Gaming - Lotia

The Defective Inspector has identified a likely looking crowdfunder from the line-up, so don't wake up and pay attention, the Lotia...

Do you dream? Normal people tell me dreaming is a rather natural and progressive thing, something that can be done by the average human being to take them to either fanciful or fearful worlds. Now imagine for a second that the dream world and the waking world were more connected than you first realised. That appears to be the premise for my newest KickStarter recommendation Lotia

The future faces of the future game

From what the KickStarter tells me the storyline is so rich you made need a shot of limoncello to cleanse the mind palette. The basic premise is fairly solid, there is a dream world (Heavensbreak) and a waking world (Cloudsbreak). Generally speaking the average person doesn’t know the difference between the two and barely knows they exist, think about when you sleep and how hard it is to remember a dream while awake? That’s the border right there! However some people are so god dammed fancy that they can lucid dream i.e. they are aware of both worlds. But even the fanciest of the fancy pants have their issues, because both the waking and dream world are isolated shards of existence i.e. who you know awake may not be who you know in a dream. The dream world you belong to as the protagonist is Lotia, hence the name!

So what drives the story? The 2 best things in the world drive this story; conflict and curiosity. The conflict really derives from you, ultimately you are a pretty bad-ass dreamer. Imagine meeting someone who could change the world around you? You’d be a bit afraid and mightily jealous. That naturally breeds conflict… There also appears to be a group called The Dominion. It’s not precisely explained who or what they are which is the other driver of the game, the curiosity. I’ve been reading up on this project for a few hours and I find myself asking a lot of questions that only the game can answer, this I find it a good sign of a great story.

A feel for the character concept, nice isn't it?

How far along is this concept exactly? More than you may realise, first of all the entire storyline seems to be established well beyond a concept. I feel like a world has been shaped and moulded by a god and presented to me in digital form, there is a level of Wayne’s World about this as I do genuinely feel I am not worthy. Music has been composed and created by Ryan McQuinn and frankly it is TASTY. Jade (The man behind the beard in the KickStarter video) kindly provided me with a link so I could listen to all the tracks so far, absolutely beautiful and very encouraging! In fact all through writing this article I had it in the background, which is rather enjoyable. Well excluding when I heard the laughter, which scared the hell out of me…

So what’s the money for? It’s to make the game… Better. Crayon Ponyfish have made it VERY clear they intend to complete this concept with or without funding but know they could make it so much better with our help. I have to admit I appreciated the upfront honesty about the request, this wasn’t simply “I won’t make it unless you pay me” kind of demand this was more along the lines of “I want to make my concept live to its potential” request. They also showed a layout of where the money is going and seems like they have people in mind for the job already. For the love of god they made a damn pie-chart!

It's so beautifully organised I may cry...

So you may ask me, why pick this game? The game has a strong backbone, artistic influence already put in, beautiful music and a refreshingly honest company behind it, it’s hard not to be impressed by where the game is already. However there are only a few days left of the KickStarter so I recommend anyone even considering backing the project to shift onto the other side and support a small company with a big dream.

HURRY! Before you wake up…



Images - Lotia