Taking the tried and true action-platforming antics of classic Megaman and Castlevania and melding it with asynchronous social aspects of Little Big Planet and Demon’s Souls is the barebones high concept of Wicked Crush. Taking the reins for the programming and design is Billy Monks, a virtual unknown, who will be accompanied by Ryan Miller, most likely known for his animation work on Skullgirls.
The most promising, single aspect about this project is the server distributed level content, which is almost solely based on user-generated levels. The server will have a method by which to distribute “good” levels to players that ramp up difficulty while the creators of those levels earn in-game currency to help them in their own quests through the game. With a strong emphasis on platforming, planning, and producing content, there’s plenty of potential with this seemingly future Steam (among other potential platforms) title. Almost all of the stuff they are showing off in the videos is placeholder, but Miller’s work shows promise in terms of charm and function.
Some of the things that might raise hesitancy would be, though pretty common on Kickstarter, the unproven ability of Monks’ programming and design ability. There seems to be a lot of abstract talk concerning how the game will determine what content gets to you, but with a pretty concrete safeguard of having the creator of a level play through their creation without getting damaged seems like a sound safety net for preventing utterly impossible and cheap levels.
Monks is maintaining a blog to document current progress and to be an open book with those backing the project. He also posts regularly on Twitter. Wicked Crush is planned to hit Steam and potentially other digital platforms, while maintaining a DRM-free release. Their goal is to reach $15,000 by August 15th (Currently hovering around $3,800 funded) and to run a beta test before the end of 2012. Current support is Windows only, with Mac and Linux support to come at a later date.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/billymonks/wicked-crush
About Henry:
Between working full time and trawling through internet message boards, Henry finds little time to be “productive.” Jumping head first into TapTapStart, he’s looking to turn his creative life around and get back into all forms of writing. Fueled by coffee, he finds his muse in the dark corner of an Internet cafe.