Trivia / Bug Fables

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• Approval of God: Tristan Alric, the composer, used his personal YouTube account to praise this remix of the Final Boss theme by GaMetal. He would later approve of GaMetal's remix of Mecha Bee Destroyer Blastlord.
• Colbert Bump: Received a quite significant spike in popularity and sales after Arlo reviewed its Nintendo Switch port.
• Development Gag:
  • Team Slacker (Stratos and Delilah) were based on the protagonists of a previous RPG by Moonsprout Games that was scrapped, but because the devs were fond of the characters, they reworked their designs and species^note Stratos went from lizard to Hercules beetle, while Delilah went from jellyfish to mosquito and inserted them into Bug Fables as supporting characters.
  • The team's conversation when Inspecting Amber in Defiant Root has Vi ask if she's just the one Ant or a series of Inexplicably Identical Individuals. This is a nod to how Amber was planned to be the latter before the idea was dropped.
  • The Zombee and Zombeetle enemies' attacks (a needle attack and a dash attack, respectively) were based on Vi and Kabbu's basic attacks in the 0.1 version of the game.
• Dueling Games: With Paper Mario: The Origami King, which was announced around the same time as the console release of Bug Fables and released two months later. Both games are related to the Paper Mario series, but while The Origami King is an official sequel that features more experimental aspects, Bug Fables is an unofficial homage that feels very similar to the first two Paper Mario games.
• Inspiration for the Work: Paper Mario was a big inspiration for this game. But other games helped inspire it, namely Golden Sun, Persona 5, Tales of Zestiria and Xenoblade Chronicles 1.
• Official Fan-Submitted Content: As a part of the reward tier at the game's IndieGoGo campaign, backers were able to conceptualize and design various NPCs, mini-bosses, medals, and items. According to Genow, the first backer character was Monsieur Scarlet, designed by Rogus, which was then followed by many other characters and content.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: Limited Run Games offered a Collector's Edition for this game's physical release, which included various extras goodies, such as a Vi plush and a soundtrack CD.
• Permanent Placeholder: According to the very early pre-release demo, "Bugaria" was at first a placeholder name for the game's setting. It wound up being the named used in the release version.
• Production Nickname: The Spider from Chapter 1 is jokingly referred as "Spuder" by developers in the official soundtrack and the game files. The nickname is referenced in the actual game in the dialogue with a minor NPC named Jerry on Metal Island, where he failed to enter the Spy Cards tournament because his "Spuder" boss card was deemed fake.
• Rule 34 – Creator Reactions: In the Create Stuff Podcast, Genow has said that post-release, his main job is re-tweeting Bug Fables fan-content. Naturally, this led to him seeing a lot of "unfortunate fan-art" as he described it. He admitted in the podcast that he doesn't like seeing it.
• Shrug of God: The developers will not say exactly what the being with the orange eye in the Giant's Lair is. While they have explained some details about it — it's called Dead Lander Omega, its silhouette seen in the Eliascope is its canon size while its appearance in the Giant's Lair is shrunk to fit the screen, there is only one of it, it's not a cyclops and has more than two arms, even the other Dead Landers are scared of it, and most residents of the world are aware that it exists — its identity is something they do not want to give away.
• Urban Legend of Zelda:
  • Despite rumors to the contrary, Elizant I never wakes up during the game, not even after completing all achievements or the Cave of Trials.
  • Pinky the Jumping Spider doesn't pay you more for Dark Cherries than other merchants. You can still turn a hefty profit by selling her Longleg Capsules, however.
• What Could Have Been: The game has many concepts that went unreleased in the final product, revealed either via the artbook, promotional development screenshots, early gameplay footage, and official AMAs.
  • Vi's personality was much more abrasive at the earlier stages of the development, and it had to be toned down for the final product so that she wouldn't become The Scrappy of the game.
  • Speaking of Vi, her default attack would've used her arm stingers while her Beemerang was relegated to TP moves. In the final game, it's the inverse; Vi's default attack has her throw the Beemerang while her stingers only show up in her TP moves.
  • Kabbu's body was slimmer, and he also had metallic shoulder pads. The redesign gave him chubbier appearance (as his original slim design was too difficult to animate in the new artstyle), and shoulder pads were removed in favor of the larger mandibles.
  • Elizant I was initially actually dead before another dev proposed to have her be in a magically-induced stasis sleep.
  • Leif was originally supposed to be a purple female moth called Cerice, which was changed due to redefinition of his story, allowing his family to live on, while also giving Leif an Ironic Name as an anagram of "life", referring to his status as a zombie bug. The name Cerise would be given to one of the Fruity Bugs, though unrelated to the original plan (being a pseudo-backer character and named before this was made known).
  • Leif also used to cast magic by dancing before it was changed just to classic "summon magic in hand" approach.
  • Kabbu and Vi were originally supposed to have their own Leitmotifs with their own Dark Reprises, similarly to Leif's "The One Left Behind" and "The Ones Who..." leitmotifs, meant to be used for their own story segments. However, the developers couldn't agree on what kind of leitmotif would've been fitting for Kabbu, so it was put on hold due to its low priority before it was outright decided to abandon the idea of giving him his own leitmotif due to its low priority, while Vi's surf rock-inspired test tunes didn't stand out enough to be accepted, with the devs also giving up on giving Vi her own leitmotif.
  • Quick Flea medal was initially supposed to be Speed Up medal that would increase the overworld's walking speed before it was decided to make it default speed while the medal itself was reworked to allow the player to quickly flee fights.
  • Spying enemies during battle originally worked like Tattles in the Paper Mario games, where the characters would outright state the enemy's stats in addition to their flavor text. In the final game, they do not say anything about the enemy's stats, as they are displayed in the separate window when Spying and shown in their Bestiary pages.
  • Initially, there were supposed to be tiered versions of HP- and TP-recovering items like Crunchy Leaves and Honey Drops, but they were dropped in favor of the cooking system, allowing even the simplest items to remain useful in the late game.
  • Samira was initially Zasp's partner, but the developers felt she was too nice to be a rival character, resulting in the creation of the more dislikable Mothiva.
  • Zasp was supposed to wield lightning magic and be much stronger than Mothiva, hiding his strength to not make her feel weak. This was scrapped for unclear reasons.
  • Fry was supposed to be a recurring character who appeared in different towns, but the devs decided to put cooks in every major town instead. Fry in the early "Paper Bugs" demo also looked even larger and more buff.
  • Amber was supposed to be a bunch of Inexplicably Identical Individuals located in various places in Bugaria, but the devs thought it would be too nonsensical. This gets a nod if Team Snakemouth Inspects her in Defiant Root, where Vi asks if Amber is one Ant or several.
  • Venus was supposed to be more well-known by Bugaria's residents, but, as the devs put it, "there's no fun believing in a Goddess you can see", so, as result, she became a secret from everyone except Aria (and, eventually, Team Snakemouth).
  • There was a scrapped quest in the Termite Kingdom involving a tsundere princess and falls in love with Kabbu (although he wouldn't notice it.)
  • In the "Theater Help Wanted!" quest, Mothiva was supposed to be the questgiver and play the role of a princess in the stageplay, while Zasp played the evil prince. In the final game, her role went to Chubee, while the evil prince is played by the Burglar with doubled health and an ability to summon Thieves and Bandits.
  • There was originally supposed to be one bee scientist, but Mar liked both concept designs for the character and turned both into their own characters (Professor Honeycomb and Doctor H.B.) in the final game.
  • Zasp and Mothiva were supposed to have three fights in the game, as opposed to two, which is evidenced by the Dummied Out options for B.O.S.S. to refight their second and third battles. It's implied that they were supposed to be fought in Chapter 4, as evidenced in the conversation at the beginning of the chapter, with Mothiva being eager to deliver the artifact, only to backtrack on her statement with an excuse that the "sand will get in her fluff" (an excuse that was presumably added later in development), with their fight being replaced with the Dune Scorpion's to explore the mysteries of Leif's past more.
  • Tidal Wyrm was supposed to be the Sand Lion, but it was replaced due to not making sense in the Tide Level.
  • Ironnails, the heavily armored snail enemies, were supposed to be ironclad beetles, but the devs thought it felt off to fight beetles in the Forsaken Lands, given that beetles were established to be Civilized Animals, so they were changed to snails, because there was only one snail enemy in the game.
  • Several enemy concepts went unused, such as a fungi-infested caterpillar for Snakemouth Den, a fly with a sunflower face, a dragonfly-esque monster, and a robotic ant, among other things.
  • The Dead Lander enemies were planned on being 3D models to make them look far out of place compared to everything else encountered before. Alpha's model was made, but the developers scrapped it because they weren't good with models, so they just stuck them as regular 2D sprites.
  • There were about seven types of Dead Landers planned, but only three were put in to the final game due to budget limitations, picked based on which ones would offer the most variety.
  • Speaking of which, the Giant's Lair was originally going to a much smaller area, but the oven segment was added for some extra padding before the final boss.
  • Kabbu was going to fight Vi and Leif in Chapter 5. It was scrapped because the writers thought it did not feel fitting or natural. A less serious, optional battle with Kabbu happens during a side quest in the final game, this one due to pheromone control.
  • The Termite Kingdom was originally going to be an optional area.
  • Leif and Levi's names were initially swapped before they were set in stone later on.
  • The residential area for the Wasp Kingdom was supposed to be bigger instead of just the lobby and sealed doors, but was cut due to time constraints.
  • Mar wanted to have an NPC mention Dead Lander Omega before the endgame, but Genow was against the idea.
• Word of God: Genow confirmed in an AMA that It's Always Spring in Bugaria, except for the Golden Settlement, which is always autumn.
  • From that same AMA, Genow also mentioned Team Snakemouth's hobbies outside of battling: Leif is a master card duelist, Kabbu likes knitting, and Vi loves to travel.
  • Kabbu met his friend Bit while training.
  • Queen Elizant II's "villainish" personality during the first half of the game was never intended to be seen as such, but the devs decided to roll with it when theories came about after her reveal.
• Word of Saint Paul: According to their respective creators, Tanjerin and Zasp are somehow friends, either bonding over talking about the women in their lives...or due to Tanjerin finding Zasp's flash step cool and Zasp appreciates having a fan of his own. This is not alluded to in the game in any way.
• Working Title: During the development, the game was tentatively titled Paper Bugs until January 2018, where the title was finalized to Bug Fables alongside the announcement of the game's IndieGoGo campaign. The game's Twitter handle still refers to the old name.

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