Kickstarter has had its recent share of popularity in the past few years as a great way to get a game project off the ground, but with indie title Sumoboy, indie developer TAPRR is asking the crowd to fund something truly unheard of before, on the service itself or the industry as a whole –the first anti-bullying game.
Billed as coming from “The minds behind Halo, Battle Los Angeles and The Lego Movie”, Sumoboy is that game, and for a grassroots project, it already has a considerable amount of polish behind it. “Polish” is actually putting it lightly; If there were any way I could describe it on a visual level, it seems to deftly meld the aesthetic of Bastion with the charm of Pixar animation, complimented by the isometric dungeon crawling perspective of games like Diablo.
In this uniquely pitched title, you control Little Oji, an orphan living in a foster home who has to face down bullying almost daily from his peers. One night, in a dream, he discovers that his estranged mother is Kesa, Princess of the Elements, and that she’s calling upon his help to save the spirit world Seishin (where he is actually from) from a malevolent force. Using sumo powers, and a Master Sword-like weapon called the “Blade of Balance”, he sets off to right the wrongs inflicted upon his world, and perhaps gain the confidence to stand up to his peers as well.
Apparently, his world is in quite the moral quandary, and rife with conflict: A selfish tree needs to be taught the err of his ways, or a monstrous catfish of the water plane seeks to end his torment. The game will be full of major and minor encounters like this, with players enabled to deal with the smallest encounter pacifistically, if the player chooses. If that seems like an unusually obtuse design choice in a game that’s supposed to promote pacifism above all else, don’t worry, you aren’t the only one wondering so.
In fact, and at the risk of sounding cynical, does a game where violence, either of the harmless or brutal variety, really promote anti-bullying? Oji’s major conflict, in the designers words, are to “Defeat the ultimate bully and heal the emotional and physical damage done to Seishin.” In most cases of real world abuse, the last thing a victim seeks to do is perpetuate more violence, whether it’s for retribution, or simply cold revenge. It isn’t the most theraputic solution for most, and begs the question as to whether or not the game’s “anti-bullying” message is genine, or just following recent trends in social media by exploiting what’s arguably a hot button topic where subculture fans such as “Bronies” endure endless ire for expressing their fandom.
If the subject matter is handled well, this could be a very special project, but there’s also the notion that this could all go very wrong, the message the game is trying to perpetuate being at odds with the need to be a fun game for consumers. Judging from what we’ve seen, the answer seems to lie directly in the middle, but we’ll reserve judgment until the project nears completion. It’s a really ambitious concept, and if you’d like to see more or even donate (there are some sweet incentives for backers), their Kickstarter can be found here.
Sumoboy is intended for release on PC, Linux, and Mac. As of writing, they’ve already made nearly $6,000 of their $100,000 pledge (should they reach $400k, it’ll see a fully featured console release!)
