The game is called Caffeine. If you’re thinking high-paced slaughterhouse shooter, you’re wrong. The game is a quiet, dark, slow-moving horror puzzle game with some amnesia mystery thrown in. On the other hand, if you’re thinking Starbucks and evil corporation exploiting the weak, you’re closer. The game takes place at the end of the 21st century. Resources are dried up, including caffeine. Now, I’m not sure if it’s actually coffee caffeine or some sci-fi future caffeine that powers everything from cars to starships, but it’s important, and there are mining ships sent to the far reaches of the galaxy to get it. (I’m hoping it’s coffee caffeine and it’s a future that can’t exist without it.)
The developer, Dylan Browne, is a one-man team and Caffeine is his first project. He’s asking for $70K AUD to be able to work on the game full time. I love the entrepreneurial spirit, but it’s also crazy that there’s already $2K raised so this noob developer can quit his day job to work on a game that seems heavily derivative. The trailer doesn’t wow, either. Looks okay and it’s cool the protagonist is a child and has to jump to look out the window or over a desk (though might get annoying after a while), but it seems like a lot of walking around and moving panels here and there in the dark to solve a puzzle.
If I’m supporting a Kickstarter game, it has to be disruptive in some way. A more unique twist than what Caffeine offers, or a more interesting premise than amnesia-reveal-is-reward. I do hope it gets funded, though, because I would love to see how it develops.