Skullgirls Devs Crowdfunding Action-RPG Indivisible
Has a fun demo out
Regular reader Bunty Hoven writes:
Dear Alice,
Why do people not call Jonathan Blow, Jason Rohrer, Jonathan Brodsky, and Jonatan Van Hove by their preferred names of J. Blo, J. Ro, J. Bro, and J. Ho?Oh, and when will you post about Skullgirls folks Lab Zero's crowdfunding campaign for their action-RPG Indivisible? It has a public playable prototype out!
Yours,
Bunty
Well Bunty, I honestly don't know the answer to your first question. It seems awfully disrespectful to ignore their wishes so. Maybe we're both helping spread awareness right here, right now. As to your second, ah, fine, I'll do it now.
Indivisible [official site], then, is a pretty action-RPG with 2D characters platforming and fighting around a (mostly) 3D world. Inspired by "Southeast Asian mythology", it's the tale of a young girl with special powers who's confronting local warlords and exploring her own mysteries. Combat's real-time-ish, but based around resources which deplete and replenish, so you're not attacking constantly and must be careful with timing.
You can download the prototype by clicking these links for Windows, Mac, Linux, or even US PlayStation 4. I've had a bash and yeah, the murdering and platforming are pretty fun (wall-jumping and axe-climbing are grand), though it's obviously a demo throwing new things at you constantly so it's hard to get a sense for how the full game would flow.
Lab Zero Games are looking for $1,500,000 (around £975,000) on Indiegogo to help fund development. That's not all the funding it needs, mind. If the campaign succeeds, publishers 505 Games (who funded the prototype) will put up the other $2 million (£1.3m) Lab Zero need. If not, they'll get no Indiegogo money and nowt from 505. They're open about this, unlike some other crowdfunding campaigns, but... that model rubs me the wrong way a bit. Backers are giving money to the devs and the game, but publishers (usually) then get a share of profits and backers don't. Some games industry folks recently launched new crowdfunding site Fig, which also lets some people actually put money in as an investment, but it's kind of a confusing mess.
Anyway, evidently Lab Zero can't raise $3.5 million themselves just through crowdfunding, they do want a publisher's help, and 505 won't pay more, so this is the only way Indivisible will get made as currently designed. If you want to back it, $30 (£20) would get you a copy of the game when it's finished - by January 2018, is the plan.
