So there's a week left until the Steam version releases. I could show more stuff from the game, but I don't want to spoil everything, so I thought about doing something different for this post.

In an earlier devlog I mentioned that Odiumfloreo started with the dumb idea of mixing FNaF with Enviro-Bear 2000. What I didn't told is there were actual ideas for its mechanics, plot and characters.

Until now.

I'm only going to post this on Itch.io and Gamejolt. Having what's basically a look back at a cancelled fan project on a commercially-oriented platform like Steam would feel off.

"Nightwatch Bear 12-2-6", the fangame that died to become Odiumfloreo.

The idea came to when I played Enviro-Bear and noticed there was a mechanical similarity to FNaF: do tasks while threats interrupt you, some resource management, etc. Then I thought it would be hilarious to have the driving bear facing off against FnaF animatronics by throwing around items in the office. The concept stuck with me for a while, and I brainstormed some ideas for the sake of it.

The game would have the same controls as Enviro-Bear, with the car replaced by an FNaF office, and the bear wearing a nightguard hat. The interactable items I came up with were:

-A monitor for the cameras, with 4 buttons:

--1 & 2:Next & previous camera. There would be 6 in total: the hall (this leads to the door), 4 rooms with a vent, and an "AUDIO ONLY" camera.

--3: Power on and off

--4: Jammer

-A door with a light button

-Several batteries

In FnaF 1 fashion, the cameras and lights would waste power when on. However, the bear would be able regain power by throwing the batteries into a device connected to the monitor... but throwing them around too hard could break them.

Does this ring a bell?

There also were a few planned enemies. I only thought about their mechanics and general design, but I didn't doodle them or even named them. For the sake of making this post more interesting, I tried to draw them (disclaimer: I am not an artist) and give them some FNaF-esque names.

The first enemy, Segismundo Salmón (Segismundo the Salmon), would simply make its way to the hall and then enter the door. There would be no visual cue for him being in the door, so you would need to play attention to the cameras. To fend him off, the bear would have to hold the light on him.

The second enemy, Carmen Colmena(Carmen the Hive), would be the opposite of Segismundo: if she's on the door, you would have to let her be until she leaves, as she would attack if the door light is on. Needless to say, she would not be able to appear at the same time as Segismundo.

The little bee-bots around her are actually a separate enemy, the Abejas Amorosas (Cuddly Bees). When active, each of the 4 of them would go to a camera with a vent. If one enters the vent, the bear would have to hold the jammer button, which would cost power.

I should mention that there were no jumpscares planned, the enemies would simply charge at the bear, with the screen cutting to black right before they touch him. Or her, I didn't really think about the bear's gender.

There's definitely room for more animatronics, but I never got to it (and if I did, I don't remember them) because the game's core issues I'll mention later. The last thing I brainstormed was the final night. Upon starting it, all animatronics would be absent, and the night hour indicator would also be gone. However, if the player used the cameras, they would be bet with a surprise:

The "AUDIO ONLY" camera would be on, revealing a new character and displaying a healthbar with the name "BEARHUSK".

BEARHUSK is a blatant rip-off of Amentia Nightmare from the light novel "Decoration Disorder Disconnection". The original character was a human that became biologically fused to a wall because of a maybe-scifi-maybe-demonic disease... and it only showed up in one page. BEARHUSK would be the same, but with a bear skeleton and wires instead of human flesh. There's also some inspiration from 9's Cat Beast in there.

While BEARHUSK would remain fused to the wall, it could still attack the player in several ways (sadly, I only came up 3):

-Slowly cover all cameras in wires. This would be reset by using the jammer in each camera. If a camera gets fully covered in wires, more wires would burst from the monitor and kill the nightguard bear.

-Extend its neck into the vents (think the Teacher from Little Nightmares 2). Once its head pops up in the office, you would need to throw something (I never decided on what) to fend him off. Each successful hit would drain BEARHUSK's health.

-Drop a wire-covered battery into the office. If the bear uses it to power the monitor by mistake, it would cost a power percentage.

After defeating BEARHUSK, the bear would go into the "AUDIO ONLY" room for some reason. Once there, the remaining wires in the wall would capture and merge with them, turning them into a less bony BEARHUSK. The screen would cut to black, showing the text "Nightwatch Bear 12-2-7".

So why did something that sounds to stupidly glorious didn't even start development? The problem was that the things that make FNaF and Enviro-Bear unique are hard to mix. FNaF is a game that can be made with still pictures, and relies on simple player interactions (which is probably the main reason why there are so many fangames of it). Enviro-Bear, on the other hand, requires constant physics based chaos and gameplay elements that actually interact with the world.

You can see this problem if you analyze the planned enemies closely: all of them are FNaF enemies. The only Enviro-Bear element is dragging the batteries to the power source. Introducing a full physics-based enemy would make Segismundo and Carmen look too simplistic by comparison, and not having physics-based enemies would feel like wasted potential.

But then I realized one thing: Nightwatch Bear 12-2-6's core concept (sit-n-survive with physics-based mechanics) isn't dependent on the FNaF or Enviro-Bear IPs. So I wrote that concept down in case I came back to it, and I did. Later I found the Themed Horror Game Jam #20 on Itch.io, which had the theme of "Realm of Nightmares" and the optional challenge of putting moths in the game.

These restrictions matched Nightwatch Bear 12-2-6's core concept perfectly:

-The setting being a nightmare would justify the unrealistic physics and the need to survive a certain time.

-The moth theme would allow for more physics-based, because bugs are small and could fit on the main screen without the need for cameras (and then I didn't add any small bug monsters... in the jam version).

The jam went fairly well, with Odiumfloreo raking 5th place. Some time later, I released a Steam version of Sayonara Sigil Sentry, another project that started on a jam. It also went well, so I thought about looking back at my game jam projects to see if any of them could receive the same treatment. Odiumfloreo was the best pick, since the main concept is broad enough to add plenty of insane shit to it.

While Nightwatch Bear 12-2-6 didn't see the light of day, it paved the way for something far crazier, larger and just better in almost every way.

Except on the "being a shitpost" category. The nightguard bear shall forever hold that award.

See you in a week. But beware, some of BEARHUSK's spirit still lives inside Odiumfloreo.