Wild, Man: Gas Powered Games Kickstarting Wildman
Gas Powered Games wants $1.1 million of your dollars. I also want $1.1 million of your dollars, but - instead of spending them on a mansion made of trampolines and a pony that's also a rocketship - the Dungeon Siege and Supreme Commander dev is hoping to bring an RTS-RPG called Wildman to life. It's about prehistoric evolution, but with an amusingly silly twist. "What if men, when they evolved into the homo sapiens form, what if other creatures also evolved, and other creatures had sentient minds? You could fight, say, a giant fly creature, or a lizard creature, or wild animals. What if there were thinking cats and things like that? Insects that are just creepy, that grew and were vying to take over the planet," explained Taylor in an interview with RPS. So it's part exploration-based hack 'n' slash, part troop-commanding RTS, and part fly monster. Got it. Video after the break.
So basically, there are two core sides to the game: exploration and War Zones. When you take your burly barbarian man out adventuring, you get to make your own way through the world, discover loot, advance tech and talent trees, level up, and hack 'n' slash to your heart's content. War Zones, meanwhile, unfold more like a traditional RTS mixed with the ally assisting and point capturing of Demigod. Then you strip your fallen foes of their shiniest tech (for example, soap!) and continue on your pillaging, skull-smashing way. In that respect, Taylor actually thinks Wildman's a bit like Civilization, of all things.
"As vague as the relationship is, there’s a bit of a dotted line between Wildman and Civilization," he told RPS. "The story is the story of man, the development of mankind, but there’s still an opportunity for some more local storytelling between characters – instead of the epic, overarching storyline."
The full interview's available for your perusal, but - if you're feeling more opinion-y than read-y (I can only assume Wildman's characters haven't invented real adjectives yet) - what's your take? I mean, all told, the Kickstarter's a bit sparse at the moment. I still like the idea behind it, but are inventive concepts, attractive art, and - naturally - GPG's storied legacy enough? Hopefully, we'll see a lot more in the coming days, but in the meantime, are you interested in giving GPG $1.1 million of your dollars?