Dystopian tale Soul of Mystery now raising funds on Kickstarter
It's been a good week for adventures on Kickstarter (bad week for wallets), and the list continues to grow with the launch of a crowdfunding game for the dark, dystopian tale Soul of Mystery.
In the near future, the city of Blackmill has become "a city of the dead haunted by the living. Nature crushed under the heel of the government struggles to co-exist amongst the stone and steel, the city becoming more toxic every day. Government issued ‘meds’ keep the population alive, docile and working – but only just. Questions, opinions and non-state viewpoints are not allowed. To think is to mark yourself out as a problem – and the police, heavily armoured soldiers, exist to solve such problems. Thinkers, speakers, artists disappear. The city is dying, sagging under the weight of its past, decay and fear rule the streets."
In the midst of this oppressive urban setting lives Teo, a seemingly normal teenager whose life takes a very abnormal turn. It starts out promisingly enough, with "a shooting in the street, a strange mystical guy with the power to heal the dead, a super-hot girl, and a mission to save the city. Two days later, Teo is hiding in an abandoned building after his best friend tried to kill him, he’s become the city's most wanted, and apparently he’s grounded! Things are pretty grim. On the plus side, he now has a beautiful girlfriend, he’s been kicked out of school and he’s sporting some smoking tattoos." Now, in order to oppose the tyranny that grips his city, Teo must "embrace the power of a secret practice" that will transform him help others turn "away from darkness and move into the path of light."
Intended as a two-part point-and-click adventure series, the largely monocromatic Soul of Mystery is a co-production between Rieben Holdings and Daredevil Development, who have already combined to make a substantial investment into the creation of Chapter 1. To finish the game as intended, however, they're seeking the final 10% of their total budget through crowdfunding, launching a Kickstarter appeal to raise $25,000 by June 29th. According to designer Tania Retchisky, the first installment will be completed in any case, but failure to meet their funding goal will result in a game with no voiceovers, limited music, and perhaps a longer development time. If all goes well, the first episode will be released this summer, with the concluding chapter to follow 8-10 months after that. Retchisky claims that the first game is a full-fledged adventure that stands on its own, but those want to "transform the full city and discover the hero's hidden secret" will want to see the series through to the end.
For now the plan is to release Soul of Mystery exclusively for iOS and Android devices, but ports to PC and Mac have been announced as one of the stretch goals. A minimum $20 pledge will net you a digital copy of the game a day before it's publicly released. To learn more about Soul of Mystery and to support its fundraising campaign, check out the Kickstarter page for complete details.
Game information
You might also want to know about
