St Chicken is a unique and quirky game for iPhone, iPad, Mac and PC where you’ll play as a lost pet guppy with special healing powers. The goal in St. Chicken is to spawn as many guppies as possible and deliver them alive to a 'safe pond.' Controlling St. Chicken, players spawn, nourish and protect their school of offspring, guiding them through a series of lakes and estuaries, in search of lost, sacred aquarium relics.

Players unlock levels by rescuing as many baby guppies (fry) as possible. To spawn offspring, St. Chicken needs to eat nutrients from food in the water. Once St. Chicken eats enough food, a baby guppy is born. Throughout the game the player will spawn hundreds of offspring, and use St. Chicken to shepherd them through the perils of the wild- to safety.  The fry are dependent on St. Chicken for nourishment and guidance.

Why is the fish called St. Chicken?

The player character is a lost pet guppy named "Chicken." That's the name given by Chicken's young owner, so don't blame me ;P The story of how Chicken got lost and obtained healing powers is explained in this video.

Why is St. Chicken Unique?

Did we mention the fish with a halo? The core gameplay mechanic is different than most other games. The goal in St. Chicken is to spawn as many guppies as possible and get them to the end of the level alive. Building up a large school of offspring alone isn't enough, the player has to make strategic choices in navigating the levels to maximize the amount of fry (baby guppies) they can spawn and successfully deliver alive to the end of the level. In a sense the player character is not St. Chicken, it's really the school of offspring.

I'm roughly 50% done and need your pledge to finish the project and release the game on all the platforms. Even a $5 pledge gets you playing the weekly pre-release builds of the game.

St. Chicken Features:

• Stylized underwater worlds to explore, filled with danger, color and life
• 100s of baby guppies to spawn, protect and guide
• Free-play mode lets a more casual player explore a relaxing vast lake
• 8-bit mode re-imagines the game with a fun pixely-retro aesthetic 
• St. Chicken features a completely original soundtrack

What kind of player is St. Chicken for?

St. Chicken caters to a wide range of players. It can be a very relaxing game, or it can challenge you. It all depends on how you want to play. For a challenge you can strategically spawn and protect every fry possible in a level. Pursuing levels and achievements this way takes some careful skill and strategy. Conversely, an easy-going free-play session can be played anytime for endlessly relaxing and rewarding entertainment for players of all ages.

When will St. Chicken be released?

St. Chicken is in production and targeting release this Spring. My goal is April and the game should be released no later than May.

Why do I need your help making St. Chicken?

I did my best to make this pre-alpha game look as good as possible, but it is not ready for release by any means.

The game is far from finished, I'm at roughly a half-way point. The funding from the kickstarter will cover costs of the remaining production expenses as well as the publishing and promotion costs of the game. Even though I was able to capture the 2 rough levels and edited it together nicely, I do not have all of the required features completed yet. 

I still have to do this stuff: 

• Game menu art and implementation
• The core mechanics still need polish as do effects and environments 
• Only two enemies at the moment, I need to make more plus a few hazards and bosses 
• As I said there's only two rough levels at the moment and there needs to be many more of those 
• Separate levels need to be authored for the individual hardware platforms due to the fact that they are different resolutions and aspect ratios 
• Other work will go into prepping the game for the different platforms that that the game is to be released 
• The pre-release play-testing availible at the $5+ level requires server hosting

To finish this game, it will be quite a bit of time, effort and expense. I want to make this the best game possible. Believe you me, if I felt the game were ready for release now, I'd release it, but there is a great deal of work left to be done, especially for a one-man team.

I love videogames and there is more that can be done with the art-form. Great interactive experiences don’t require eye-candy 3D graphics or movie tie-ins. My goal as a designer is to create great experiences and gameplay propelled by fresh and creative themes and styles.  

St. Chicken has a unique game-mechanic and story that I hope will make a great game. Thanks for checking it out.