Welcome back to our 12th Kickstarter Weekly. This week, we’ve compiled some games for fans of science fiction. StarCrawlers is sci-fi dungeon crawl, and Heart&Slash is a sci-fi brawler. Read on to see if either project satisfies your itch for science fiction.
StarCrawlers
Project by: Juggernaut Games
Goal: $65,000
Current Funds: $45,667
End: March 13, 2014
I always enjoy an RPG set in space. The vast darkness of space is a fitting atmosphere to do battle against alien creatures. If you have similar tastes, then you’ll be happy to know that Juggernaut Games launched a Kickstarter for StarCrawlers, a dungeon crawler set in space.
In StarCrawler, you play as a team of crawlers, which are essentially freelance space mercenaries. Crawlers are not above performing shady jobs, and players will be able to perform asset recovery, commercial espionage, and cause general mayhem. StarCrawler will have a narrative AI, which builds procedurally generated levels based on the current mission.
Players will play StarCrawler in a first-person perspective. After selecting your team of crawlers, which could include a cyber ninja, hacker, soldier, and void psyker (among others), you explore various corporate space ships. Players can expect to hack computers, disable traps, salvage items and search for hidden loot. Combat is also in first person, and it uses a turn-based system.
Juggernaut Games set stretch goals that mostly introduce new character classes; however, they could potentially expand the game’s localization. They also have stretch goals to include mini-bosses, item crafting and even a customizable player ship. In addition, Juggernaut Games has enlisted the help of Ben Prunty, who is known for his musical compositions for FTL and Gravity Ghost. If you’re interested in playing a dungeon crawler in space, then you may want to consider looking at StarCrawler’s Kickstarter page.
Heart&Slash
Project by: aheartfulofgames
Goal: $20,000
Current Funds: $13,812
End: March 18, 2014
I became aware of this project on Valentine’s Day, and I almost dismissed it for that occasion. But this is why we don’t judge books, games in this case, by their covers and or names. Heart&Slash looks like a competent brawler, but it also has a love story that sounds as unique as its main character.
In Heart&Slash, humans no longer exist. Instead, the world is populated by robots that follow standard, outdated protocols under their leader, Quality Assurance System (QuAsSy). You play as Heart, a freethinking robot who is looking for love. Heart finds a romantic interest in Slash, a robot who rebels against QuAsSy and despises all robots who won’t join it. Together, the two eventually become romantically evolved as they battle QuAsSy and its lackeys.
Heart&Slash is a brawler similar to DMC or Bayonetta. In the trailer, Heart is shown wielding a sword and a hammer; however, aheartfulofgames mentions that the robots will have up to 75 different weapons and 60 customizable body parts. This means that players will be able to gain abilities such as flying, teleporting, wall-jumping and other cool abilities. The game also features rouguelike elements. This means that if Heart dies, it has its memory wiped, meaning it will have to collect new weapons and items. In addition, the game features a cool art-style that looks like cell-shading, and it even features comic-book verbs during combat.
Heart&Slash began as a part-time project, but aheartfulofgames is turning to Kickstarter to hopefully develop their game full-time. There will be three level-sets, of which they’ve completed 80% of the first. If things go according to plan, there will be a beta sometime in September or October 2014.
Other Projects?
Have you seen any interesting projects on Kickstarter that you think deserve mention? Are you a developer who is currently running a Kickstarter campaign? Let us know in the comments section, or send an email to garrett@thekoalition.com.
