Hollow Knight's Insecty Superhero Kickstarter
The Hollow Knight rises (on Kickstarter)
While John and I have a related argument over IM about the limits when defining the adventure gaming genre, you should have a look at Hollow Knight, a game about a platforming insect in a little cape.
"As the enigmatic Hollow Knight, players will journey through the depths of Hallownest, a vast and ancient kingdom buried deep underground. Though long fallen to ruin after a dimly-remembered catastrophe, explorers and thieves still brave its dark roads, its caverns and towers, searching for riches and wonders."
But these explorers have stopped returning and poison is now infecting the general area and ruining explorers' memories. What YOU need to do is ignore all of this and move to a different kingdom so you can pretend everything is fine explore the caverns and solve an Ancient Mystery.
From the video the way, it plays is platformy bouncy killing, dashing, and puzzle-solving with an emphasis on exploration. But in the absence of something to play I'm restricting myself to being excited about the art style and general tone of the game (there are a few nods to Batman) as well as the idea of Dream Diving. Dream Diving is where you can explore the worlds within other characters' minds and I'm curious to see more about how that would be implemented.
Here's a gif they've put up of the Hollow Knight using the world's Stagways transport:
Hollow Knight is currently due for release late spring/early summer 2015. It's up on Kickstarter, looking for $35,000 Australian (£19 grand), and Steam Greenlight if you like the sound of it.