Funko Pop! is a massive toy line spanned across countless franchises. However, we will soon get a game from the talented team based on this toy line from 10:10 Games called Funko Fusion. We know this is an action-adventure game with a bunch of crossovers. So, while we’re already intrigued, we had some questions about what we could expect. Fortunately, we had the privilege to speak with Arthur Parsons, the co-founder, Design Director, and Head of Publishing at 10:10 Games.
Gameranx: Can you start by telling us about 10:10 Games? Is this your debut game release?
Arthur Parsons: This is indeed our debut game release as a studio, and for many of our team it is also their debut game period. 10:10 Games was formed a little over 3 years ago, and the core senior team have all worked together before, as many of us previously worked together at TT Games working across the LEGO game franchise, amongst other titles.
Over the course of developing Funko Fusion we have grown the team and the studio and have put a strong emphasis on opening up entry levels roles here, focused on giving opportunities to the next generation of game developers. We have a wonderful mix of people across the team, and all of us are really excited for people to play what we’ve been cooking up.
Gameranx: How would you describe Funko Fusion?
Arthur Parsons: Funko Fusion is a game that celebrates Fandom – it’s a delightful mixture of franchises from movies, TV, games, and graphic novels, which spans the decades, and ultimately offers up something for everyone. It truly is a celebration of fandom, with a firm focus on fun, but also a real eye on delivering gaming experiences inspired by the original source material.
We’ve brought together over 20 different franchises, and delivered a game that people can enjoy, something that is both light-hearted and amusing, but also challenging at the same time. At its core, the game is a 3rd person action-adventure game where you get to play as your favourite characters, through your favourite TV shows and movies, and experience a delightful mix of combat and puzzling, where there are easter eggs littered everywhere and surprises hidden throughout the game.
Gameranx: What were some of the inspirations behind this game project?
Arthur Parsons: Funko Fusion has been inspired by so many different things, obviously those of us that have worked on games based on TV shows and movies in the past have definitely learned how to really extract the best from franchises, and when creating content to think as fans of the various IP—that’s the only way to really deliver an amazing experience. As a team though we’re inspired by many different things, whether that is being able to come up with the ruleset for how a Funko Pop! character moves, reacts, etc, or whether it’s designing the mechanics, or the way that the game flows—inspirations come from many places.
Ultimately what we wanted to do is give people a game that both celebrates the things that they love, but also allows them to live out their pop culture fantasies by taking characters from different worlds and mashing them up. From being able to explore the Jurassic World level as He-Man or play through Scott Pilgrim as Freddy Fazbear, Funko Fusion is all about celebrating fandoms.
Gameranx: Could you elaborate more about Funko Fusion‘s premise?
Arthur Parsons: The premise of Funko Fusion is that we re-tell, or re-live, the stories or parts of the stories from the many franchises that are in the game, and these are all stitched together by an overarching story set in the WonderWorks toy factory. It is here that our hero Freddy Funko is based, and very early on we meet our antagonist, Eddy Funko, who is ultimately up to no good.
At this point I don’t want to spoil the story for you, but Eddy can shapeshift and take over other characters, so he sets off through the world causing all sorts of carnage, and you set off on a journey of adventure and discovery to save the various worlds and try and stop Eddy. This allows us to tell compelling stories within the various franchises, but also knit them together into one larger narrative. We can’t wait for players to experience the end result.
Gameranx: Do we already have a set number of characters and franchises available at launch?
Arthur Parsons: At launch, Funko Fusion will have over 60 characters, all of which have unique weapons and moves, and also all of which have hidden versions to unlock—the roster is incredible. As well as the characters, there are over 20 franchises the player can experience, whether in the main worlds, the hidden cameo levels, or the secret cameo quests, all of them pulling from movies, TV series, video games, and comics.
Gameranx: Are there plans for post-launch content?
Arthur Parsons: We have a few things lined up post-launch that we think fans will enjoy quite a bit, but what we really want, is to hear from our players about what they want, what they’d be most looking forward to. So we hope to be able to react to that community feedback and do our best to deliver on those requests when we can, along with adding some of the stuff we think would be cool. So hopefully players will reach out to us on socials or our community discord and let us know their thoughts.
Gameranx: What can we expect in terms of multiplayer? Is this strictly story campaign cooperative gameplay, or will different multiplayer modes be available?
Arthur Parsons: At launch Funko Fusion will be a single player experience, one that players can play in the order of their choice through the main worlds. Then, starting about a month after launch, we’ll be rolling out our online co-op mode, world by world, on a weekly basis throughout October and November. We can’t wait for players to experience the game in whichever mode they choose, and rest assured we are doing everything we can to make the experience as fun as possible for players.
Beyond that, just like with other post-launch content, we’re very open to feedback from fans on what they’re looking for from Funko Fusion. We’ve thrown around a few ideas, so if there’s clearly interest in additional multiplayer modes, then that’ll be something we could look into and see what we can do.
Gameranx: Could you update us on the current development process?
Arthur Parsons: Funko Fusion went gold at the start of August, so now we’re in the process of polishing things up for launch.
Gameranx: When can players expect to see more of Funko Fusion?
Arthur Parsons: We just announced Mega Man the other day when we launched our free Steam demo, and depending on when this goes live, we’ll have one more surprise before launch. Otherwise, players can look forward to launch on September 13!
Gameranx: Can you confirm the platforms for Funko Fusion‘s launch?
Arthur Parsons: Funko Fusion launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam on September 13, with PS4 launching on November 15, and Nintendo Switch digital launching later this year, with Switch physical to follow in early 2025.
Again, players can expect Funko Fusion to arrive in the marketplace on September 13, 2024. When the game launches, it will be available for PC, PlayStation 5, and the Xbox Series X|S platforms. For those on the PlayStation 4 platform, it will be released on November 15, 2024. Meanwhile, those on Nintendo Switch will see the game arrive in early 2025.
