Austin creatives team up for sci-fi adventure game for iPad

Kickstarter seems to be the place for indie developers these days, with dozens of small scale projects available for backing at any given time. One of particular note recently that just got it’s backing yesterday is a an iPad adventure game called Thunderbeam:

Over the past few months, we’ve begun writing and coding the first steps towards what will be a psychedelic, open-ended adventure game for the iPad, with the sort of deeper gameplay we feel the device is worthy of. It’s an homage to the sci-fi shows we loved as kids, but full of the schadenfreude and dark humor our now shriveled, black hearts require in order to continue pumping.

…it’s a carefully steeped brew of 70’s  science fiction from England, Japan and the States- but recast in a grown-up world where death is an immediate, irreversible and oddly-funny reality.

Austin-based actor and multimedia artist Wiley Wiggins (Dazed & Confused, Waking Life) is the director and designer of Thunderbeam under his studio Karakasa Games, and has enlisted the help of a few friends: Bob Sabiston of Flat Black Films (creator of the rotoscope software used in the animation for Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, as well as the creator of Inchworm, an awesome little animation program available in the DSiWare store) is contributing the use of his animation software and the game will feature sound design and an original soundtrack by THE OCTOPUS PROJECT. Wiggins has dedicated a page on Karakasa.com to ‘Things We Love’, outlining several classic games that have influenced the project, such as Maniac Mansion, Earthbound, and ICO.

It will likely be a few months before the final game is finished and approved for purchase on the app store, but for now give your eyes and ears a treat with the following videos and the Thunderbeam theme song:

Thunderbeam Theme Song by The Octopus Project