Me, Myself And AI: The Fall
The Fall, currently aiming to raise CAD$17,000 on Kickstarter, is the first Canadian Kickstarter we've featured. It's the work of a solitary ex-Relic developer and is an impressive title to have waiting in the wings as the crowd-funding service arrives in the other True North*. Taking inspiration from both Super Metroid and Monkey Island, it's a story-driven adventure, with tense combat and point and click-like puzzles. Rather than dragging a cursor across every pixel on the screen, seeking interactive elements, The Fall makes the protagonist's flashlight the tool of discovery. Shine a light on an item and its functionality is revealed. Oh, and the player does not control the main character but rather an AI inside that character's suit.
Being in control of the AI rather than the person could lead to interesting problem-solving, as the system's coding will not allow it to perform certain actions. Logical detours must be discovered in order to break the rules of the programming:
The Fall's story is designed to be integrated with its gameplay. As players work their way through challenges, they organically find solutions that imply a larger narrative. Through exploring their environments, players will help ARID overcome its own self limitation, unfolding a unique story of self-actualization that's driven by the player.
As for the seemingly modest funds that Over the Moon are seeking?
The Fall has been designed from day one to be a manageable project, requiring relatively little in development costs, and able to sustain itself by providing players with reasonably sized, affordable episodes.
Here's hoping that The Fall balances side-scrolling exploration with point and click puzzling more effectively than The Cave, where the two elements often felt like ill-placed cogs grinding against one another, which is exactly the sort of contraption that an adventure game would plant in the player's path. If this game can tell its story without placing awkward barriers between the player and the experience, while still provoking thought and requiring intelligent interaction, we could be in for a treat.
*here is The Fall from the other True North