About this project
CA$ 20,993
773
Here's the too long, don't want to read version FIRST (erm... the short version), because we don't want to waste your time!
Toby’s Island is a 2D RPG adventure involving monster-raising, town-building and exploration with a blend of randomized and controlled story events.
You play as a young boy with a heavy burden unknowingly forced upon him - to fulfill the task set by his ancestor of ending a great evil. To do so you will explore an island with many unique environments, meet new spirit companions, raise monsters from eggs to fight alongside you, gather resources for building and crafting - all while facing an assortment of beneficial or dangerous (both random and planned) challenges.
- be heavily plot driven
- be directed towards 90's gamers
- contain a mix of light-hearted/funny and dark themes
- feature many puzzles and mini games.
- be stuffed full of random events, rewards, character mysteries and easter eggs.
- feature a creature growing system where you raise monsters from eggs and evolve them.
- feature a multi evolution path where your fighting style determines the direction your creature evolves.
- feature a farming system for growing food for survival, battle buffs or quests
- feature a fully-animated classic side view turn based battle system with an active motion camera.
- feature an original sound track written by Matt Beer and Jeremy Allred
- be open to suggestions to include things our players want!
Why Kickstarter?
We are coming to Kickstarter because we have been developing out of pocket for about a year now.
Due to zero funding, the game is being made slowly on a part time basis purely because we WANT to make it.
With proper funding and interest, developing Toby's Island will become our full time job. It will be finished faster, will benefit from extra features, and will be polished in a professional manner.
We are the right people to execute this game properly because we are passionate gamers ourselves. Both run client based graphics design businesses in which we take pride in our own work. Finally, we encourage suggestions, requests and player to developer communications.
We are not a faceless corporation here for cash. We are individuals creating something we are proud of and we are putting our reputations on the line to get it done.
Now for the long version!
The Idea
We wanted to make a game with main stream appeal (Monster collecting), meshed with old school charm. The idea is to create a rich story, inside an environment controlled by random events and riddled with hidden secrets. We want everything from NPC's to vegetation to appear only upon specific requirements like time of day, day of the week, which creatures are in your party, how much health you have, how much space in your inventory. We want there to be a quest, treasure chest, enemy or easter egg hidden on the island that maybe you and you alone might find!
The aim is to make your experience extremely dynamic by making even some story events triggered by chance and situation. Making every trip out into the island an adventure of curious anticipation. All of this random chance and yet we still plan to bring excellent flow to the games progression with strong focus on the story.
Filling the Gap
Being fun is the bare minimum a game should be. Above that, we want our games to be thought provoking, inspiring and we want to feel butterflies. We want our characters to invoke hate and sadness, love and charm. We want purpose and reward and above all, we want to make you curious. We want to tickle that part of your brain that says "what if this?" and "why that?" Then we want you to do what it takes to find out. We want to take you to see the island as Toby sees it. We want it to be your home, if only just for a while.
So uh... where does Toby come in?
Toby
Toby struggles with an abusive father. One that blames him for many things. The biggest? Toby's mother died giving birth to him and his father never really recovered. Toby spends his time tinkering with gadgets to escape conflicts with his father, inventing and building to keep his mind busy. He finds a lot of peace in the old stories his grandfather tells. Stories of an island lost to the world... an Island full of life and secrets. A lineage that was bound to protecting it.
"The Island is in trouble, boy... and without it, so might the world be. It will take a special kind of person to save it one day. Did you know that person has already been chosen?"
hey man...any other humans?
Kira
This is Kira. She is all around a mystery. She's lived on the island for as long as she can remember and she's troubled by Toby's presence there. She keeps a close eye on him, but should Toby be the one worried about her?
???
There is a third human character that is crucial to our story, but it is a secret for now. Let's just say he complicates things greatly.
Ahh! real monsters!
Ferrals
There are a ton of creatures with different strengths and weaknesses to learn and raise in Toby's Island (the image above shows only a few). The creatures that fight alongside Toby are known as 'Ferrals'. They are wild and without purpose, but spirit hosts make them valuable allies.
Unthinkables
Next are the 'Unthinkables'. Massive titans that once roamed the earth, living in harmony with humans, assisting and guiding them in exchange for the use of man's science. It is thought they have now long been extinct...
The Shattered
These are 'The Shattered'. Many variations of them exist and you will encounter them during your exploration of Toby's Island. They are broken remnants of a great evil, spawned from pieces of his physical form. The Shattered are fueled by the Dark One's hate and resentment toward The Unthinkable and the island in which he's trapped in.
The Lost
The Lost are spirits that Toby can inject into his Ferral eggs, giving bonus abilities and buffs. The Lost are characters with personalities and back stories. They all know one another from their pasts and have relationships that you will discover by having them in your party during in-game events. The Lost will serve as characters that we (the devs) use to tell the island's story. Characters that stay with you despite being able to build the party you want with the monsters of your tastes.
The Dark One
The Dark One was once an Unthinkable. Now he's trapped deep within the island by his own brethren. He operates via The Shattered. He believes humans are a plague on the earth. He thinks the Ferral and Unthinkable are better off without humans. He will not hesitate to kill sympathizers of humans and he WILL crush anything in the path of his ambitions to cure the disease that is man.
Long ago in a lost chapter of history, man worked together with powerful beasts known as “Unthinkable”. There was balance in time and space - a harmony between man, beast and the world that people of today could only imagine. The world was as it should be... a gleaming perfection where together they created wonders.
As they witnessed the dawn of man, the Unthinkable saw man’s lack of foresight and potential for destroying the land as well as themselves. Through their great wisdom they decided co-existence was key to nurturing a beautiful world. This relationship became mutually beneficial as man created artefacts to honor the benevolence of the Unthinkable - artefacts that acted as conduits of magic that enhanced their power.
One Unthinkable, a beast with power greater than the rest combined, did not agree with this union and saw man as a plague... a spreading virus that relied on his kind for sustainability. He sought to cull the human race along with any Unthinkable that would sympathize with them. He became known as the “Dark One” and his shadow quickly spread across the lands.
Man and Unthinkables joined forces to fight against the Dark One in a horrific battle of wasted life. In an act of desperation during their losing struggle, a powerful wizard from the forces of man agreed to sacrifice himself alongside the remaining Unthinkable Elders to use the last of their magic and seal the Dark One deep within a now uncharted island.
This seal would not hold forever, however, so the human wizard decreed that his lineage would forever be fated to return to the island. Generation after generation, guided back to the island by the wizard’s vow, to chip away at the shackled Dark One so that one day it’s evil might be removed from the world once and for all...
Risks and challenges
We are two people taking on an entire game - an ambitious one at that. We work from home, out of our own pockets and on our own time. We do what we do because we love it. Because we've tried regular careers and know that we can't see ourselves doing anything but this. We have all the skills and tools to complete it. Now we just need to find the time. We would like funding so that this project can stop being on the side, and start being something we do full time. To make it as polished and complete as it deserves to be to bring enjoyment to others.
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Funding period
- (30 days)