES

myPOPGOES is in the Fazbear Fanverse.

There you go, some good news. I worked with Scott on an amendment to my contract that officially adds myPOPGOES to the Fanverse, and very recently this amendment was signed and executed. The game will be getting a Steam page quite soon, and once some other things are finalised development on the premium version of the game will continue until completion.

For those unaware, Emil Macko is not the programmer of this game. myPOPGOES is programmed by @Patata1236 , which means Emil is not taken away from his work on the FNAC series or Evergreen to work on this. Programming isn't the only thing left for myPOPGOES - there are some visuals to complete but I deliberately paused progress on them until the legal stuff was sorted out.

I've been wrong about this kind of thing before but I'm now quite confident that myPOPGOES will release in mid-2024 or so. I'll want the Steam page to be up for a month or two before the game is released so that it can get some hype built up, some wishlists, maybe a new trailer, stuff like that.

To set some expectations: myPOPGOES is not a big game. It's the original game but with new challenges and some collectibles/customisability. There is some lore hidden among all of that, though! The game will be cheap on launch and should eventually get ports just like the other Fanverse games. I think it should be awesome on mobile personally.

I know myPOPGOES isn't a super exciting game for the average FNAF fan, but I still think this is an awesome little win for the Fanverse and I hope that you give the premium version a go when it releases. It was very fun to work on, and a nice break for some of us.

Merchandise

Firstly I want to say that I'm super passionate about merchandise for POPGOES and I'm very proud of everything we've been able to make with the companies who have stayed involved with the Fanverse so far. Youtooz in particular, but also Hex (who might be doing more stuff with us soon).

When I commission and work alongside a designer for a set of pins, or I go through the tedious process of tweaking a figure or plushie design until I think it's perfect... and then it finally goes up for sale and people love it? To me, that is a successful "release" for the POPGOES series. It might not be a playable game, but it's still a high-quality product that adds to the franchise, providing fans with new physical content to enjoy.

Forgive me but I want to rant about something for a sec...

Something that I see some people ask or complain about, is "Why does POPGOES have so much merch when the game isn't out yet?" - and this has to be one of the most annoying lines of thinking I see, because I've never really understood it.

1. Firstly, POPGOES has plenty of games. Evergreen is simply one game in the series, and you can consider it the "main" game, or even the only game that you are interested in, but the POPGOES series has existed for almost 9 years which I think is enough time for some people to be invested enough to buy some pins, especially if they look awesome on their own anyway.

2. Secondly, buying POPGOES merchandise is not an investment into the development of a game. It's an investment into... merchandise. You spend some money, and you get a plushie. That's it - that's the transaction. Even if Evergreen is cancelled, you still got what you paid for. It's still a product of an adorable but slightly unnerving weasel character. It's still very soft and cuddly. It's still very well crafted and the money still goes towards the people who made it.

3. I don't even think POPGOES has that much merch! But I will say the reason it has more than the other Fanverse games is because I actively talk to people from the involved companies quite a lot, and I choose to commission artists to help with the design process. I don't get special treatment, at all - I just like getting involved!

Like damn! POPGOES is a series, a sort of mini-franchise within FNAF, and the products created for it are all independent from one another. Some products are video games, some of which are horror. Some products are also physical items like toys and collectibles. It sounds cliché but if you are only interested in the horror game, then just ignore the merch!

Rant over - I should also let you know that new products are being conceptualised behind the scenes and 2024 should be quite a nice year for Fanverse merch. The final POPGOES pin set, the Beach Episode collection, is fully designed and I have sent it to Youtooz for them and Striker to check out and hopefully approve soon. The designs include glitter on the characters' clothing (which I suggested as a way to add value to the pins without increasing their price) but there's no way of knowing if that will be in the final product yet.

There's also a smaller product in the works that's in the middle of being approved (hopefully) which should be smaller, cheaper, and easier to ship. It's still very clever and I think really unique. Very excited about it.

I have also pitched a special re-release of the first wave of Youtooz Fanverse figures but with cool gimmicks that make them adequately unique from the original release. A lot of people have asked for a second chance at buying those figures, but Youtooz does not do second batches of limited edition items, so this was my proposal to please some of those people. This pitch has not been approved officially yet but Youtooz has shown interest. Fingers crossed because I'm really excited about the idea of it!

Lastly, talks have started up again with Dawko and Hex. Nothing is confirmed yet but we've talked about maybe making some new plushies, and I've also really wanted to work on some clothing with their team. Clothing/apparel feels like a super untapped market for the Fanverse. Need some shirts or something! And the Shadow Bonnie hoodie that they did with @turntail did EXTREMELY well.

Okay, that's it for today. Some good, some bad. But it's everything I can talk about, and I hope you enjoy knowing more about what's going on behind the scenes.

I very much hope that I can share some more exciting news later. I feel like we are on the verge of some bigger and more positive steps, but I might be wrong. Regardless, I will do my best do keep you updated.

- Kane