Hello there!

If you're reading this, I probably caught your interest with that title, whether it was the "development" part or "spoilers" part. Either way, you're here now.

While I had a lot of fun developing this fun little project, you may find it shocking that it almost didn't happen! You also might want to know why I specifically wanted to make Evilsmurfs into a platformer, or why I decided to bring back a certain character. If you're still left wondering about such things, feel free to join me as I break down various interesting details about the development of the game.

Why did I make this game?

An Evilsmurfs holiday special is a concept I've likely briefly toyed with in the past. Heck, back in 2017 I made a short little utterly nonsensical (and non-canon!) "special" where both Gurglemeel and Poopah kick the bucket after a giant PNG of Donald Trump with a Santa hat enters the screen!
...Yeah I'm just as confused as you are.
Development started back on November 29, 2022. The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special had just released, and the thought of a canonical tie-in special that also bridges the gap for future projects made me realize I could do the same! So I planned out a platformer where three friends & family run off to save Christmas for everyone in their town!

Also, did you know that my brother (yes, the same one that started all of this) had briefly worked on a Sackboygame.exe Christmas special years ago? Now you know!

Why a platformer?

When I was first planning Evilsmurfs 6 back in 2016, I initially envisioned a puzzle platformer that somewhat expanded on the elements introduced in Evilsmurfs 5. Of course, I learned how to implement physics easily thanks to Clickteam Fusion, and eventually the idea to make the game a collection of different playstyles ended up shafting these original plans in favour of what I ended up developing. I still liked the concept enough to hope to revisit it, so when I decided I was making The Holiday Special, I thought now would be a good time to introduce it!

Any story / gameplay cut?

Development was surprisingly straightforward apart from two details which I'll go over next. I was expecting to end up cutting more towards the end to be able to release it on time, but I was fortunately able to keep essentially everything I had planned. Initially there was meant to be a brief "post credits" cutscene where a character meant to be developed in the far future was teased, though I figured the possibility of me continuing the series far enough to get to that point is unlikely now. Everything else was exactly as I had written it initially!

Development complications?

Going into the project initially, I had no grasp of how difficult platformer follwer AI would be to implement. Getting the computer to output it's own controls to each player was easy enough, but the pathfinding itself presented many, many problems. The tutorials I had found worked well enough for smaller jumps, but for the level design I had planned it would require a lot of work. Initially, I almost cancelled the entire project after repeatedly failing to get it to work. Luckily, I was able to hackily throw something together, and also found a workaround in the form of ai controlled players buffering the selected player's inputs and repeating them after a short delay. If I were to revisit platforming AI like this again, I'd either design the levels around it or work on a whole new approach to the pathfinding.

Another stuggle was something as basic as one-way platforms. Initially I wanted to make them a child object of the standard collision parent I used, but doing so would require a completely different approach to how I did collisions that presented many problems. Fortunately, I was able to achieve something workable for the release.

Red-who!?

Since I wanted this to be a sequel to Evilsmurfs 6, set one year later, it meant I couldn't use Poopah as the villain again. I also didn't want to use Tha Men since it would go against my future plans for the characters. However, I had a perfect third-party I could use who I was also considering revisiting in the future:

Redsmurf.

Initially appearing in the non-canon Five Nights at Evilsmurfs (which, despite it's name, is actually only one night) and later appearing canonically in Evilsmurfs 4: Episode 3, this character was a perfect choice. He could have a similar presence to Poopah, while also firmly being an enemy of all the major parties in the series. He's also a pretty blank slate, with his motivation prior being "wannabe Poopah who takes offence to being related to Poopah." I decided I could use this opportunity to tie up a loose end, giving him a deeper reasoning as to why he acts the way he does. He initially appears disguised as Santa Claus, which made for comparisons to Poopah's appearance in this outing as well as allowing for several jokes to be made. In the end, he made for a perfect lower-stakes villain who wouldn't interfere with any future story beats.

Picking up after the finale

I was excited to return to the normal setting and world of Evilsmurfs again, this time with a brighter tone (and an E rating). Earlier this year I explored an alternate timeline, and the continuation of Gurglemeel's story will likely take him places far away from where the story usually takes place, so returning here was sort of a nice feeling. I also wanted to finally show glimpes of Gurglemeel's family, which had only been mentioned in a few bits of text here and there save for his son who briefly appeared in Evilsmurfs 6.

I finally showed his wife Linda, who hadn't had a name until writing this. I additionally gave the two of them a daughter, named Erica, to be a sibling to the already-established son.

Gurglemeel's son went through some changes. In Evilsmurfs 6, he was bald like his father, and initially named "Gurglemeel Jr." during development. I felt it would be out of character for Gurglemeel to name him that, so I decided instead to rename him to Garrett.

I also alluded to Gurglemeel's childhood under Poopah's care, and established that his brother Stan finally revealed to him that the two were related after learning such in Evilsmurfs 4: Episode 3. I planned for him to return Gurglemeel's missing gun sometime between Evilsmurfs 6 and future projects, so I got to show that here. Finally, I was able to bring their cousin Poomlecule from Evilsmurfs 4: Episode 2 back into the story in some way. Poomlecule was based actually based on one of the first Miis I ever designed on the Wii, so it's always fun to reference him again!

What's next?

Developing this project actually lead to me figuring out how to make what I feel to be fairly satisfying platformer gameplay. I've toyed with the idea of doing a complete faithful remake of Evilsmurfs 6 with some of the cut features, improved graphics, a new engine and wholly original soundtrack in the past. I even figured out a potential new chapter that would altogether make the already epic Evilsmurfs 6 even greater than before. If I ever end up doing that down the line, I expect to revisit the work I did here.

I also haven't mentioned the fact that I've been planning another Evilsmurfs platformer for a while. The details of that will be kept in the dark a bit since it's a massive project, but I'd likely end up rewriting aspects of it using what I learned here.

Closing thoughts

It was an absolute pleasure to be able to return to this universe and tie it into one of my favourite times of the year. Finishing this up today and implementing the cutscenes reminded me of the family Christmas Eve party I had just come back from the night before. It was nice being in that environment again, sharing stories, laughs, and a good time in general! I feel I channeled that into some of those sketches in the closing "cutscenes" especially.

Well, unless I somehow remember something else from development that I cared enough to share, I believe this will be it for now! Until next time, I'll see ya when I see ya!