Prerelease:Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind (SNES)

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind (SNES).

Designer Michael Berlyn had previously designed adventure video games, such as Altered Destiny and Les Manley in: Search for the King, prior to his work on Bubsy. Eventually burning out on the genre, he came across Sonic the Hedgehog and ended up playing it 14 hours a day, for a whole week, in order to find inspiration to do his own take on it.

Development Timeline

1991

• Development of the game began in 1991.
  • Bubsy's appearance came with little to no forethought, and his species, gender, and overall appearance differed greatly in early concept images. One consistent feature were his shoes, though these were omitted in the end as to further differentiate the character from Sonic.
    • One of his designs was a bombshell archetype.
    • Bubsy was originally going to wear green tennis shoes.
• John Skeel had difficulty finding a good voice for Bubsy, but eventually received Brian Silva's voice tapes. When Skeel sped up his recordings, he enjoyed the "Looney Tunes-eque" tone and wanted him to represent the character. Some time later, Silva shared the rest of his portfolio, and the artwork included earned him the additional job of sprite and background artist.
  • Bubsy's catchphrase, "What could possibly go wrong?", was derived from an in-joke among the development team; of which the meetings could be described as "casual and funny".

1992

• The Genesis version, which was the first one being worked on, was to be released in late 1992. Accolade's legal troubles with Sega caused the game to be delayed.
  • After artists Beckett Gladney and Ken Macklin constructed the backgrounds and character animations respectively on a PC program, a group named Solid Software went on to program them for the SNES.
  • A group of 20+ people worked on the game.
  • During the programming of the game to the SNES, one of the hazards in the game was catnip that could drive Bubsy mad. This was replaced with banana peels because of Nintendo of America's censorship policies.
  • The game was developed and released concurrently for the SNES and Genesis, with each version looking and sounding almost identical.
  • In December 1992, some children who resided near Accolade's office in San Jose, California, were invited to have pizza, soda, and to test play the game. The children were also asked to comment on the game's aspects. Their suggestion to add more secret paths was picked up, resulting in the inclusion of some underground tube ways in the first level.

Magazines and Media - Early Development

GamePro Magazine: "A Bobcat in the Making"

Issues from July-October 1992 showcased pages telling of Bubsy's development, including level designs and Bubsy designs.

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• On July 1992: can be seen Bubsy's early designs, resembling a weasel animal, a female bobcat with pants and a shirt with B on it. It shows a sketch of stage 2 map; interestingly enough, the pianos on the stage 2, was originally a security safe, later it was updated to be a piano enemy in the final game. Also the woolies design looks a bit different, the second woolie looks a bit too evil-ish, with the pointy teeth.
• On August 1992: can be seen Bubsy's design on a computer screen, and some bubsy jumping sketches can be seen. Also can be seen the level design from a unknown stage, possibly a draft. And it shows on below, a development image of the Stage 1, the differences are: there's no holes for the Angry Trams to pass, unlike the final that has holes.
• On September 1992: features a image of a composer Matt Berardo composing the theme song on a Roland MT-32 piano. Also it shows a image of stage that showcases a dancing peapods, that is never seen in the final. Also it shows a early version of a tunnel on Stage 1, possibly testing, the design of the tunnel tube is different compared to the final.
• On October 1992: it shows a Stage 8 in development, judging by the image, it's a sort of a level editor. Also it shows Stage 1, that is way different compared to the final, the background is different, the color pallets are different and the Toon Car is different, shorter than the final.