Howdy everyone!

As you know, April Fools was a few days ago now, on the exact day that Evilsmurfs Three Dee: Quest for The Golden Sparkplug released. If you managed to play to the end of the game, you would have seen the words that made this whole unusual project make sense:

"April Fools...?"

Or did it?

Much like how the game's ending leaves you as the audience to make your own conclusions about how this game fits into the greater story, it goes further and asks if this whole game was a joke. The answer is - yes and no! This project is - and isn't - an April Fool's joke!

I started the legit Evilsmurfs 3D project years ago back in the summer of 2021, intended as an entry to the mainline series. Since then, the project had gone through various technical hurdles (some of which I fixed for this project), attempts at changing game engines, and scope creep that has ultimately prevented the original concept from seeing the light of day. When I had the crazy idea to make Evilsmurfs 3D this year's April Fool's joke, I had given myself less than 2 months and the mostly broken work I had from before. Most of the time went towards fixing movement, getting moving platforms working, and expanding the weapons system from the hardcoded values I was using before, before then shifting to developing enemies for the zany story I was going for, as well as the Evilsmurf Gunners that were always part of the plans.

I had a few concepts I had to cut for time, unfortunately, like an entire Minecraft parody sequence that would have required lots of optimization and work to fully integrate it into the narrative of the game. Maybe one day I'll push an update that can show what that may have looked like, among other things!

While the process of making this game was a bit stressful given the time crunch I was facing and the technical issues that needed solving, it has honestly been one of my favourite projects I've ever developed. As I developed the game, I shifted away from making it a full April Fool's joke, and towards something that could be one in spirit and absurdity, but could potentially slot into the established storyline of the series in a clever way, while also setting things up for the future.

All that being said, will the real Evilsmurfs 3D ever be made? Most likely. Developing this project has made me more interested in 3D than ever before, and while I am still heavily considering switching to an engine like Godot for such a project, being able to build this in GameMaker: Studio was a lot of fun, even with the limitations it brought.

So yes, this project does factor into the greater story in some way, though I won't spell it all out just yet, if ever fully... some mysteries should be kept as mysteries, no?

Hope you continue to enjoy the game, and until next time, I'll see ya when I see ya!