Before I tell you about my fruitiest Magnum Opus, let me share some backstory.
Recently, after I got into Pizza Tower, I heard about ANTONBLAST. I'm unfortunately not that versed in the indie game scene, as I tend to live under a rock when it comes to most things. However, that changed a little when I got into Pizza Tower. Seeing that there's another game similar to it under the premise of "another Wario Land-like," it got me interested. Pizza Tower was a Wario-like, and I ended up being autistically obsessed with that, so I figured I might ANTONBLAST too!
And then I found out there's only a demo. Hey, that's not bad, maybe I can support it! A friend of mine backed it a while ago, maybe I can, too!
... Oh, wait, the Kickstarter was already funded. Damnit.
Well, if I can't financially support the game, I can through making the occasional fanart, talking about it, and sharing it with my friends, right? It's a nice way to spread the game around! ... Wait, there's a Discord server for the studio behind it? I'll join it, why the hell not!
The server, despite being pretty big in member size, feels really tightly-knit and cozy! Feels nice to interact with the community in there. I mostly lurked at first. When I got a new controller to play Rivals of Aether with, I downloaded the Peppino character mod and played as him. Then, as I was playing, I wondered... does Anton have a character mod? Turns out, he does! It's pretty nifty and neat for what it is, but it made me want to take a stab at how I'd interpret him in the game. The sprites in that mod were just ripped from the demo, which worked since they were roughly the same size anyhow, but it clashed a bit with the game's art style. So, I got to work, drafting up move ideas and slowly but surely creating sprites for it. I posted a very specific frame from one of the animations I was doing in the fanart channel.
as i work on rivals of aether sprites for anton, have this frame. he looks like he forgot how to shrug properly
Someone simply commented "Peanut butter jelly time Anton," which reminded me of the dancing banana. It gave me a horrible, horrible idea. So, I gave in, stopped my work on the Aether sprites for now, and... made my Magnum Opus.
Behold... THE DANCING BANANTON!
To my surprise, the very real Tony Grayson replied and said if I provided a transparent version, he'd add it to the server as an emote. I quickly provided the transparent version and the rest was absolute history.
There's a fucking channel dedicated to posting this banana now. It's also a sticker.
What's even better is that people have made spinoff edits, making the dancing banana into other Anton characters like Brulo and Paul. It's so fucking great, especially as someone who's mentally living in the late 2000's and early 2010's forever. I even followed suit and made a sequel, Banannie.
There's fanart of it, like ACTUAL drawings, too. Maybe when I get around to having a gallery script on my site I'll make a showcase on this journal. Unironically though, this turn of events makes me super, super happy. This is what I'm known for now. I wouldn't change it for the world probably.
