As you're all probably aware, a while back, I announced the final Scholar update as being a two-part package. The first part was to be a main game update, and the second was to be some original content. Well, in truth, the update was at first only going to be the second part. That part consisted of three "sub-stories," each revolving around a different character from The Pointless. Here, I will be talking about each story in-depth, showing off content created for them as well as discussing plans that never came to fruition.

Bob Versace in... Champion of Plastic

While not the first sub-story to be conceived, it would have been the first that appeared in the menu when you selected the side modes. Champion of Plastic starred Bob Versace, the younger brother of Louie Versace, and would have followed his "pilgrimage" to scale the daunting Plastic Mountain at the behest of his brother.

Opening with a flashback that explored Bob's youth, ChoP would have put a focus on the younger Versace's insecurity with himself. As a child, he was ridiculed for his naturally-occurring body odor, even by the principal of his own school. His older brother Louie tried to help him see that this was who he was, and to embrace his uniqueness, as stinky as it might have been. In spite of this, Bob's insecurity would have continued into adulthood, coming to a head as he reached the top of Plastic Mountain. Here, he would have encountered the titular "Champion of Plastic," a man who has become "less than nothing." They would have fought, and no matter the outcome, Bob would have learned to embrace his foulness and fully integrate into the society of Garbage Island.

Numerous mechanics were drafted for this adventure. Traversing Plastic Mountain was meant to be an exercise in routing, allowing players to choose their paths forward, quick or slow. To aid in this, Bob would have had some unique overworld abilities. He would have been able to reach high ledges through bag balloons given to him by Louie, though these would have been in limited supply. He also would have been able to swim, as seen below.

In combat, Bob would have relied on his Cruel Sack to dish out damage and statuses. There were no additional party members planned for this story; Bob would have been alone from start to finish. That said, he would have been able to learn additional moves from trash mystics across the Mountain.

This story in particular had a bit of troubled development during its runtime. Many ideas were had that conflicted with the original concept of it being a quicker, route-based romp. That being said, it was still fun to think about and to make concepts for, as can be seen below.

This guy in particular was planned to be the story's superboss. Named Joe Smoke, he would have been the antithesis of Bob--a man hellbent on getting rid of garbage rather than living with it. The machine on his back would have sucked trash into an incinerator, where it would be burned into smoke in an instant. Bob would have fought him multiple times over the adventure, where Joe would have fired trash from his vacuum as well as flames. He would have even been able to steal Bob's Cruel Sack, severely limiting his offensive capabilities.

Champion of Plastic probably had my favorite narrative and themes out of all the sub-stories, and while it was mechanically underdeveloped, it was still painful to have to let it go in the end.

The Kent in... Fury of The Kent

Fury of The Kent was the origin point for the entire sub-story concept that came after it. The inspiration for it came to me shortly after I released the original version of Scholar. I was thinking about mods like Phone Crew and Gardenias and wondered to myself, "what if we added that to Scholar?" And so I cobbled together the first iteration of FoTK. It was crappy, but the idea was there. And that idea attracted a majority of the old team back to the game, allowing me to really go hog-wild with the concept. From there, a decent amount of development was done for the story before the other two adventures came into the mix and muddied things up. Some of the data for this story still exists in the files of Vers. 1.5, left in as a memento of sorts.

Narratively, Fury of The Kent would have starred The Kent, of course, and chronicled his descent into Infinity. Beginning when Kent was still a Gamester, the adventure really would have begun after Kent takes a visit to Lester's cafeteria, where he gets struck by the speeding Infinimobile. He would have fallen into Dried Sangria Lake, where he would have been consumed by his own fury and eventually taken up the jersey. Throughout the rest of the story, Kent's rage would have continued to build as he recalls his many regrets in life. In particular, he would have thought back to the day his wife ditched him in favor of a "tough guy," who might seem familiar to fans of The Painful. Ultimately, Kent would have taken comfort in the unwavering nature of the Franchise; unlike "The Game," the Franchise remains consistent, governed by forces beyond human understanding. This would have come to head at the end, whereupon escaping Sangria Lake, Kent would have challenged Arnold Shpitz to one last fight. You would have battled Arnold, and from there the ending would have been ambiguous.

Mechanically, FoTK was very developed. It was unique among the other stories in that every NPC you came across would have been able to be fought and killed--true to the nature of the Franchise. Kent would have fought with his bat, but he also had the ability to fight unarmed, adding another layer of strategy to the combat. On top of that, during his journey, Kent would have come across Tibby Dobbs sulking in the salt lake. Tibby, in order to save his own skin, would have offered to become Kent's underling. Kent would accept, and from there the two of them would have travelled together. This would have allowed for cool methods of exploration, the main of which being the ability to toss Tibby to unreachable locations and have him walk around on his own.

Funnily enough, more things were sprited for this story than there were concepts made. Here are some of those:

To give context for this next monstrosity: a good portion of the sub-story would have taken place in a part of the salt lake called "Wally's Wetworks." It would have been a waterpark themed around the Wally's restaurant chain--imagine a normal waterpark, but with a much greater disregard for safety and corporate branding everywhere. That would have been the area, and this thing (dubbed "Walter") would have been the final opponent for the place. Depending on how quickly you went through the area, you would have either fought Walter as a human or as a mutant. Alternatively, we played around with the idea of something spooky happening, like Walter's head flying at you after the body was defeated. We never did concretely decide on what would happen.

Fury of The Kent holds a special place in my heart for being what kicked off the second wave of Scholar content in the first place. Reflecting on it now, I wish I had never decided to conceptualize the other sub-stories, instead focusing fully on Kent's adventure. Perhaps if I had done that, this content, and the time that was spent on it, would not have gone to waste. But, the past is in the past.

Gale Wonder in... Flight of the Flamingos

My favorite of the three stories, Flight of the Flamingos was probably the adventure I had the most ideas for. Starring the titular Neon Flamingos--Gale Wonder, Chad Nickel, and Ray Wilson--FotF would have a race against the clock as you scavenged the wasteland for parts to fix the NFs' broken bus.

In terms of narrative, this was always the least story-focused adventure. That is, of course, due to the nature of its main characters. Gale and company, despite being featured in Pointless's first chapter, are essentially Chapter 2 characters. As such, not much could be done with them developmentally. We simply don't know much about the story of Chapter 2 yet! However, what was there was this: the Flamingos' bus breaks down, and it would have been up to Gale and one of his two partners to track down parts to fix it before the oncoming Franchise horde caught up with them. That was it for the main plot; everything else would have been worldbuilding and development for side characters.

What the story lacked in plot, however, it would have well made up for in gameplay. When I said the adventure would have been a "race against the clock," I meant that literally. You would have had just about 40 minutes of in-game time to explore the world and gather as many parts for the bus as you could find. Depending on how many you found, you would have gotten one of several different endings, ranging from the bus working and reaching the City or it breaking down again and the protagonists facing the Franchise horde head-on. Randomness would have played a major part in the game as well. Over time, Franchisers would have had the chance to appear in various places around the world, leading to more fights. The closer you got to running out of time, the harder it would have been to collect parts due to the influx of jerseyheads.

That is not to say that Gale and co. couldn't hold their own in a fight--they certainly could. At the beginning of the story, you would have had the choice between either Chad Nickel or Ray Wilson to accompany you on the search for parts; the one not chosen would have stayed behind to guard the bus. Chad would have been a speedy attacker, able to rip opponents to shreds with his knife. Ray would have been a slow powerhouse, able to deal out insane damage. Gale would have served as a mixed supporter and attacker. He would have had skills to both help his teammates and deal out pain to his opponents. Suffice it to say, you would have been more than equipped to deal with the oncoming threats. But, as more and more enemies came your way, it would have been a struggle to keep up the fight without running out of supplies.

One of my favorite concepts for the adventure would have tied into the randomness aspect--the "Four Horsemen of Infinity." These terrifying characters would have invaded ongoing fights at random, adding major complications to any scuffle. "War" would have been fast and deadly, able to move twice a turn. "Famine" would have dispensed disease to all members of a fight, slowly whittling them away. "Pestilence" would have taken Joy and given Joy to other enemies, making them all the more troublesome. Finally, "Death" would have been the rarest but also the most dangerous, wielding a scythe that could instantly defeat whoever it hit.

But the battles were not the only things that would have been amazing in FotF. I also had a lot of ideas for cool areas, such as the "Bar at the End of the World." Here, you would have seen apparitions of both men and women walking in and out of the building as Gale drank silently. It would have been a quiet, introspective place, a farcry from the hectic nature of the rest of the game.

Also, if you're wondering why Richard Nixon is on the sprite set for this story... well, let's just say he would have been quite the powerful opponent!

Overall, Flight of the Flamingos was the sub-story that I was the most upset to see go. I was very, very fond of this concept, and of everything that went into it. Had it come to fruition, it would have been the crown jewel of Scholar. Alas, it was not meant to be.

With that, I have at last disseminated my failed plans for this update. I am still very sorrowful at myself for creating something that had so much potential just to drop it off at the end, but I could only stretch myself so far. Hopefully, with this information, in conjunction with the revealed concepts and sprites, someone can pick up the torch that I dropped and eventually make these a reality. That being said, do not overwork yourself, and especially do not make plans that you cannot fulfill. I made both of those mistakes, and it cost me greatly. "Everything in moderation"--words to live by!

Once again, thanks for all the support over this past year. I'm glad that update, however truncated it was, has still received a mostly favorable response. I hope everyone has a good day, and that you've enjoyed this special showcase. See ya!