About this project
$51,773
1,616
Pre-orders received via the Humble Bundle Widgets will continue to count toward our Stretch goals!
Ray’s the Dead is an action-adventure game that lets you play the life and afterlife of Ray LaMorte. Through dual narrative storytelling and over-the-top action, you’ll unravel the secrets behind Ray's death, and the mysterious device lodged into his brain.
Ray's the Dead features fast paced combat akin to Pikmin and Overlord, the high level adventure of The Legend of Zelda, and the off beat humor of Stubbs the Zombie.
Ray's the Dead is in development by a team of three who have worked on Halo Wars, Thief: Deadly Shadows, and Stubbs the Zombie. With your help, Ray's The Dead will be shambling his way to release on PC, Mac, Linux and Playstation 4.
- Creative Combat and Puzzle Solving - Resurrect your fallen enemies and use their unique abilities to fight and solve puzzles in exciting ways.
- A Charming Story of Parallel Lives - Experience Ray's back story through fully playable flashbacks.
- Explore Ray's Beautifully Rendered World - The charm of hand drawn 2D characters combined with the beauty of detailed 3D modeled environments.
- An '80s Inspired Setting - An outstanding line up of musicians will bring Ray's nostalgic world to life. Look for a plethora of nods to some of your fondest 80's memories.
With Ray’s the Dead’s dual narrative, you experience two intertwined stories in one. The present day tale of Ray as a zombie, and the story of his life as a human.
It all begins in 1989, when a simple lightning bolt finds its way to the grave of Raymond LaMorte. Ray is suddenly resurrected as a zombie, where he finds himself lost and alone in a scary and hostile world. Before long, Ray comes to realize the power of the bizarre contraption sticking out of his head. It gives him the ability to resurrect and control the dead!
New power in hand, Ray charges forward, battling the conflict in his heart - zombie instincts do not mix well with a sentient mind! Guided by unlikely alliances and vivid flashbacks that reveal memories of his past, Ray unknowingly sets off on a fantastical quest to find his place in the world.
Overview
The gameplay in Ray's the Dead centers around the control of a single character, Ray, through whom the player can control an army of minions.
Think of these minions as your weapons as well as your tools. You will use them to fight the variety of enemies you'll encounter, as well as solve the environment based puzzles you'll come across.
Combat
The combat of Ray's the Dead is centered on Ray effectively using his minions to take on a crazy assortment of enemies, and ridiculous boss battles.
Over the course of the game, Ray will enlist the help of five unique types of zombies. These range from zombies that hide in the shadows to stealth-kill, to huge zombies that slam the ground causing earthquake like damage!
The type of human you devour directly corresponds to the type of zombie you add to your group. If you find yourself in need of a certain type of zombie, you can seek out the corresponding class of human.
When the going really gets rough, Ray can use his powers of influence to have the zombies work together as a group. There are a variety of powerful zombie team abilities including the Battering Ram, Zombie Shield, and Frenzy Swarm!
Puzzle Solving
Each of the five types of zombies have a unique method of navigating the environment. Mastery of these abilities is critical for overcoming the environment based puzzles.
In this example, the player sends a burrowing zombie to strike the foundation of a pillar. Send your zombies burrowing in the correct sequence and the walkway comes crashing down, giving Ray and crew access to a new area.
To make the audio of Ray's the Dead as engaging as its story and visuals, we are partnering with a team of expert musicians and sound engineers who are experienced in creating immersive period pieces. They've worked on games like Shovel Knight, Double Dragon, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, and Killer Instinct Season 2.
Jake Kaufman - Graveyard Intro
Jake Kaufman - Ray's the Dead Trailer
Ragtag Studio LLC was founded in late 2010 by a group of three friends that share a passion for creating amazing interactive experiences, otherwise known as video games. Each member of Ragtag brings to the table 15 years of game development experience.
Chris Cobb - Architect of Fun - @ragtagchris
Chris began honing his environment art and level design skills while working at Ion Storm on Thief: Deadly Shadows. He moved one step closer to his indie dreams when he joined Wideload Games in its early days. There he helped breathe life into the cult favorite Stubbs the Zombie: Rebel Without a Pulse.
Matt Carter - Head of Imagination - @ragtagmatt
Matt brings his love for character development and deep desire to tell an unforgettable story through gameplay. After years of modeling kickass lead characters for the likes of Activision and Disney, he’s loving the opportunity to bring entire worlds to life.
Shawn Halwes - Engineer of Dreams - @shawnhalwes
After graduating from Texas A&M University with a degree in Computer Wizardry, Shawn dove straight into the black magic of game creation at Paradigm Entertainment where he worked on numerous titles including Stuntman: Ignition for Xbox 360. After completing work on Ensemble Studios' final title, Halo Wars, he set his sights for the indie life.
Additional support
Ben Crossbones - Audio Designer - @bencrossbones
Ben is spearheading the sound design for Ray's the Dead. The co-founder of the Brightskull Entertainment Group has been putting together kick-ass sound for games since 2008 on titles such as Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD, Organ Trail: Directors Cut, and Killer Instinct: Season 2. We are stoked to be working with such a top-notch industry veteran!
Jake Kaufman - Musician - @virtjk
Jake is one of the most prolific musicians in the game biz, having composed soundtracks for more than 50 games, including Mighty Switch Force, Shantae and the recently released (and excellent) Shovel Knight. After hearing his work on Double Dragon Neon, we knew he would be the perfect fit for Ray's the Dead! We couldn't be happier to have Jake on board!
Luke Rowell - Musician - @disasteradio
Luke is the man behind pseudonyms Disaster Radio and Eyeliner, both have a fantastically unique sound that we are so happy to invite into the world of Ray's the Dead.
Aenne Schumann - Writer - @PeachyAenne
Aenne has been playing video games and writing ever since she can remember. Her hilarious dialogue is a perfect match for the humor in Ray's the Dead.
Yes, we're back!
You may be thinking, "Didn't I see this game on Kickstarter before?" If so, you would be correct. We ended our first campaign early for a variety of reasons, most notably, that we thought we could do things better.
What has changed since the last campaign?
In the time that has elapsed between our last funding attempt and now, we are thrilled that not only have we been Greenlit for release on Steam, but we have also been announced in grand fashion for release on the PlayStation 4!
We have also made great progress on the game itself. In our quest to deliver the highest quality experience possible, we have been hard at work retooling many of the core systems based on feedback we've received. We have nearly completed this phase and are about to begin the production of the remainder of the game.
Why do you suddenly need less money?
Many things were up in the air during our first campaign. We estimated our various licensing fees based on what we knew about the costs for the previous generation of consoles. Since the last campaign, much of this has become clear and we are very happy to say that the costs for the necessary licenses are far less than what we had anticipated.
Also, a year has elapsed since our last campaign. Many of the things we originally planned to outsource with funding, we ended up completing internally.
So what IS this money going toward?
We are incredibly excited about Ray’s the Dead, and believe in it so much that we quit our jobs to work on it full time. We have been self-funding the development of Ray’s the Dead for the last two years with our savings and the financial support of our loving wives. We are committed to this game and are willing to continue down the path of self-funding, but without some additional financial help, some aspects of the game will suffer and some will have to be cut. To avoid this we are looking to the community for help.
There are few key areas that require additional financial help:
- Licenses for the engine and various software we are using for development.
- Paying our talented contractors, musicians, writers, and artists to help us finish the game.
Additionally, if we are fortunate enough to surpass our initial goal, we intend to use the money to hire on additional staff. Additional support will go a long way toward helping us meet our deadlines, add additional features, and make sure Ray's the Dead gets the shiny sheen of polish that it deserves.
We can't do this without YOU!
Join the party, and tell all your friends! We can't make Ray's the Dead as great as we want it to be without YOUR help.
Thanks very much!
Risks and challenges
Ray's the Dead is a highly ambitious project developed by a very small team. We have been in production for two years, so the majority of the major question marks that inevitably arise during production have already been solved. More will certainly arise, but we feel confident that the primary difficulties are out of the way.
As we are only a team of three, we have to be very careful with the promises we make. Our vision for Ray's the Dead is clear, and we will see that vision through regardless of the level of funding this campaign achieves. However, the speed with which we can develop the game is heavily dependent on the outcome of this Kickstarter, as its primary purpose is to give us the funding we need to complete and release the game in a reasonable time frame.
Our small team size and tremendous dedication to quality could certainly prevent us from releasing exactly on time, but please pledge with confidence that we are doing everything we can to make sure Ray's the Dead is the great game we want it to be.
Ray's the Dead has been our full-time commitment for the last two years without any pay or source of funding. Those two years have been filled with all kinds of equally wonderful and saddening life events, including the birth of two children, and the death of two family members. But through it all our dedication to delivering the highest quality game has never wavered. We have devoted our lives to this, and ask that you help us bring our vision to completion.
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Funding period
- (33 days)