A 2D side-scroller featuring a young boy attempting to survive the night while an alien invasion takes place… that sounds rather thrilling, no? Well, even if you don’t think it sounds thrilling you’ll likely have your mind changed once you see the game in action.

Developed by indie studio Windy Hill Studio, Orphan follows a young boy as he ventures through the mountainous countryside and dense forests to survive as alien invaders rain down menace and terror from the sky.

The game looks and plays out a lot like War of the Worlds meets Out of this World meets Limbo. No complaints from me about that combination. It’s like a whole lot of nostalgia meets some new-school sci-fi flair. You can see the game in action below.

Lovely… absolutely lovely.

The art-style is really striking – I love the Michael Bay hues for the sunset effect and the whole glowing orange tint before things turn ugly and a night takes over. That’s some really beautiful artwork.

Developer Brandon Goins explains the art-style as such…

“The graphical style is influenced by many years working as a photographer, blending together real-world images and detailed raster graphics. The night-time setting lends itself to the silhouette style combined with colorful skylines, lighting and effects.”

Orphan has a very moderate budget, as Goins is only asking for $32,000. It’s a lot lower than I would have expected for a game like this, but maybe he’s hoping the game catches some virality and makes some extra bank.

It’s off to a slow start with less than $1,000 pledged as of the writing of this article. However, the game has 34 days to go before the project is over. So even if it’s only a thousand a day Windy Hill will likely meet the targeted financial goal.

I’m really hoping this game gets Kickstarted because it looks amazing and I love that it’s not just a puzzler – there are some shooting segments in there, too. You know in games like Heart of Darkness and Limbo they really discouraged gamers from engaging in violence, but here we have an orphan with nothing to lose (but his life) and a bit of vengeance throbbing through his fingertips and out through a loaded laser pistol.

You can learn more about Orphan by paying a kind visit to the official Kickstarter page or by paying a visit to the game’s official website. With more than a month to go, here’s hoping to Windy Hill Studio making their goal and bringing this dark yet engaging side-scroller to life.