Wicked Crush (Indie game in development)

[DJ FLiGHTS]

I don't usually make topics about these sort of things... well, I usually don't make any topics... but this time, I felt it was important. This... is Wicked Crush.

As you can see, this game is still in development, but that doesn't stop it from shaping up to be a pretty sweet game so far!

http://www.kickstart...ks/wicked-crush

A World of Danger and Mystery

Enter the world of Wicked Crush, where a centuries-spanning war between humans and beastmen dictates life. But in the isolated beastmen town of Rosachelia, where you (as either a dude or a chick) fall from the sky, it's the almighty dollar that reigns.

The town's entire economy revolves around profiting from the lives of adventurers foolish enough to enter Dynidar, the seemingly endless, constantly changing dungeon that borders the town. The townspeople provide the sales of items, services in forging equipment and even renovate the dungeon to make it deadlier. Despite this seemingly grim lifestyle, the townsfolk are actually quite friendly. Sharing a common interest in getting that paper, you are quickly welcomed among the Rosachelian people. It is then that you decide to be the first to reach the bottom depths of Dynidar and discover the endless riches and dark secrets that await.

About the Game

Wicked Crush is a PC game designed around the concept of an online game where you play alone, but everything you do has a direct effect on other players.

Taking inspiration from classic action games like Castlevania and Mega Man, along with modern games like Demon's Souls, Little Big Planet, Persona 4 and Ys, the game promises to meld the responsive controls and compact movesets of old with unique online functionality, player-generated content, and beautiful, high definition, frame-by-frame 2D animation.

The player's ultimate goal is to reach the deepest levels of Dynidar, each floor is actually made by another player pulled from an online server. If you complete the floor without dying, you will find gold or valuables at the end, and the creator of the floor will receive a small amount of gold. However, if you die, the floor's creator earns a much larger sum. What this ultimately means is that players are rewarded for making crafty levels that rake in the deaths.

This use of player-generated content creates the unique challenge to giving the game a fair learning curve, slowly increasing difficulty while adding mechanics, and ensuring that the aesthetics remain cohesive. This is being achieved by grouping floors together into “tiers”, each of which has a specific amount and types of enemies and traps that may be employed, combined with a constantly updating ratio of successful and failed runs to determine how easy or difficult a floor is, where in Dynidar it should be placed, and how big the payout for completing it should be.

Between dungeon runs, the player will return to the town of Rosachelia. In town, players can rest, talk to the townsfolk, purchase items (such as potions, temporary strength supplements, and signs to leave behind for other players), upgrade their equipment, and build floors for Dynidar.

The current dungeon editor is very fast and powerful, but is not yet easy enough to use to my satisfaction. I am currently working on a new editor that can be controlled with either keyboard+mouse or a gamepad, and will be as intuitive and easy to use as Kid Pix, by procedurally generating the level's aesthetics to the player's design.

Those who would prefer to not interact with others need not worry. There will be at least 100 floors included with the final game to ensure a full game experience with or without an internet connection.

Music and Sound

Because Wicked Crush has such a varied structure, the game aims to have a varied soundtrack to match. The game's music is being composed by different musicians with different backgrounds, to suit the different modes of play, whether it's building, fighting or decompressing. We hope for the game to have a soundtrack that's unique in style from other games.

Sound effects are also incredibly important to providing a rich experience, so we're taking sound design very seriously, and making sure that what you hear brings you deeper into the game world. We intend to mostly use sounds from Freesound.

Back of the Box Bullshit

• Beautiful art that won't melt your eyes.
  
• Music that doesn't make your ears bleed.
  
• Gameplay mechanics inspired by punishing-but-fair platformers of the 90s.
  
• Unique online functionality to ensure there's always another challenge to conquer.
  
• Play as a dude or a chick!
  
• A fully-functional dungeon editor that rewards players for using it.
  
• An eyes-wettingly moving story with pants-wettingly humorous jokes.
  

Our Team

Billy Monks (Me) – I am the game's Designer and Programmer. I love making games and want to make games until I die.

Ryan Miller – Ryan, known online as rtil, is a multifaceted digital artist, animator, videographer and designer with a BFA in Production Animation from Digipen and over 5 years of industry experience, including work on the multiplatform title Skullgirls. He is working on all aspects of the game's Art and Animation. Rumored to carry a manpurse. (?)

Kevin Studevant – Known online as SHADOWFOX2, Kevin specializes in upbeat electronic and hip-hop music. His music has been featured in many games and animations. (All of the lovely music in the trailer has been graciously prepared by Kevin)

TJ Turqman – An incredible bassist and Jazz musician who can be found working on the popular U Street in D.C.. TJ is providing high quality recordings for the game, featuring some of the other local artists he works with.

StrawberryCreme26 – Known for mixing and producing the Hiimdaisy Persona 4 comic dubs, she is providing the game's voice direction, as well as sound mixing.

GeneralIvan – A popular and talented voice actor, Ivan is best known on Youtube and Tumblr. As well as with lending his vocal talents, he is working on filling out the game's dialog and lore.

What's the Kickstarter For?

The money we (fingers crossed) receive from this Kickstarter will let us work full-time on all aspects of the game, particularly on the art assets, music and programming, as well as pay for server fees to keep the online functionality running.

Any extra funding will give us extra time and resources, which will go directly toward the game, allowing us to provide a fuller experience with local co-op, more environments, more enemies, more traps, more character customization, and more items.

Shortly after the game is finished, I plan to work on Mac and Linux conversions, provided people are interested. Adding other languages to the game is also a possibility, but getting the game done in English is the team's priority for now.

I will run a blog for the game, and make sure it's updated at least once a week so that backers can see how the game is progressing and provide feedback, as well as get an inside look at the development team's gradual slip into insanity. I will also be very accessible through my twitter.

Finally, in order to test the server and network, we will put out a beta test some time in 2012. This test will be exclusive to backers, and any well-designed levels made in the beta will be likely to make it into the full game as an offline level (with your name attached, of course).

We are incredibly psyched to make the game, but we really need your help to make our dream a reality.

This has interested me more than a lot of things I've seen. Plus, with this guy's experience, I have no doubt that it'll amaze me once it comes out! If you're interested, feel free to add your support!

Edited July 17, 2012 by Silva Rymes

[Gregzilla]

I feel like supporting it based solely on that sexy 2D animation.

[Wentos]

>Hand-drawn characters

Count me in.

The art design also reminds me of Muramasa: The Demon Blade, so that's another plus.

Edited July 17, 2012 by Hatsune Miku

[DJ FLiGHTS]

Wicked Crush does in fact have a Tumblr. Which is where THIS update has just popped up from.

Concept Art, Editor, Music Update!

Hi again everyone! It’s been an exciting week working on Wicked Crush. Please excuse me if I make typos due to sleep deprivation! The whole team has been crunching the past few days. Ryan’s made some cool concept art for three of the Beastmen races.

As of now, the top, left and right races are Liluma, Cerati and Avian, respectively. Most of the town of Rosachelia is made up of these three races. What do you think of them?

I’ve been crunching the past few days to put together a prototype of the new level editor. Right now it’s still a work in progress, but works and it’s fun and easy to use with a mouse or a gamepad.

.

I tried to borrow a bit from the look of a blueprint. In the full game, everything in the editor will also be drawn by Ryan, so please don’t mind my programmer art. When you’re finished and save your level, your design is automatically textured according to what tier you’re building for, turned into polygons for the 3D world, and decorated with scenery. As you unlock and build for new tiers, your selection of enemies and traps will change, so you can expect an ever-changing toolbox, and constantly evolving challenges.

The left and right triggers (or mouse wheel if you’d rather use the mouse) let you zoom in and out for easier editing. When using the mouse and keyboard, all of the sidebars are clickable, and mapped to hotkeys for your convenience.

That number floating around at the top is the level’s danger rating. Each enemy and trap has a certain rating, and each tier has a max total, to keep the levels balanced.

I hope to release a video of this in action in a few days, and the first beta in a few months (if funding is successful).

Finally, I’d like to share one last thing for now. This is one of the songs Kevin’s made for the game’s soundtrack, for your enjoyment. Check it out~

Thank you so much for the support of our project. We’re a ways off from our goal, but we haven’t given up yet! Please continue to support us, and talk about the game with your friends. Every drop of buzz if crucial to our success.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Silva Rymes