Once upon a time, not so long ago, the greatest resource in the word was pixels. But one day, an evil Queen from a neighboring land swooped in and stole all the pixels, turning everyone into a single-pixel life form. In order to save the Pixel Kingdom, you find a way to gather pixels and evolve into the hero you were meant to be.
This is Adventures of Pip.
Adventures of Pip is an action adventure game starring you as the titular character, Pip. In this role, you must slay the many enemies around you to regain your pixels enough that you can take on the evil Queen who stole the pixels from your homeland. While not quite calling it a Metroidvania-style platformer, the developers, TicToc Games, want to find a balance between a Mario-style level-based platformer and a Metroidvania open-world platformer.
You begin your adventure as a single pixel, doing nothing more than jumping on enemies. As you progress and regain pixels, Pip will evolve into a more complex life form and gain various abilities.
The game has been compared to an indie game released last year called Evoland. While I can see why people would say that, Adventures of Pip is different. Evoland‘s graphics would change based on where you are as you went further through action-adventure history. Adventures of Pip, however, relies on the player earning Pip’s evolution from a single-pixel blob to a more refined form. In a way, it’s more like making the world change colors in Two Brothers than evolving in Evoland.
There also seem to be some similarities to another indie game, Rogue Legacy. I swear, just looking at these images, I might have been convinced they were by the same guys. They aren’t, but look at this ghostly knight and tell me he wasn’t one of the many knights who failed to get through that castle.
Anyway, Adventures of Pip was originally going to be a mobile game. However, when the scope of the game became bigger, they wanted to take it to platforms that could handle the game. So, if funded, the game will be coming to Windows, Mac OS, Xbox One, and Wii U. Ports to PSN (systems unspecified) and Linux become possible if they reach their $180,000 (USD) stretch goal.
And, of course, it wouldn’t be a small indie Kickstarter in 2014 without Alicia from Heart Forth, Alicia making an appearance. Seriously, she’s everywhere.
So, how fares the campaign? Well, it’s going a little slower than some would hope. So far, TTG has raised about $30,000 towards a $90,000 base goal. With 15 days left in the campaign, the goal is still reachable, but it’s going to need some help. If you want to help out, it’s $15 to get a digital copy of the game, $20 for the Jake Kaufman soundtrack (yeah, Jake Kaufman is apparently going to be a part of this, too), and $30 for the digital art book. Beta tests start at $60, and the physical soundtrack, signed by Kaufman, starts at $80. If you want a physical copy of the game, you’ll need to reach the $150 tier. Limited tiers include designing an enemy, having a version of yourself in either 8, 16 or 32 bits, and joining the team at the release-day party.
I know $60,000 may look like a lot. And I did the math: at a basic level of donating to get the game, it would take 4,000 people donating $15 per person. But let’s play devil’s advocate for a little bit. Let’s say 100 people reading this article decide to donate $15 towards the project. They then turn around and tell six of their friends about it, and they donate $15 towards the project. And then they turn around and tell six of their friends about it, and they donate $15 towards the project. Assuming each person is not a duplicate (as in someone’s not getting contacted twice about it), that’s 4,300 people, right there. And that’s not including people who would donate more to get the soundtrack, the art book, or to participate in the beta tests.
I know some of you might be getting crowdfunding fatigue. But we’re starting to see the fruits of our time and money. Many of the projects funded two years ago—and even some last year—have either been fully released or are in late beta. (As a matter of fact, you can get many crowdfunded games now through Steam’s Early Access program.) And more importantly, TicToc Games is a team that has developed a number of great games, with most of its members being former WayForward employees who worked on Shantae, Contra 4, A Boy and His Blob (Wii), DuckTales: Remastered, and Aliens: Infestation, just to name a few.
I don’t know what the final product will look like, but I know this game is worth taking a shot on. Even if it doesn’t make its initial goal, let’s show our support for this unique game.
To donate towards the camapaign, visit its Kickstarter page. You can also vote for the game on Steam Greenlight. If funded, Adventures of Pip will be slated for a possible late-2014 release.
