Starlight by Creative Genius is a mobile platform game looking for funding support on Kickstarter. When I first looked at the project, my initial thought was that the style was somehow reminiscent of ‘The Little Prince’. “Starlight is an adventure platform game riddled with puzzles, traps and opportunities for exploration, where you play as both Timothy Brave, a boy afraid of the dark, and Altair, a shooting star, on a journey through a world almost completely devoid of light.”
Basic Information
Players: Single Player
Ages: Unknown
Time: Unknown
Estimated Delivery: April 2014
Location: London, UK
Game overview
Forum: http://geekerskeep.com/topic/starlight-by-creative-genius/
Plot and Setting
Starlight follows the journey of Timothy Brave, a young boy, and Altair, a shooting star, as they hunt for the pieces of the sun after it shatters. While playing the game, you will control both Timothy and Altair simultaneously. Instead of following a linear story, Starlight is being designed as a branching storyline game, which will increase replay options. Game play will include exploration and puzzle solving.
Platform
According to the Kickstarter page, Starlight will first be released for the iPad. If the campaign receives enough support, Creative Genius will also work on a iPod/iPad and Android ports.
Target Audience
To be perfectly honest, I’m not completely sure what the target audience for this game is. It seems like it’s being designed more as a children’s game. As I said originally, this project somehow reminded me of ‘The Little Prince’. Hopefully Creative Genius will add more information as the campaign progresses.
Kickstarter Specifics
Goal: £4,000 (Roughly $6,500)
Pledge Levels: 7 levels ranging from £1 to £500
End Date: Sunday Feb 16, 8:00pm EST
Chances of success
I’m going to be rather harsh in my criticism for this campaign. There is much left to be desired. It doesn’t seem like Creative Genius has done any of the leg work in regard to getting the news out. In addition, while they have some nice art work up, there is no proof of concept available. I have seen many backers who wanted to support a project but felt uncomfortable doing so because there was no proof of concept work. Stretch goals are also a bit of an issue. It would be nice to see stretch goals with more benefits for the backer.
I think that if Creative Genius wants to succeed with their campaign, they definitely will need to bring a lot more to the table, and it’s quite possible that they will do this. As of writing this article, there is still plenty of time left in the campaign. If you find this project to be interesting, but have any of the concerns I have had regarding the project, the best course of action is to let Creative Genius know. A project team isn’t going to know that something needs to be changed unless potential backers tell them.