About
A Place for the Unwilling
€22,329
918
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“A Place for the Unwilling” is a sandbox adventure game set in an open world. You won’t get to be a mighty hero, just another inhabitant of the city. Each day will last a fixed amount of time, managing your schedule will be key, as you can’t be everywhere.
This is a life-breathing city full of mysteries waiting to be unveiled.
We grew up in Mêlée island, exploring the seas along Guybrush, stopped an evil tentacle from taking over the world and even worked as a travel agent at the Department of Death. We then found a sword and went on a quest that would take us from one dungeon to the next, rescuing sages, finding powerful items and fighting an ancient evil.
Once the world was finally saved we folded our adventure outfits and left them at the back of an old wardrobe. But we couldn’t let it go, we needed more, we couldn’t help it, our hunger for new stories wouldn’t let us rest.
We love all those worlds in which we have lived, but some things felt out of place. As pirates we found puzzles that didn’t make much sense to us and, as heroes, we got a bit tired of being the center of everything while solving most of our problems with a blade. Fighting and solving puzzles was fun, but that wasn’t the point, was it? What we really enjoyed was losing ourselves in a place far from reality, somewhere filled with characters we couldn’t wait to meet and landscapes beyond our imagination.
Today we’re asking for your support to help us craft an adventure born from the classics, but updated with new ideas and focused on delivering an immersive narrative experience.
“A huge living open world where you can go wherever you want and do anything”... that sounds familiar, right? Most games promise you that these days, but when you get home and insert the disc you realize it’s a huge and beautiful world… which feels kind of empty. We compare the map of each game to find out which one is bigger, because we have been told the bigger the world is, the better the experience is. At AlPixel we don’t think that’s right.
We’re not interested in having thousands of kilometers to walk, but to create a single city, filled with so many details that make this one place feel alive. Instead of featuring hundreds of characters we’ll have around 18 of them, but you can be damn sure they will find hand-crafted and have a detailed background.
Lore-wise, we couldn’t avoid being inspired by Lovecra…
...I do exist.
wait, whaa…
I am the streets, the buildings and even the river and the sky.
…
I have a voice of my own, but not everyone is willing to hear what I have to say.
From the shiny displays of the luxury shops to the filthy corners where blood is spilled every day, all those things are part of me, and I accept them. Each of the quarters that shape me is unique, still they share the same roots.
The sea tickles me every time a wave dies in the port, where tiny bits of myself are loaded on enormous ships to leave and never return.
Next to the port stands a chaotic construction. Houses grow as if they were plants, on top of each other, struggling to rise above the thick fog that seems to cover everything. It’s a wild place where rules don’t apply. Buildings are made of cheap materials and life seems to be brief for those who inhabit this quarter.
A thin path of sweat drops leads from there to a street where huge factories gather. They are the keepers of the roaring machines which work night and day, producing fumes that blend with the river fog.
While the jarring noise of the machinery tries to keep everyone awake, violins play beautiful melodies in one of the newer quarters.
There was a time when the community was small and everyone knew everyone, but such things never last too long. Inhabitants multiplied and those familiar faces on the streets became blurry, or shadow-like if you will.
These dark silhouettes roam the quarters now, always moving from one place to another. They have a life of their own, but it’s hard to care about any of them, as soon as you notice them they are already gone.
They are people like you, not some kind of ghost or ethereal being, but the crowd holds a shroud of anonymity above the living. You shouldn’t ignore them, they might mean nothing to you at first, but if your path tangles with one of the shadows and, by chance, you hear its name, the dark fume will fade away and you will see the person who was below the whole time.
I may not watch over the shadows or recognize most of them, but I still care. Without those blurry faces I would be empty, just another ruin from a forgotten civilization. My fate is tied to theirs and the only thing I can do is wait.
Life is not easy in this place. Your days will turn into a continuous struggle to survive, and even if you do remain, you will be changed forever. Do not make the fool mistake of…
I need to stop you right now
What do you mean?
You did a great job describing both the streets and the people, but we would like to take care of the rest… as long as that sounds alright to you.
…
“A Place for the Unwilling” is a sandbox adventure game set in an open world. You won’t get to be a mighty hero, just another inhabitant of the city. Each day will last a fixed amount of time, managing your schedule will be key, as you can’t be everywhere.
Living in the city isn’t cheap, and you will need to work to earn money, but you are among those lucky people who don’t need to go to the factories. You’re a trader, which means you’ll spend a big part of your time visiting clients and closing bargains.
Reading the newspaper, interacting with the rest of the characters and managing a set of useful items will be among your regular actions. “A Place for the Unwilling” is all about immersion, there won’t be a quest menu to keep track of your progress and, if you want to go somewhere, get ready to ask directions or try to read rudimentary maps.
As you delve into the world you will realize not everything is what it seems, there will be plenty of mysteries, conspirations and a good dose of people trying to destroy the city.
As backers you should know why we are launching a Kickstarter campaign and why the project needs funding.
We have some savings and extremely supportive families, on top of that, GamesBoosters provides us with office space and general guidance.
Even with all that help we still need a last push to make a game like “A Place for the Unwilling”. A 20.000€ goal might not seem like a lot but, for a small team like ours, is enough to set a sufficient monthly income, something that allows us to focus on the project.
Without this additional support, we wouldn’t be able to work on “A Place for the Unwilling” full-time, which means that development would take twice as long and the risk of never finishing it would rise.
Luis Diaz (Ludipe)
Designer, coder and PR. He can’t stop making games, during the last three years he published over 30 free games, including “Missing Translation”, which won 5 awards and got 16 nominations. He can’t avoid worshipping “Braid” and “The Witness”.
Rubén Calles
2D Artist and fine arts graduate. He has worked as an illustrator on editorial projects and as 2D animator, besides some smaller games and game jams. He is a huge fan of Joann Sfar and José Carlos Fernandes. His life sounds like a “Silly Simphony”.
Celer Gutiérrez
Composer and sound designer. He started out as a classical concert music composer and, after some time, he began working on games. He has already worked on several projects. His main references are Andrew Lackey and Austin Wintory.
Ángel Luis Sucasas
Award winning writer. Author of four novels and two collections of short tales. He has published dozens of small stories and has been nominated to several awards. He also works as a journalist writing about culture, technology and economy on “El País” and “El País Semanal”.
REWARDS
Stretch Goals
Risks and challenges
Making games is a complex process that can always go wrong, but we are an experienced team which has already shipped another game and published countless smaller projects. On top of that a company like GamesBoosters is supporting us.
We are confident about finishing this game. We spent several months prototyping every feature and concept, making sure we were able to accomplish every task and timing production.
As "A Place for the Unwilling" is a narrative-heavy game we will have some professional writers helping through development. Translators will join in later stages to make sure everything is polished.
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Funding period
- (30 days)