The indie company Escapement Studios are working on a new unique platform game called In The Dark.

They have made some progress and the game looks good already, but they are looking to fund their project to be able to quit their jobs and work on it full time.

Currently they managed to get about $3,000 of their $10,000 goal, and if you donate more – you get more, and if they will manage to raise more money then their goal – they will release bonuses (like soundtrack under a free license).

The game will have a native GNU/Linux client, so go ahead, donate and make the game happen !

In The Dark is a puzzle / platformer game about the monsters in the shadows, who don’t just hate light, but actually hit it like a solid wall. Bump is one such monster. He had a good life under a bed until one day his human family moved out. Now he must find his way to their new home before morning or he will disappear! On his journey Bump will encounter many bigger, scarier monsters than himself. He’s not big or mean, but he is clever and must trick them or sneak around them if he is going to survive.

In The Beginning…

About a year and a half ago, we began our first official voyage into the world of indie game development. With limited resources and experience, we decided to start basic. We knew that, rather than relying on extreme graphics, the feel and setting of our game was going to be critical to its appeal. So we designed a world in which imagination could take over where your childhood left off – a world in which monsters exist, lurking within the shadows, threatening to snatch you up the moment you leave the safety and comfort of the light.

In The Game…

You play as a tiny, friendly shadow monster named Bump. During the day, he sleeps under a human child’s bed, and at night he comes out to play. But one day, Bump wakes up to discover that his friend has suddenly moved away, leaving him behind. If you know one thing, it’s that you have to find your friend’s new home before the sun comes up. Why? Monsters hate the light and if they get stuck in it, then they disappear! Unfortunately for Bump, at night there are thousands of monsters outside of his house that are much bigger and meaner than himself, and if he’s not careful he might get eaten!

It’s a good thing that Bump is very clever.

You see, not only do all monsters have an aversion to light, but they also have to treat light like a solid object. Being a clever monster, Bump must manipulate his surroundings and use beams of light to defeat enemies and create a path to his new home.

In The Making…

We’ve hit a number of milestones since starting this project. Mark has worked diligently to perfect the game’s handling and the map editor (the editor will be included in the game package). With practice, we’ve been improving the quality of the animations and the environment. We’ve got countless ideas for different monsters and ways for Bump to interact with them. The foundation for the whole game has been laid out, but we are limited at this point by, you guessed it, time and money. We’re going to need to fund our artists so they can take time away from their normal paying jobs to make any more progress on the game.

f you donators go above and beyond and fund our project even after we’ve reached our goal, we can guarantee that we will also go above and beyond to make this game unforgettable. So far, we’ve only investigated using music tracks under creative commons (read: free), but extra funds might give us the opportunity to commission some fantastic customized audio. We’ve been contacted by a couple of music groups who have expressed interest in the game, and we would love to enlist their help. We also intend to make this game available to PC, Mac, and Linux users; it will even be able to run well on netbooks. But in order to do this, we’re going to need to invest in test computers to ensure compatibility.

We expect this puzzle game to be unique and exciting for people of all ages. To all of you out there who decide to donate to our project, we cannot thank you enough and we look forward to finally producing In The Dark.

About Video



Gameplay Video



Screenshots



Links

Escapement Studios

In The Dark Kickstart Page

In The Dark IndieDB Page

Thanks Anton Moiseev for bringing this project to our attention