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Stretch Goals
An unnamed protagonist whiles away aeons in deep, solitudinous sleep. She watches the tides in sunstruck dreams of an empty shore, patiently waiting for her life to end.
Alone in a skyless and desolate labyrinth-city , there isn't much else to do.
But then...
So, here's the general idea:
- Challenging gameplay. Hectic combinations of environmental hazards, platforming, and lethal enemies reward players who assess, strategize, and stay attentive.
- Mindful level design. The player's experience is managed by a carefully-paced series of dangers and savepoints.
- A somber and expansive open-world connecting many areas in a network of pathways and shortcuts. Hidden areas and optional content encourage exploration.
- Hand drawn cut-scenes help illustrate the vast and desolate setting of the game.
- A "module-based" character progression system. Players obtain and arrange upgrade pieces on a grid in configurations of their preference, with certain patterns granting additional abilities or bonuses.
- Players who die in-game die in real life.
Central concepts:
- Sun Rooms (Savepoints) - "Blindspots for hostile machines, sun rooms are found throughout the city--their presence unexplained. True sunlight is not found within the city, but as long as one has faith, it is sufficient."
- Field of View - The camera swivels towards the player's direction of view. Combined with a default binocular item which moves the camera, the player is encouraged to manage and anticipate distant danger as well as dangers near, but out of frame.
- Pulser - Primary weapon. Fire off signal pulses which trigger switches or create explosive bursts for close-up attacks. Upgradable to damaging projectiles, navigable projectiles, and more.
(Continued):
- Driver - A multipurpose dash skill. Jump out of the way of ranged and melee attacks, leap over bottomless pits to engage in platforming, or charge towards an enemy during an opening. Upgradeable to feature extended duration, momentum canceling, or ruthless bashing.
- Shields - Shields are indispensable tools which enable the player to strafe creatively and survive even amidst a harrowing bulletstorm. The direct-charge shield nullifies frontal damage and fizzles away when overstressed. The alternating-charge shield, obtained in later stages of the game, changes polarity depending on the player's up-down/left-right orientation.
- Nightmare - Unwholesome event.
Daybreak
Blackout
Rotary
Sunlight
Spent Greens
Q> What's this all about?
I blended classic Zelda and dark science fiction and drank the ensuing mixture. It was Radio the Universe.
Players will feel aesthetic and gameplay influences from titles like Yume Nikki, Symphony of the Night, Hotline Miami, and Dark Souls, with a tinge of 2D JRPGs thrown into the mix.
RtU is a challenging and atmospheric sci-fi game with SNES-style visuals and a sinister, offbeat narrative.
Q> What's the funding for again?
7-10 percent immediately goes to Kickstarter and Amazon for whatever their nefarious purpose. A slice goes towards hiring vocals for some of the game's music and sound. Another slice goes towards hiring dedicated game testers. Most of it is to enable 24/7 work on the game for the duration of the planned development timeline--after taxes, of course.
The game will take -16,777,216 years to complete.
Q> What happens if you meet your goal?
With the funding, the basic game will be completed for PC.
The current development plan allocates ~1.5 months per general area. I'll be sticking to monthly deadlines and keeping a solid 40-hour-a-week schedule. I'll do my best to keep everyone updated.
It will be a dense game, designed to be a satisfactory challenge for as diverse a skill level spectrum as possible. If you're exceedingly bad at video games, then consult your video games doctor. You can also wait for a nearby star to perish and automatically win the game. It's in the code.
Q> What happens if you exceed your goal?
Additional funding will primarily be used to expand game content and add additional areas. It may also buy me enough time and/or hired help in order to move the project to a different engine or a custom engine (possibly in Java, performance willing) which supports platforms other than Windows.
Q> What happens if you don't meet your goal?
I'll cry softly over my design notes, my heart rendered unmendable thereafter.
Q> Anything else?
With Radio the Universe, I want to create something beautiful, melancholy, and evocative. A game that, of course, is fun to play, but also imparts a special, maybe surreal, experience to the player. I want to make a game with personality. A game that can feel a bit "off".
I'm hopeful that there are enough people out there who want to see "off" happen.
Risks and challenges
Then there's this to consider.
Everything that can be planned now has been planned. I have the necessary software and hardware and resources and skillsets to make this game a reality. I even have some content made (as you've already seen). All that's left to do is begin laying bricks in earnest.
As is the nature of creative work, I will most certainly run into design issues and software issues and hardware issues and time issues and the game will go through changes and reverts and re-changes and maybe some days I just won't feel up to it. My job will be to to resolve all of these potential problems within the time I've allotted for myself: base development schedule plus 4-months fluff for unexpected roadblocks. It'll be an adventure, at least.
That's it.
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Funding period
- (33 days)