Failsafe, Legend of Korra vibes mixed with Mirror’s Edge gameplay, is on Kickstarter

Game Over, the developers of Failsafe, are currently asking for pledges on Kickstarter to finish work on their first ever game, and also to help the studio remain independent. Game Over boast that Failsafe uses an “Intuitive Parkour System,” which will let players perform a complex sequence of moves with the press of just one button.

According to the creators themselves, this is what they are billing Failsafe as:

Failsafe is a first person parkour adventure game reminiscent of the fluidity of Journey, the monolithic scale of Shadow of the Colossus, and the stylization of Hayao Miyazaki.

To be honest, I see elements of the first two, but cannot see much Miyazaki influence on show in the currently available early media. In fact, if anything the trailer (below) for the project gave me a big Legend of Korra vibe. The music alone made me want to watch that show all over again. The cadence of the narrator  also sounds a bit like Janet Varney as Korra too. It is however not her, and is in fact Ashly Burch, who recently played Chloe Price in Life is Strange. She has also appeared in a bunch of other things.

Regardless of who or where the inspiration comes from, there should be no doubt the game will have great style, as Seiji Tanaka is Creative Director for the project. Tanaka worked on the highly impressive Journey as an animator in a previous life. Makoto Fujiwara, who previously worked on Shadows of the Damned and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots also plays a part in the games creation.

According to the developers, Failsafe’s current graphics are still in an early stage, and the glimpses they are showing on Kickstarter are just part of the concept-to-engine process.  A year of work has already went into the game, with initial conception beginning in December 2014. Additionally, Game Over have ran a dev blog for the past few months, with further details on the project, as well as a few GIFS. Everyone loves GIFS!

If the Kickstarter is successful, Failsafe will first release on PC, Mac, and Linux, with a tentative date of August 2016. The game will also hit consoles at some point further down the line should everything work out. It’s complicated. The Kickstarter is solely for the PC version, with DRM-Free copies promised to all backers should they pledge $15 or more. As is the Kickstarter norm, there are rewards available all the way up to $1500 if you have money to burn.