Spark the Electric Jester (Series)

Note: This article is about the entire Spark series, for the video game click here. For the character, click here.

**Spark the Electric Jester** is an Brazilian video game series developed by LakeFeperd. Currently the series has 3 games, and one spin-off. It has gained critically positive reception across all games. The series is heavily inspired by popular classic video games such as Sonic the Hedgehog, and Kirby.

## Overview

### Basic Plot

The series main demographic is typically all ages but, to be specific its normally for ages 10-13. The games typically center around either 2 characters, the first one being Spark who is a formie focused on saving the world, and stopping Freom from destroying it. Fark is a robot who was made to replace Spark, and steal his job, however, he later on goes on a long quest to figure out his true identity. Freom is typically coming up with all sorts of schemes to defeat Fark, and Spark, and under go world domination but, these plans ultimately fail for him. In Spark 3, Spark and Fark both go on a quest to stop the A.I. Clarity who wishes to assimilate all life from the planet.

### Basic Gameplay

The gameplay for the first game follows a 2D side-scrolling action platformer gameplay style. Primarily it had basic controls, and was focused on being a fast-paced adventure to stop Freom. This game features both Spark, and Fark, both of them significantly play different from one, and another. Spark primarily follows a system of him using Jester Powers with each of these powers having unique abilities to use to defeat enemies in the game. Fark plays differently, and doesn´t use jester powers due to him not being a formie, its overall a harder section of the game, and Fark has unique gauge thats filled up from his power move that helps him to power him up. This gauge lowers if you parry too early, or get harmed by an enemy. Spark 2, and 3 follows this gameplay well translating it into 3D. There was also a spin off game based off of Friday Night Funkin known as Spark vs Fark, this follows a rhythm game styled base, which is quite simple.

## History

### Before Spark

Before Sparks creation, Felipe Riberio Daneluz was already working on video game design. As in 2010 he started to work on a series of fan-games based on the Sonic the Hedgehog Series this started off with, Sonic Before the Sequel. As an avid Sonic fan he had made this fan game in love of the franchise, the game garnered attention in 2011 as it was featured in SAGE. With this came a ton of fans for the game, with this came a musician known as Falk Au Yeong who was interested in the game, Falk then went on to work on the game, and future games made by Lake. After this, the two went on to work on an updated version of the game. And, released the final version of the game in 2012.

Falk didn´t slow down his pace however, he continuously came to work, as he worked on a new game straight after he finished before the sequel, he made a new game called *Sonic After the Sequel.* He also made a small extra, and experimental game known as Sonic Before the Sequel: Aftermath, and used aftermath to help create Sonic: Chrono Adventure. Lastly, he was going to end it off with a game called Shadow la kill but, ultimately he scrapped it.

These games served as the basis of Spark the Electric Jester. Lake got to work on learning a new video game engine, he managed to learn unity in a pretty short amount of time, after this he decided to use his newfound knowledge on creating some projects. He got to work on a new series, or well 2 new series. The thing is he had two ideas in his mind but, didn't know which one to pick, these series being Spark, and XF racing. Ultimately, it was a popularity contest, with Spark winning it, and XF getting cancelled. With this Lake cancelled XF, and fully focused on Spark the electric jesters development.

### Developing Spark

This isn't an easy task, if you know game development, it comes with its twists, and turns. Those turns can be severe, as Lake has had many stops, and delays in Sparks development as it was at this time lake still had a lot of personal problems to deal with, he also sadly suffered depression, and severe stress during development, he did take therapy classes fortunately, and managed it. But, the nintendo switch was on the horizon therefore, he needed to push it back because, he didn't want to force competition with it.

Spark has mostly finished development at this point however, there are still a few things needed to be done. The sound design of the game isn't finished, and needed funding, so Lake launched a kickstarter campaign for the game, which thankfully surpassed its goal, and reached over $9K+ USD in funding. He even managed to get Spark on the steam greenlight, and on Steam in general. With these new funds lake could finally finish the game, and finish he did.

### Sparks Release

Spark received critical claim across all boards, the fans were pleased, and critics were too. With this success, Lake decided to work on a new 3D game, he started to learn unitys 3D style of the engine. With time he eventually made an engine that could serve as a base for 3D Sonic fangames. This was called "hedgephysics" a framework he made in unity. He decided to revive the XF series but, scrapped it due to unknown reasons.

Using the hedgephysics framework he got to work on a new Spark game. He created a title screen then made an announcement trailer for Fark the Electric Jester (Soon to be known as Spark the Electric Jester 2.) However, Spark 2s story didn't coincide with the story of Spark 1 as they both conflicted each other in terms of story, especially with Farks story. So Lake decided to update Spark 1, this update changed a good amount of dialogue, and changed most of the games story.

When Spark 2 was finished it too met critical praise, from fans, and the critics. However, Lake didn't immediately start development on a 3rd game, as first he released a patch to the game to fix up some of the games problems on May 26 2019. He the revisited the XF series for the third time, dubbing it "XF DRIVE." He managed to put a lot more into this than the previous XF releases, it even managed to release on SAGE. But, Lake had to stop development on the game due to the fact he was working on Spark the Electric Jester 3.

Lake on August 27th revealed a teaser for Drinyon Desert which caused many to speculate that a new Spark game was in the works. Shortly after, the game was finally unveiled September 7th 2020, and with this reveal came another, Spark 2 was coming to the XBOX ONE. This was big news as it was the first time a Spark game was coming to a video game console. Originally Spark 3 was gonna be about Choco, (a customizable formie) but, Lake decided to go back to the series being about Spark. For the next year he started tweeting teasers, and more about the game, as well as releasing dev builds on patreon, and eventually a demo to the game.

In 2022, a popular rythm game known as Friday Night Funkin' was gaining popularity, and Lake decided to catch onto this popularity. He decided to create his own game called Spark vs Fark, which essentially was a game based off of Friday Night Funkin's gameplay except, it used an engine Lake had created himself known as "Hedge Funkin." This became known as the first Spark the Electric Jester spin off game, and the game was made to promote Spark the Electric Jester 3.

Spark the Electric Jester 3 then released on August 14, 2022, and was met with praise across the board. On November 15th 2022, it was revealed that Spark 3 would be receiving free DLC to the game that would allow players to play all of the stages from Spark 2 in Spark 3. In that same video it was revealed that makeship.com will be having a Spark plushie available to order, making it the first piece of Spark the Electric Jester merch ever.

On January 28th, more DLC for Spark 3 released which added more the the games original ending, as well as offered a challenging boss rush to players, and a new final boss for the game. The ending of the DLC marked off with a "To be continued" screen thus, shedding light on more to come for the franchise. Currently, Lake has released plushies as well as teased a new project (not associated with the Spark the electric jester series) dubbed XF eXtreme Formula.