Flapjack Frenzy on The Great Griddle
by SplinterBL

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Today we bring you a mini-game that brings as much hilarity as it does creativity. Flapjack Frenzy is a fresh take on the classic 'cat and mouse' style minigame modes in which a dominant player, in this case a hybrid banshee spatula, attempts to flip and kill the remaining players. The defending team is given little chance for survival as they flounder their way through the Great Griddle disguised as pancakes. Similar to a classic torture chamber, your tool of destruction comes with variety. There are three different types of spatulas for the attacker to choose from, each one providing stylistically unique gameplay benefits. So whether you're into flipping, grabbing or tossing, the options allow you to personalize your experience.

Very rarely do we find something so trivially comical this noteworthy and memorable. Flapjack Frenzy was never possible to create in pervious iterations of forge as it makes use of the vehicle welding glitch, however thats not what makes this experience unique. Despite the creativity in its assembly, Flapjack Frenzy stands out as an instant classic minigame mode; one that can stand next to Avalanche, Jump Rope and Speed Halo to name a few. We brought in a special guest to talk about this game mode and its creation process in more depth. Please welcome the author of Flapjack Frenzy, SplinterBL.



WARHOLIC:
How long have you been a fan of Halo and can you tell us a little bit about your forging history? When did you first start forging and what was it about forge that got you interested to start creating?

SplinterBL:
I used to be a hardcore Nintendo fan all the way up until I was in high school, which was about a year before Halo 3 came out. My friend had a Halo 2 LAN party at his house, and I had never heard of Halo before. But right from the first game, which was on coagulation, I was hooked for life. I bought an xbox as soon as I could and played that game to death. Honestly, Halo is the only reason I've kept up with xbox hardware.

As for forging, I didn't do it much when Halo 3 first came out, but Bungie created a sort of culture around it. They featured community maps, held contests, and made forging a really fun experience. I remember their "Our favorite things" video, and since then, I think it's been my favorite part of Halo. There's just something amazing about being able to create something that other people actually enjoy, and hearing their reactions when I make new maps makes it all worth it.

WARHOLIC:
The Great Griddle, is your first forge project in Halo 5 is it not? What lead you to make this ridiculously hilarious mini-game? Would you consider mini games to be your 'calling' in forge?

SplinterBL:
Since Halo 5 came out, I started following a lot of youtubers who do map spotlights, like Forgehub, Forge Labs, ZannyVids, etc., and I've just been looking for ways that I can contribute to this amazing forging community. My first map I worked on was a bridge map inspired by Toad's Turnpike back in Mario Kart 64, but I got so frustrated with trying to manage all the details of a good competitive map (scale, aesthetics, sight lines, communication) that I gave up for a while and started to do something in Forge just for fun.

I saw the video tutorial on Forge Labs for vehicle welding, and my first thought was "Flipping warthogs with banshees would be so much fun." And then I just had fun building Flapjack Frenzy from there.

I never really planned on being a "mini-game" guy, but after seeing how much fun people have had while playing Flapjack Frenzy, I'm going to try to iron out a few other fun mini-game ideas I have. We'll see what happens.

WARHOLIC:
Do you have any other experience with level editors outside of Halo's Forge?

SplinterBL:
Not a ton, actually. Forge is mainly what I've used for map editing. Advance wars 2 had a pretty fun map editor back in the day as well as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, but they weren't nearly as engaging as forge. I do have a background in CAD though (computer-aided drafting), and I think that helps some.

WARHOLIC:
Can you tell us more about yourself? Whats your nationality and what are you studying?

SplinterBL:
Oh, I'm a pretty average white American introvert. I'm just finishing my master's degree in mechanical engineering and I'm on my way to a PhD. My dream is to be a professor because the two things I love most are learning and sharing the things I learn with other people. This summer I'm hoping to take a break from school and get more involved in creative projects including music, sketching, and hopefully some more forging.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist and a systematic thinker, so I really prefer working with other forgers who have more of a creative style. It makes for a nice balance, and I'm less tempted to get stuck spending hours making one part of the map look perfect.

WARHOLIC:
In our custom lobby you mentioned that you were cooking up some more mini game madness for us. Can you give us a little information on this next project of yours?

SplinterBL:
Sure, I'll give you a hint! I saw a spotlight of Scootie's battle-bots style map which featured teleporters welded to warthogs, and I was really impressed by that concept. My next mini-game project just might involve some "opponent-collecting" gameplay using this technique. I'm thinking cops-and-robbers mixed with hungry-hungry hippos. Who knows what will come out the other end?

WARHOLIC:
That sounds like an wild mix of inspirations, sounds exciting! Thanks again for sharing your creation with us at ForgeHub and for becoming a new member of our community here. You've created quite a first impression and we look forward to your 'cops and robbers' meets 'hungry hippos' game type!