Parties are a popular choice for friends who want to get together, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are many party games available, including Super Mario Party and Overcooked as well as the popular Jackbox series. Frantic Fanfic, a new addition to the party games scene, offers players the chance to express themselves creatively.Frantic Fanfic was launched in April 2021 and has been under development since December 2020. This party game is self-described as a fandom frenzied, supercharged mess exposition. It was created out of Zee and Michael's love for pop culture, convention-going and fandom.Frantic Fanfic was born out of a desire to regain some of the excitement of attending conventions after the pandemic.Origin of Frantic FanficsFrantic Fanfic was born out of Zee's original idea to have a few 3-minute presentation nights. This game, which requires you to create a PowerPoint and present it in a group setting, became very popular during quarantine. Instead of having to know the topic in advance, Zee and his friends would brainstorm topics, then shuffle them and pull from a list. Then, they would have to create the presentation.The presentation night evolved into the first online Frantic Fanfic. It used Google Docs, a Facebook Event, to track time and Zee manually sent out links to friends. Frantic Fanfic, a form of Frantic Fanfic, was created by several friends. They would each write the beginning, middle and end of a story, then they would all read it out loud. Zee had an idea for a website or app a few days later.As I stared at the ceiling, I thought Damn! What a great night that was. Then it hit me. Oh my God. It could be a website. A program. An app. This could be developed. We did. Since December 2020, we have been creating Frantic Fanfic. It's been a great ride!Zee wanted to have fun with his friends and was also missing being able to attend conventions during COVID-19. Zee says that she thought hard about what I had missed at conventions. Which panels I missed. The vibe. The bad fan fiction reading panels were a great omission. I found them hilarious. Bad writing combined with overdramatic delivery can be very funny. It would be great if I could mix the presentation parties and the bad fanfic reading panels.Michael, Zee's boyfriend and a programmer, is the other half the two-person Frantic Fanfic team. Zee had put together the final version of the game and Michael agreed to create a website.Zee states that we settled on a website after coding an app took so much time to complete. Next came the design of the visuals. It was not my forte as a web designer so there was much back-and-forth and learning on the spot. Michael is a backend developer and he has learned all of the front-end components you will see in the game over the past eight months. Michael would then translate my Photoshop mockups into actual code. It was amazing to see text being inputted on a page and then moved on to the next section.What do you get if you combine a love for fan fiction, the chaos and humor you often see at late-night convention panels, with an idea? Frantic Fanfic is what you get.What is Frantic Fanfic?Frantic Fanfic, thanks to the hard work of Zee and Michael, is an easy game to play with your friends. This quick-start guide contains helpful information about how to quickly get started. There is also a longer version and a streamer-specific guide.Frantic Fanfic is a simple way to have a group write fan fiction. Each member will need to choose a character name and will be asked to create a section using that chosen character within a given time. After each section has been completed, the group will be asked to read them out loud.The group's reactions to each fanfic is what determines whether they win a round. Members of the group are free to react as many times as they wish during the portion of the game that involves reading out what you have written. Frantic Fanfic is all about collaboration, even when it comes to determining who has won the game.Frantic Fanfic's reading section is where the creators get to reclaim a lot the energy they lost from poor fan fiction panels. Frantic Fanfic players get to read the monstrosity they have written together, much like live panels that read bad fan fiction out loud. It often leads to laughter and chaos that is very reminiscent of late-night convention panels. Zee stated that a three-hour session was held and that people were beginning to lose their voices because of the laughter.There are three game modes available currently (Standard and OTP version) so there are many ways to play. There are four different timing options available, including lightning round and a leisurely option that can have a greater impact on gameplay.Zee shared some tips for new Frantic Fanfic players. Invite friends who are interested in party games, and are willing to try new things. The best games can be played with four to eight people. This will allow you to get a great shuffle. If you want to, you can also play with two to sixteen players.Future Frantic FanficsAlthough Frantic Fanfic is still a new indie party game, Zee and Michael have been working hard to update the game. A recent update to the game's settings screen has been shared to the games blog. It includes some tweaks and, as a result of popular demand, a two-player mode.Updates are made in Zee's and Michael's spare time, as it is a team of two. Zee explained that they both work full-time, so updates will be made as much time and energy allows. A new mode will be added to the existing three modes.We are going to introduce a new mode that allows you to only see the first part (the fan fiction section) and hides all the rest while the game is running. The name of this mode is still unknown. There has been some debate about it, as it's like a broken telephone. But, not really, since nothing is being repeated. It's more like a lost page in a journal, trying to go back where someone has gone mysteriously.Future updates will include an interactive audience feature, which will allow users to vote on their favourite stories while they watch streamed games on platforms such as Twitch. Zees also has high hopes for Frantic Fanfic.Zee says that the future plans include making a physical copy, creating a variety of modes and seeing it live streamed with an enormous audience. It would be great to see the game go on the road to various cons.The site has received a positive response from players thus far. It even reached the goal of 500 players at once by June 2021. Frantic Fanfic continues seeing more fan fictions written by players.Zee says that we did something that made people happy and encouraged them to laugh at silly things. It was a nice thing to do, especially during times like the pandemic or when everything seems so bad.Interview responses were lightly edited to improve clarity.Editors' Recommendations
