NYCC: Behind-the-Scenes of ‘Funko Fusion’ & Upcoming Expansions

When we started on this journey, we were like, ‘What do we do for game one?’ There hasn’t been a Funko video game … so we have to think about how do the characters move, how do they talk,  how do they run, jump, interact, die, shoot. We had to think all that through and, as we’re thinking that through, we’re also like, ‘How do we express Funko for the first time?’

We looked at it as Funko fans and [thought] ‘Look at a shelf, just look at a collector’s shelf or the room they keep their Pops! in,’ and that’s what game one should be. We always think that Funko Pops! express who you are, [so] the game is that sort of expression of fandom. That’s what it’s about — it’s about fandom, and also, it’s just a fun video game.

I always find that, in previous games I’ve worked on, you have to embrace the thoughts and inputs of everyone, and that includes your players. They’re the people that are going to sell out their hard-earned dollars to buy your game, so the least you can do is listen to them and hear them out. You can’t do all those things [fan suggestions], but what you can do is hear the noise and then filter out to find the common themes. We’ve already been reacting to what some players have responded to [such as] they found the game a little too hard when we first launched it. So, we’ve done a pass and took the stress out of the game to make sure people are enjoying it for what it is. It’s helpful for us to know what people want.

I would just say it’s kind of plain, but just honestly, the creative process. It’s been three years of the journey working with Arthur…the incredible team over at 10:10, and the whole project literally started with a two-day summit. We rented an Airbnb (Jon Burton, a couple folks from Funko, and myself), and we just sketched out what we thought this thing was going to be. At the end of three years, it was basically the fulfillment of what we had put on just a couple pieces of paper.

We had a very clear vision that we wanted to do something that was unexpected and mismatched across not only genre but ranging in age bracket as well. We talked to three different groups specifically, and ultimately we landed on NBCUniversal because we felt like we had a good flexibility there, and we know the team also. They knew that there would be a high level of trust in mixing things like Jurassic World and Five Nights at Freddy’s. From NBCUniversal, we have 21 properties integrated in the game today and about a half dozen others that are not in this universe.