Spark the Electric Jester

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Spark the Electric Jester.

Development Timeline#

2012

• April - During this month Lake presumably comes up with the usage of Kirby powerups in his fan game, Sonic After the Sequel, The Beam Power would serve as inspiration for Spark's default moveset and character design.

2013

• February - Sonic Before the Sequel Aftermath is Released, which itself is a tech demo for Sonic Chrono Adventure which Spark the Electric Jester is built off.
• March - Sonic Chrono Adventure is announced.
• July - Lake posts an unlisted video of an animation test for some sort of cutscene of Spark fighting and defeating the Rat mini-boss from FM City in what appears to be FM Canyon, no cutscenes of this kind would appear in the finished game or any demo versions, as he would drop using flash animations for cutscenes during Sonic Chrono Adventure's development.
• August - Development on Sonic Chrono Adventure finishes.
• September - Lake states that he has started working on his next project, which would turn out to be Spark the Electric Jester.
• December 16 - Sonic Chrono Adventure is released, which has a teaser for the then unannounced next project in it's credits. Sonic Chrono Adventure itself would serve as the framework of STEJ's coding.
• December 29 - A 'Coming Soon' Teaser is posted on the Sonic Chrono Adventure thread on the Sonic Retro forums.

2014

• January 4 - Lake posts screenshots of an early version of Smog Sewer on the Sonic Chrono Adventure thread.
• January 9 - Another screenshot, this time of an early version of FM City (which shows it on fire), is posted to the Sonic Chrono Adventure thread and Lake mentions that the game is shaping up to be more like a Mega Man X game than a Sonic or Kirby game.
• February 7 - A test post is made on the Feperd Games Tumblr blog.
• February 24 - Lake posts the opening trailer to SAGE 2014 Act 1 to YouTube, at the end of which the first known footage of the game is shown, FM City has a background closer to that of the SAGE Demo at this point, but it is still on fire.
• March - A gameplay video showcasing all of FM City and most of FM Canyon is posted, said video is currently lost. Various pieces of concept art and screenshots of early versions of most stages up to Kerana Forest are sporadically posted in updates.
• April - Some more screenshots and concept art are posted before the project goes on an hiatus until June due to Lake having to focus on college projects.
• June/July - Lake continues to post concept art, screenshots and more hints at the game's story to the Tumblr blog. Early versions of Lightoria Bay, Mare Desert, Luna Base and Caria valley are being worked on. FM City's background is no longer on fire.
• August - Two public demo versions and a private demo build are released for SAGE 2014 Act 2, development on XF Extreme Formula (then called XF Racing Institute), another game of his, begins.
• September - Lake begins to rework the game after receiving backlash at SAGE, additionally some more development info is posted and Demo v3 is released.
• October - During this month no updates are posted, presumably due to the early development of XF, though some work on Turbulence Plains is presumably being done.
• November- The NCFC demo is released for NCFC 2014 and some more concept art is posted.

2015

• February - Lake posts a screenshot of an early version of Turbulence Plains to the Tumblr blog.
• March - Another demo is released alongside a trailer; this is the first demo to be completely free of placeholder sound effects. Any placeholder music not from Lake's previous fan games has presumably been removed at this point.
• April - Lake reveals the concept of Jester Powers, which are a rework of how Spark's abilities previously worked.
• June - Another rework has taken place on FM City and FM Canyon's backgrounds, rendering them closer to their final versions.
• July - A Kickstarter page for the game is Launched with a New Demo, FM Canyon's background has been finalized and at this point in development the game's art direction is close to being finalized.
• August - Several updates are posted on the Kickstarter page during this month. The underutilized juggling combat mechanic is showcased.
• September to December - Reworks on Stages past FM Canyon have begun, several more kickstarter updates and trailers are posted.

2016

• January - Kerana Forest is being reworked, another gameplay trailer and a Demo are released.
• February - The Game's cover art is Commissioned from Andy Tunstall and posted to Tumblr.
• March to May - Caria Valley and Turbulence Plains are being reworked at this point.
• June - Several Jester Powers are being reworked during this month.
• July - Lake apologizes for the lack of Updates on the game, shows a screenshot of Reynol Complex and reveals the Mage Jester power up in said screenshot.
• August - Another demo and several kickstarter updates are released, FM City's background has been finalized.
• September - As development is slowly beginning to near completion a picture of a 3D model of Romalo's mech form is posted on the Tumblr Blog

2017

• January - The main game is complete at this point, only lacking a few finishing touches, such as music. Another private demo is released.
• February - Yet another kickstarter update is out, The Game is set to release on April 6 at this point.
• March - The game's release trailer is posted.
• April - The Game is delayed by two days and instead releases on April 8.
• July - As development on Spark 2 (then called Fark the Electric Jester) is starting, a free artbook released as the final kickstarter update.

2018

• June - Update 1.5 is released, this would mark the final and only update on the finished game and the final post to the Tumblr blog.

Stage Order#

The development names of all stages but Reynol Complex, Sunfire Forest and Megaraph Fleet are known from unused sprites, old forum posts, Tumblr posts and delisted Youtube uploads, additionally the artbook partially confirms that Lightoria Bay and Kerana Forest seem to have been one stage or at the very least swapped around at one point.

Scrapped and Early music#

A few songs were scrapped from the game and omitted from the official soundtrack, some of which can be found on Soundcloud, others have been posted to Lake Feperd's discord server, JESTER CENTRAL.

The Start of Something (Spark the Electric Jester Demo Track) A temp stage theme for FM City that was used from the SAGE 2014 Act 2 Demo to the March 2015 demo, part of it would later be reused as part of FM Canyon's stage theme starting from the July 2015 Kickstarter demo.

Unknown Stage Drafts by Funk Fiction for the background music of two unknown stages, presumably Smog City and Sunset Heights as the former was originally more of an NPC Town without any enemies and the later was where the robot crisis would get more noticeable.

Mini Boss The mini boss theme used in demo versions prior the August 2016 demo, it remains leftover in the files of the final game.

Big_Boss_draft1_-_retro A scrapped boss theme that was composed by Andy Tunstall and was intended as the main boss theme early in development.

Draft of Ultimate Final Boss An early draft of 'Ultimate Final Boss' by Falk Au Yeong, which was shared in 2020 to celebrate the actual completion of Spark 2's soundtrack.