ANTONBLAST

About

Antonblast is an upcoming indie video game being developed by Summitsphere and backed by the crowdfunding site KickStarter. The game was announced in May 17th 2022, and quickly gained a following on Twitter.

Origin

While the Antonblast official Twitter page was first created in 2015, the company “SummitSphere” would not make their debut until 2018. As of 2022, two total games were created under the “Anton” series of games; AntonBall (left) and AntonBall Deluxe (right). Anton Blast will make for their third title, which is currently under development.

The Company, Summitsphere, describes itself as “an independent, international development studio with a simple mission: make modern classics unlike anything you've seen before.”^[1] The characters and mechanics of their games take inspiration from various Super Mario games and spin-off series, most notably from Alleyway, Mario Bros and the Wario Land titles.

Online Presence

Kickstarter

Antonblast would be posted and announced on Kickstarter and Twitter on May 17th, 2022 at 10:00 AM. The game advertises itself as “An explosive ode to handheld platformers of yesteryear… blown up and refined for the modern era!”^[2] and taking great inspiration from the Wario Land series, while also introducing its own unique style and mechanics.

Within three days, the Kickstarter Project would receive 100% of its pledge goal of 75,000$. A playable Demo is also available as free-to-play within the site via itch.io.^[3]

During the last week of the Kickstarter's goal, Summitsphere would eventually get a 24-hour extension from 6/20/22, to 6/21/22. As of 6/21/22 at 10:00 A.M. EST, the Anton Blast Kickstarter would come to a close, with a 3105 backer total, and a total pledge of $144,741. Sadly, despite the final push, they would fall short of hitting the 4th goal of getting ports to Xbox and Playstation Consoles.^[4]

YouTube

On January 18th, 2021, a video titled “Antonball Deluxe – Release Date Trailer” was released under the "Summitsphere" YouTube channel (shown left). Being their second-only game under their brand, It would receive 2.2K views and 78 likes as of May 27th, 2022. On May 27th, 2022, “ANTONBLAST – Kickstarter Announcement Trailer (Switch, PC)” was uploaded on their channel (shown right). The video received 24K views and 1.2K likes within ten days.

Twitter

After the initial announcement on Kickstarter and Twitter, the studio quickly expressed their thanks to all the backers. Eventually, backers and supporters on Twitter would joke about how quickly it got funded, with one user, @yokiteaa,^[5] claiming it would be the first game to sell "One Antonillion Copies" on May 18th, a reference to the Morbius meme "Morbillion (shown below).

The reference towards its sudden spike in backing was furthered under the hashtag “AntonSweep” to push for more stretch goals. The tweet supposedly originated from a quote-tweet on an image made by user @FmsDraw^[6] showing the titular Anton with an ecstatic victory pose, similar to that of the “Jeb Wins / Jeb Bush Flawless Victory” meme. The image would receive over 230 retweets and 1,600 likes.

Fans and backers on Twitter adopted the hashtag to represent their excitement. The movement grew in popularity to the point the development team started using it regularly in their updates.^[7]

After its initial funding, a similar hashtag trend "AnnieSweep" would be used by backers to support the next major funding goal of $100K. Features would include a time-attack mode, and allow for a second playable character in the form of Anton's co-worker, "Annie".

After hitting their Deadline, the team would thank everyone via Twitter (shown below)

Spread

Tour De Pizza and Pizza Tower

Pizza Tower, another "Wario-like" game that was in development in the early 2020s, made himself comedic rivals with the creator of Anton Blast.^[8] The rivalry was first made public on Twitter on May 17th, 2022, where the creator made self-deprecating images about Anton Blast's rise in popularity(shown left). Four days later, Anton Blast's creator responded with Peppino and Anton romantically and absurdly making out. In general, both of their fandoms get along with each other.^[8]

Related Memes

IT'S HAPPY HOUR!

In Antonblast, Pizza Tower and the later Wario Land games, one of the core mechanics of the game involves racing a timer halfway through the level. The goal is to return to the start within the timeframe in order to complete the level with your gathered treasure and progress to other levels. The timer, as well as a sound-byte declaring "IT'S HAPPY HOUR!" will activate once stepped on (shown below).

Upon stepping on the timer, the incredibly fast-paced track called "Outta My Way! …It's Happy Hour!" will play until the player returns to their starting point. The original track by one of the developers, Tony Grayson, was posted on SoundCloud and gained upwards of 8,793 plays, 211 likes, and 12 reposts within two weeks.

Memes would spawn from the soundbyte and the music, oftentimes with gifs or videos of people dancing, running, or flailing erratically to reflect the high-tension energy represented from the "HAPPY HOUR" scenario.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References