Radio the Universe - a sombre, spooky top-down RPG - hits Kickstarter in style

I was pretty tired of Kickstarter until I saw the following pitch, which doesn't feature any of the following: a rich old games developer asking for ridiculous sums of money, a bunch of vague promises, or any more god-damned spaceships. Radio the Universe is, instead, a stylish 2D action-RPG - it's Yume Nikki meets Dark Souls, Zelda mingling with Shin Megami Tensei, in a spooky, possibly end-of-the-world setting even the (otherwise faultless) Mayans couldn't have predicted. It's already reached its fairly low target of $12,000, and there are 31 days left to go.

You're an unnamed protagonist "alone in a skyless and desolate labyrinth-city," and in a startling coincidence you're also that in the game. What better way to while away your life than by engaging in "challenging gameplay" that has "environmental hazards, platforming, [and with] lethal enemies [that] reward players who assess, strategize, and stay attentive"? Yes, it's a little bit Dark Souls (which itself was a large bit Zelda) - it even has a "sombre and expansive open world".

Other influences include Symphony of the Night, Yume Nikki and Hotline Miami - all excellent games, and I can't wait to see what sort of experience their collision will result in. Promisingly, developer 6e6e6e states the desire for the game to feel a little "off", to have its own, slightly surreal personality, which tends to be the thing that separates great games from the good.

You'll find much, much more info on the game's Kickstarter page , including 6e6e6e's aim to make "players who die in-game die in real life". Even Dark Souls isn't that mean.

[Cheers, IndieGames !]

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.

Latest in RPG
kingdom come deliverance 2 thunderstone quest
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's masterful quest design can be summed up by one wonderfully weird search for a magic stone
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Latest in News
Two brightly colored stormtroopers dressed like Run-DMC stand in front of PAX Australia's WELCOME HOME banner.
Tickets for PAX Australia 2025 are on sale now
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again