Foam Sword Games, the studio co-led by former LittleBigPlanet, Tearaway and Ratchet and Clank designers, has launched a crowdfunding campaign for its first project: a co-op action adventure game called Knights and Bikes. Check out the debut video for the Kickstarter above, which shows off the title's unique, colorful art style.
The two-person team behind Foam Sword is asking for $142,577 from backers for Knights and Bikes. Various campaign rewards include a digital copy of the game plus a mention in the credits at the most tier; access to the planned alpha and beta; a card game inspired by the release; and even "handcrafted plushes" of the two main characters. There's also an art book up for grabs, which grants a deeper look into the game's abstract, Media Molecule-esque designs.
While the designers' pedigrees bear an obvious influence, they name other titles as stronger ones. Key inspirations for the 1980s-set project are fan favorite releases from that era, including EarthBound, E.T. and The Goonies. Foam Sword heads Moo Yu and Rex Crowle also mentioned Secret of Mana as an influence on Knights and Bikes, which stars a pair of young girls biking across their island home to uncover its medieval and possibly evil past.
A release for Linux, Mac and Windows PC on Steam is planned, with Foam Sword circling spring 2017 as a launch window; Kickstarter rewards are expected to be delivered by April 2017. Knights and Bikes is also accepting votes on Steam Greenlight, while its crowdfunding period is set to end in one month's time.
