Jason Walsh and Shad Shwarck, the two halves of Studio Aurum, grew up playing games like Pokémon and wishing that they had more involved, realistic taming and breeding systems. So, in February 2016, they decided to make their own breeding-centric monster game: Monster Crown. Two years and change later, the duo's now turned to Kickstarter to fund their expanded vision. And it looks like it'll work out: at the time of writing, Monster Crown's campaign has earned $4,294 of its $5,000 goal and will run for another 28 days.

"We never felt like the offspring was a true crossbreed of both parents—it wasn't a brand new species," the Kickstarter reads. "In Monster Crown, the offspring are true mixes of both parents, in every way. This brand new species is totally yours—even to name.

"Appearance, color, moves, typing, stats, and even the moves the monster is capable of learning are all inherited. After a few generations, it will be impossible to tell what monsters you even started with. A brilliant breeder may find their creations in high demand by competitive battlers and collectors. Your monsters are your legacy."

There are roughly 200 collectible monsters in Monster Crown, but you'll have to create the "countless" others yourself by combining whatever suits your fancy. Some of the base monsters look familiar (though I won't name any names), but the player-made hybrids look unique. Naturally, you can bring any of your creations into the game's turn-based battles, not to mention battle and trade them online.

The game's story, meanwhile, is much simpler than its systems: the land of Crown Island once again faces the threat of the Philosopher Kings, an ancient evil that a mysterious woman named Beth plans to revive. It sounds like you get to choose whether to side with the kingdom or with Beth: Studio Aurum says there's "a pivotal choice that drastically changes the ending and post-game," and that you can become a savior or a dark messiah. You don't really need to turn on your Foreshadow-tron 3000 to decrypt that.

Judging from its Kickstarter delivery dates, Monster Crown will release in early 2019. In the meantime, why not have a gander at Re:Legend, another upcoming monster taming RPG funded via Kickstarter.