Features & News
This Game Looks Like A Real Riot – Needs Your Funding
February 23, 2013, Author: Matt Parker
I’m not normally one to write about indie games that ‘need your money’, but this one’s grabbed my interest, put in my windows and choked me out with some pepper-spray to the face.
‘RIOT‘ is, as the name would suggest, a game all about rioting. What makes it interesting is that it doesn’t play it safe and just ask you to go all State of Emergency on the world. In fact, you can even choose to be on the other side of the riot, trying to quash instead of start.
The game’s Indiegogo page promises that the game will go out of its way to explore both sides of the story.
One of the main aims of the funding of the game is to allow the Italian developers to do a bit of travelling. Not with the aim of getting a tan or seeing the sites, these travel destinations include Egypt and Greece so that they can get some first-hand accounts of those involved in riots.
Only you can stop the riots. Or start them…
Aiming to talk to participants and the police, the developers have laid their non-partisan cards on the table;
“Only comments and reports from the people joining the conflicts will be taken into consideration, attempting to depict both sides of the fight without bias, only objectivity and facts”
As interesting as all of the promises the makers have made, it’s the fact the game looks so good that’s most appealing.
Taking a leaf out of the Sword and Sworcery book of good-looking pixel art, the game seems to be a blend of RTS and – well, I’m not sure.
Leonard Menchiari, the director of the game did his best to explain how the game would actually play. Bearing in mind, this whole game is still work in progress, he had this to say;
“The gameplay is still in an early development stage. Since we’re focusing on what to change and what to improve I can’t give a specific answer about that. What I can say is that it’s going to be mainly a one-on-one battle on the same device (one playing as the rioters, one as the police), plus several additional campaigns set all around the world (Italy, Greece, Egypt, NY, Korea, Russia, and other ones that are still being decided). The ‘recruiting people’ aspect was something that I was considering, it might be an essential feature for the single player campaign mode.”
Can’t you just use the door?
Whether you like the idea of the game or not, there’s something to be said about a development team that turns down the help of publishers just so they can stay true to their vision;
“I turned down several big companies that offered to finance the project because they wanted to change things around. Many people are worried that I’m not going to make it into the Apple market, but I really don’t care. This game needs to connect with the general population, so it’s focused on showing the truth (as much as possible) rather than hiding it or manipulating it just so it can make a few more bucks.
This game is not about the money, not about the fame, it’s a tool that I’m using to open people’s minds into discovering by their own what’s really going on in this world outside of the lies that the Television keeps telling us everyday.”
There we have it people. Back it or don’t back it. It’s up to you. I just think it’s an amazing concept that I’m really interested in seeing coming to fruition.
