The upcoming multiplayer action-adventure title Funko Fusion bills itself as "a pop culture universe," and the first trailer for the game shows this is not an exaggeration. The game will feature Funko POP representations of characters from dozens of IPs, including film, television, and video games. With so many IPs to choose from, developer 10:10 Games was faced with the difficult decision of deciding exactly which ones to include and which to cut. In a conversation with The Best War Games, 10:10 co-founder Arthur Parsons detailed exactly how and why the studio chose which iconic properties would feature in Funko Fusion.
Currently, Funko Fusion is slated to feature characters from over 20 different properties, with at least one character from each as a playable option. Properties shown off in the game's first trailer include TV shows like The Umbrella Academy, horror films like The Thing, Child's Play, and Shaun of the Dead, the multimedia franchise Jurassic World, and more. According to Parsons, the IP selection process primarily hinged on two factors: what age group the property appealed to and its previous media presence.
Funko Fusion to Represent Every Decade
Although they may resemble a child's toy, Funko POP figurines are enjoyed by more than just children. The large-headed, small-bodied figures are most popular among people between 25 and 45 years of age, and most avid Funko collectors are 20 years or older. Due to this, 10:10 games wanted to make sure that the older demographic of Funko fans felt represented as well as the younger. As Parsons explained,
Our motto when developing this game was "Everyone's a fan of something." We went through and added something for every decade. We've got Masters of the Universe in there , which will appeal to an older crowd, and Battlestar Galactica - the 70s version - and then stuff like The Umbrella Academy that's more modern
Of course, modern fans and collectors of Funko POP will not find themselves neglected when it comes to representation in Funko Fusion. One of the properties given the most focus in the trailer is The Umbrella Academy; multiple characters, including Klaus, Allison, and Number Five are all confirmed to appear in the game. This also led to the choice of characters and dinosaurs from Jurassic World appearing over the more classic ones from Jurassic Park films, although the iconic T-Tex who appeared in the original film has been confirmed to show up in the game. "Rexy" may even appear as a playable character, given that she is shown emerging from her box alongside other playable characters during the first Funko Fusion trailer.
Funko Fusion and Cult Classics
Another factor 10:10 Games considered when developing Funko Fusion was the IP's media presence. They wanted a chance to feature characters, properties, scenes, and moments that had not yet had their time to shine. This led to the choice of several "cult classic" IPs, especially films. For example, several horror films, which are especially likely to obtain cult classic status due to their dark and potentially gory nature, will appear in the game. This was something that the team had decided upon early in its development, according to Parsons,
It was there from the beginning. We knew from the start that we wanted a lot of smaller IPs, cult classics, and a lot of those are horror...We want people to react, to say "Wow, they've got THAT in the game?" And a lot of horror IPs give us that.
In some cases, such as Shaun of the Dead, this will be the first time that the property in question will be appearing in a video game. As Parson explained, this also gives the team greater leeway to experiment with portraying iconic scenes and moments in game form. One example provided was Prince Adam's legendary transformation into He-Man seen in Masters of the Universe; another was Shaun's climactic battle against the zombie horde. Parsons hopes that the desire to see some of their favorite scenes re-enacted will draw many Funko fans and collectors to the game.
The developers also chose to focus on characters that they thought could have particularly humorous or unique interactions. Klaus, from The Umbrella Academy, was given pride of place in the trailer, shown running from dinosaurs and even quite literally losing his head. Klaus was described as an "obvious" choice for a character to feature in the game due to his bombastic personality. But, of course, these decisions are made with the Funko's anatomy in mind too and what the devs could accomplish with them in-scenes:
We're honored to bring Funko POPs to life, but it was definitely difficult. Our team worked so hard. They've got these huge heads and these tiny bodies, so they can't always do motions that you would think of as normal. We had to rethink everything. Imagine greeting a lady and doffing your cap - a Funko POP can't do that, because he can't reach the top of his head.
To exemplify this, he added that in-game, there's a scene where
"...some characters are in one of the helicopters from Jurassic World and their bodies fit, but their heads don't."
There are still several IPs appearing in Funko Fusion that have not yet been revealed, Parsons clarifies. Future trailers for the game will feature new characters and worlds not shown off in the game's first sneak peek. Parsons also stated that the team is already thinking about possible sequels and that 10:10 Games would love to continue creating Funko games with the "mash-up" theme established in Funko Fusion. With over 3,000 different Funko POPs currently available featuring characters from film, television, video games, cereal brands, comic books, and more, it is unlikely that the development team will run out of properties to include any time soon.
Funko Fusion is currently in development and scheduled to release in 2024.