San Francisco Rush-inspired Kickstarter rushes toward its goal

OK, we all agree that the novelty of this Kickstarter thing has worn thin. At the same time, crowdsourcing isn’t going away. So, we’re gonna report on the games that look cool, and you can decide what to do with that information.

That brings us to Distance from Refract Studios. It looks cool, and it’s Kickstarter has a week left to reach its goal.

Distance is a futuristic arcade racer for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Producer Kyle Holdwick describes it as a “survival racing game.” Players drive a slick-looking automobile with all of the important information, like speed and race status, illuminated across the back windshield in a Tron-blue font. The car can boost, fly, and even drive up the face of a skyscraper, which will help the user explore the game’s mysterious world.

http://youtu.be/P6wLP2_RLU4

Developer Refract Studios arose from the team that produced the free PC driving game Nitronic Rush. As a group of DigiPen Institute of Technology students, they built the racer to showcase their skills and pay homage to classics like San Francisco Rush and Wipeout. Distance is a sequel-in-spirit to Nitronic Rush.

Over 2,000 backers have pledged to contribute around $75,000 on Kickstarter. That leaves the game $50,000 short of its $125,000 goal with a week to go. That’s a pretty good position, since a flurry of contributors always squeak in to back projects on the last few days of any project.