We put so much passion into creating Furi. During this celebration week, we want to invite you to some #BehindTheScenes memories we have. We will share with you some processes, inspiration behind Furi, and other tidbits.

At some stage, we had to cut The Beat from the game to stay on schedule. But the whole ending of the game felt different without her. We missed the anti-climax she provided, the surprise, the mood she put players in. So we worked really hard and managed to put her back in!

Many players have asked us how many Guardians are in Furi? The Star is not a guardian, nor The Flame or Bernard. There are then 10 guardians inside the prison, but one of them is The Voice who doesn’t fight you.

Some of you cracked the secret behind Furi’s name a few years later. Furi is a game about freedom, about what you would be ready to do to be free. Furi is the katakana of free, フリー to pronounce Furī.

Furi’s soundtrack will always be very special. Congratulations again to @2emedanger, @carpenter_brut, @toxavanger, @Waveshaper_SWE, SCATTLE, @0kn1ght0 and Lorn for joining our adventure and composing this masterpiece!

To end up with the amazing 7 musicians who made Furi’s soundtrack, we talked to about 15 musicians. Some were interested, but not all could work on Furi. Thanks to Vitalic, Jean Michel Jarre and Birdy Nam Nam for considering working with us! And yes, we wrote to Daft Punk too.

We sometimes wonder, did some players stop at the ending credits and never found out what was hidden afterwards? Furi’s ending is something we put a lot of work in, as for all our games...

This epilogue was designed to let you experience the whole emotional journey of the game, to give you the time to ponder about the meaning of what you’ve just played through. To be faced with a difficult choice.

For Furi we wanted electronic music building tension while you walk toward your next deadly opponent. One day, Anthony Beyer our Art Director sent a tech art video with music he was listening to. It was Prototype Dreams from @Waveshaper_SWE. This is how we discovered Waveshaper.

You can listen to Prototype Dreams here: https://telefuturenow.bandcamp.com/track/prototype-dreams-2

Here is a video of the first playable prototype of Furi. It was used as an overview for the team at the beginning of development. You can see what was there from the very beginning: the hero design, the charge and dodge philosophy, or the dual stick shooting.

But you can also notice differences, like the fact that initially we wanted to be able to go back and forth between long range and close combat.
Note: the music on the video is Road Trip from @_dariusmusic.

For each of our cutscenes, we wrote a synopsis and made an animated storyboard like this one (storyboard and cutscene direction by Ahmed Nasri). These helped us make the 3D versions and set the mood of the game.

Did you notice those details? Rider’s cape is not a cape, it’s a camisole. The Star in orbit around the planet is visible from the start from most of the jail worlds. The Voice can be found in some extra locations in the different worlds...

Here is Furi’s “fake game footage”. We used this to establish a strong vision of the game. It’s all from the engine, but nothing playable. This was two years and a half before the game was released, it was our roadmap.

Takashi Okazaki was already on board and had designed the two characters. @carpenter_brut made the music. Anthony Beyer made all the 3D visuals and visual effects and Chris Hoareau the animations. This was two years and a half before the game released, it was our roadmap.

[Spoiler-ish] Greek mythology is one of the main influences for Furi. Furi was a version of Minos’ tale, told from the Minotaur’s point of view. Some guardians have this influence: The Strap is a cyber fantasy version of Medusa. The Hand is inspired from Hector of Troy in Iliad.

Another great source of inspiration for Furi was Eiji Yoshikawa’s book “Musashi”. The tale of how a tough countryside boy became a legendary samurai. The guardian The Edge is designed after Musashi.