Every once in a while we feature a Kickstarter campaign on LadiesGamers.com. Most of the time they are cute and colourful, not this time though. Colourful yes, but the Kickstarter I’m talking about isn’t cute. No, this is serious business….of sorts. This game combines action RPG and RTS (real time strategy) manned by Kofi. Our hero. Or not?
Action needed: Meet Kofi
As a player you will control Kofi. Good luck though on trying to get him in action, as he is an RPG character that spends his days lazing around without leveling up. His game is a total mess and every character around him plays better. He is weak, lazy and unlucky and his followers are a group of interesting (but pathetic) characters. But what can you do? They are the ones aiding Kofi to live through the upcoming great adventure.
This is a fun approach to a video game. No mythic heroes, no heartbreaking background story that formed your protagonist into the serious martyr he or she is. No sense of duty that goes against all odds. Instead it will be your job of going on a quest with a character that would rather lol about. Plus, everyone in the game is aware that this is where they are: in a game.
What will make the retro fans happy, is that there’s a fully functional game console within the game. You can get some retro games to play if you can find them at side-quests!
Quest, gather and find motivation
How often have you heard your mom or your spouse call: ” why don’t you get up from the couch and stop playing video games?” Well, that’s exactly what Kofi is told to do, and start on a quest. Doesn’t seem too difficult at first, but as we, hardened gamers, know: it never seems a big problem at first. Wait till you are really in and it all falls apart!
In the story, Kofi goes to his instructor to ask for help improving and gets gifted with a summoning skill as an attempt to motivate him to keep pressing forward in the game. Kofi’s summon’s name is Lime, a slime that happens to have zero motivation and be even lazier than him, and that would rather nest himself in the couch in a valiant attempt at doing nothing together than help him progress.
Your game starts in the region of Neighborwood. That’s where Kofi lives. Neighborwood is an ideal region for beginner mercebinaries, although it has birthed some powerful ones, too. It’s full of forests and mountains.
Anyway, Kofi Quest will feature your troops that you can control by blowing the war horn. Captains in your troops with special skills. More than 60 enemies (I bet Kofi isn’t chuffed about there being so many). A big map with different environments (forests, houses, caves, mountains, water areas…). Treasure chests to find, interaction with your environment (splitting rocks, pulling bushes and such).
The game revolves around motivation. Defeating enemies will give you motivation points (the more points you gather, the more allies you can call). Each combat unit has a motivation cost based on their value in battle. Motivation is the main theme in this game: you need motivation to psyche up your buddies and reach great goals together.
Kickstarter goal: Steam first and Switch second
Spanish studio Loftur Studio from Valencia is the developer behind Kofi Quest. Kofi is their first project: it’s a universe consisting in an animated web-series and Kofi Quest: Alpha MOD. This is the video game featuring on Kickstarter. The goal is to bring the game to Steam at the end of 2019 and if the project is funded, the Switch is next. PS4 and Xbox are going to be stretch goals.
The game has a special look, and will be fully voice acted. The goal is to get funding for € 30.000 and at the time I’m writing this, € 11.913 by 364 backers is brought in. What I like is that you can choose the reward of a Steam key or a Switch key, suits me fine. The campaign is running until May 31st. If you want to take a look, find the campaign page here.
Great article Yvonne , I’m super happy you decided to bring Kofi to Ladies Gamers!
I just love the humor and story and the fact that motivation is the commodity.
And I love the voice acting, art style and I think the game play.
I haven’t played many Real Time Strategy games, but I think ‘Little King’s Story’ and ‘Overlord, Dark Legend’ are RTS games, and those are 2 of my favorite Wii games.
‘Little King’s Story’ on the Wii is very different from the vita, it was super fun and funny!
I didn’t get far in the vita one, mainly because I was expecting the same humor/ experience and it didn’t deliver.
Most of the backers for Kofi right now are from Spain. (and surprisingly many fellow Dutch people!)
I hope this article will help in spreading the word!
Thanks Yvonne
You are very welcome. I’m just happy you are on the lookout for good initiatives like this. Don’t hesitate to tell me if you find a good one that needs attention, I’ll always check it out!
I know, Little Kings Story on the Vita is how we met, do you remember? I had also hoped for a title like LKS on the Wii but then in handheld for my (then) new Vita. Was sorely disappointed! So you didn’t like it much either?
Haha, I remember!
I was so impressed by the Wii version that I bought the vita one just because it had the same name.
I did try it a couple of times, but I couldn’t even get out of the starting dungeon. (I couldn’t make myself play long enough for it)
I remember when I bought the game I said I loved the humor and you did look at me kind of puzzled. (humor.., this game..??)
Humor can make a game really stand out.
The game play of ‘Little Kings Story’ (for the Wii!!) was very good, the art was very charming, but the one thing that really defined the game for me (and what I most remember about it) is the humor.
I sometimes have trouble with staying positive. Struggling with depression and being to emotional and sensitive.
That’s why a game like ‘The Stillness of the Wind’ is not good for me.
But I think Kofi will make me laugh from beginning till the end. I love the grumpy Lime
Haha, you’re right, the humor in LKS is delightful. And when you put it like that, don’t go for Stillness of the Wind. That one can really be a bit somber, though impressive.
More games should have humor in them. Like with fantasy books: I love them, but only if they have humor in them. Life can be hard enough as it is!