Kingscape

For reasons unknown, the king’s son Harry is all by himself in the family castle. But through the child’s eyes, the vast, empty halls of the estate are teeming with adventure. Imaginary hordes of silly creatures advance through every corridor, from exploding pigs to bloodthirsty salesmen to nudist zombies. They’re too strong for even the mightiest warrior—but no match for young Harry’s wit.

Kingscape is an upcoming indie turn-based puzzle game based on chain reactions. Players use tools and special characteristics of each enemy to set off intricate combos that wipe the battlefield clean. Kill an evil duck to send it rolling into an exploding pig, triggering three more porksplosions. Lure a zombie into a spring trap to send it careening into a pack of angry servants.

But as the silliness unravels, the player discovers clues to the reasons why Harry was left all alone. And behind all the imaginary adventures is a very real goal for the child: to find his father.

Battles take place on a checkerboard-like grid. Each turn, players move Harry like a queen in Chess, that is, up, down or diagonally as far as they want. Enemies move much slower, giving the player room to set traps around the map, funnel enemies into position and kick off powerful combos when the time is right. But sheer numbers mean a careless player can quickly get surrounded.

Though it’s a puzzle game, there’s always much more than one correct answer for each of Kingscape’s stages. Much like Fire Emblem meets Incredible Machine, players design “decks” of tools to bring into each fight, like evil mushrooms and ninja underwear. The tools themselves even have combos, like a companion hedgehog you can launch across the map if you have a slingshot. This lets players tackle each puzzle in their own style.

The game is a retro throwback to early PC games, with pixel art and indexed colors set to soft acoustic music. But for creators (and brothers) Hugo and Zéno Loi, the childhood connection runs deeper than CD ROM-era graphics.
“As kids, my brother and I had lots of time alone together,” says Hugo, the game’s programmer. “We played through every board and computer game we had dozens of times. They all got old! So, to stave off boredom, we made games of our own.”
“That’s why we’re game developers now,” he said. “And that’s why we made a game about a kid who does the very same thing.”

Hugo works days as a graphics engineer for ARK France. His brother Zéno, the game’s story writer, is in school for medicine, having been a Kayak instructor and officer for the French army. They’re now raising funds on Kickstarter to fund the rest of the game’s development.

Backers can get the game for €12 ($13.65) and can expect their DRM-free copies to come in December. Higher tier perks range from early access, secret levels, access to the game’s source code and helping design enemies. One very generous backer may even get to design the king himself. For more information, visit the Kickstarter site:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/755210943/kingscape-an-indie-game-with-odd-characters

... or contact Chris Orris at [email protected]!
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