At PAX East 2026, Ed follows up at the Royalty: Free-For-All booth. See what’s new with AAAA Games and how development is going for this colorful and delightful brawler. Check out last year’s coverage HERE.
Ed: Hello everybody! This is Eddie V. from Boss Rush Network. I’m here once again at Royalty: Free-For-All, here at PAX East 2026, and I got the director, Colin! You’re here again with new characters, new announcements, and new info. How have you been?
Colin: I’ve been good. You know, busy. I’m not taking many breaks, which might not be the best idea, but it means we’re getting a lot of great work done.
Ed: Is there any new information you want to share about the game?
Colin: We’ve got three new characters. Everybody’s got new grab attacks. So, one of the pieces of feedback we were getting at PAX West was that only some characters have grapple moves, and people missed being able to grab somebody with [the] other characters. So, we agreed that it benefits the game for everybody to be able to get through someone’s shield and grab them.
Ed: Yes. Okay, so now I have to ask, you have new characters. Can you talk about them?
Colin: Yeah, so one we’ve got, I mean, the world’s best pig. You know him, you love him from the 100-Acre wood. It’s Piglet! He’s so cute, and he brings sticks, wood, and bricks in a triple attack here. He has a cute little move where he can turn into a football and do a touchdown. That’s really fun. Of course, he can summon a balloon and sort of float on it. Ironically, he’s a character with advanced tech. People will be running around the stage like dive bombing is this little football. You really don’t expect it from him.
[Next], we’ve got a character that very few people will recognize — Colonel Bleep. He is an alien. He is television’s first color cartoon character. The company that created it never renewed the copyrights. This is, like, deep nerd stuff, but old copyright laws basically meant that you had to renew things manually. The company was not around anymore to renew the copyrights for Colonel Bleep. So, he’s entered the public domain. As far as we can tell, we’re kind of the first thing to tap him for a big commercial release. There hasn’t really been a lot of information about him out there. There’s some fan art here and there and stuff, but he’s really, really niche.
Finally, we’ve got Toto, who was originally a costume for a backer on Kickstarter. We had a tier where you could back the game and get a costume for everybody who plays the game. When we decided to map out additional grab attacks for everybody, basically, we’re making a new move for Dorothy, so do we give Toto the same move? That kind of evolved into other moves, like giving him Piglet’s balloon. We’re going to give him most of Dorothy’s move list and then like two new ones. So, you know, he’s a little dog as well, but he’s very fun to play with, and he’s adorable.
Ed: Yes, he’s super adorable. So I got to ask, after PAX West, you guys went dark. Can you tell us how the development from PAX West to now has been?
Colin: It’s been pretty smooth. It’s been kind of boring, though. We haven’t had a lot to say because the reality is that one month, we’re going through and fixing collision issues on stages. Next month, we’ve got new video effects. Like, that’s cool. It’s great to show off in new trailers. We decided that if it’s not a big announcement, we’ll save all that stuff to reveal in February alongside Colonel Bleep.
Ed: You guys really put a lot of polish into the game. Anyone who backed the Kickstarter knows they’ve been getting updates. Once again, thank you, as a development team, for keeping the Kickstarter community informed.
Colin: Yeah, you’re so welcome. It’s our pleasure. We really get a lot of joy out of making this game, so I’m glad to see people enjoying it as well.
Ed: I have to ask, do you have any information on a release date or anytime soon?
Colin: Yeah, so it should be in the next couple of weeks. We basically just want to make sure that our online features are really, really polished and just a super solid connection. So, that’s taking a little bit of extra time. Our projected estimate was March 2026. Here we are. It’s March. We’re featuring content complete. So, we just need to make sure that the online function is really solid, and we should be out pretty soon.
Ed: Any merch ideas still coming or anything?
Colin: Oh yeah, I mean, I want to make plushies of every character, [but] there’s nothing to announce. There are no plans, but I definitely would love to have some new merch. We’ve got pins of everybody on the cast. We’ve got stickers of everybody in the cast, but nothing upcoming after that.
Ed: You already know, I need the plush of the cashier in the greenhouse. Also, I need the plush of Toto with the bow tie.
Colin: Oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me. [chuckles]
Ed: Well, I know it’s gonna be a very busy PAX for you. Is there anything you’re expecting from the show?
Colin: A great time. A lot of smiles and a lot of laughs. I mean, you know, the best thing that we find here is when the show floors get mobbed, especially on Fridays and Saturdays, you know, we have crowd control trouble. That’s a good problem to have. That’s really energizing.
Ed: Yes! Well, before I go, for my last question, any update on the snacks? Have you found any new snacks or anything?
Colin: Oh, yeah. Well, I’ve been eating these honey-roasted Blue Diamond almonds. That’s not a product placement.
Ed: YAAAAAAAAAAASS! They’re so good!!
Colin: Yeah, those are really good. I’ve gotten really into making spicy cucumber and spiraled cucumber. That’s sort of my new one.
Ed: Well, how can people find more about AAAA Games and keep up with the game updates?
Colin: Yeah, so we are on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. We’re on Twitter, [but] there’s something going on with our account at the moment. I think we might have gotten hacked. We’d like people to really follow us at RoyaltyFree4All.
Ed: Also, your Discord, correct?
Colin: Discord is great. Yeah, yeah. Discord’s the best place to find us right now.
Ed: Alright, well, Colin, thank you so much for this update. Everybody, please check out Royalty: Free-For-All. It’s coming to PC and maybe some other things in the future. Right now, it’s definitely coming to Steam. You guys can see a video of it. Check out the game and be ready for its release. Thank you, Colin, once again. I cannot wait to play this here at PAX East 2026 and just see everybody fall out laughing. Thank you so much.
Colin: Yeah, it’s always a pleasure to see you. Thank you. Thanks for coming.
You can wishlist Royalty: Free-For-All on Steam and follow them on their Discord.
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