#sumoboy

KICKSTARTER PAGE LOCATED HERE for SUMOBOY!

A couple of my friends from Australia (as well as a whole bunch of people who've worked at Disney, Dreamworks and on The Lego Movie, The Great Gatsby, HALO, Transformers, TMNT, etc...) -- even acclaimed TED poet Shane Koyczan's doing narration and writing for this game! It's a gorgeous game all about anti-bullying, and is in direct connection to Australia's anti-bullying organization, Angel's Goal. I'm also involved as a voice actor, but that's not half as interesting.

SumoBoy just got shown on ABC!

And I just did a Bad Lip Reading of their Kickstarter trailer!

A game project seeking backers on Kickstarter bills itself as the "first ever story-driven anti-bullying inspired video game." SumoBoy is the game, by the 13-person development team TAPRR. Its $100,000 fundraiser opened this week and has 31 days to go. The game is planned for Linux, Mac OS, PC and mobile platforms. It tells the story of Oji, a chubby orphan subjected to nonstop bullying in the orphanage where he lives. Then he discovers his long-lost mother is actually a spirit princess who desperately needs his help. The game's makers say they were inspired by classics such as The Legend of Zelda, Bastion and Diablo III and its isometric camera, art style and gameplay show traces of all three. After Oji's mom appears to him, he sets off on a quest to find his father, a mysterious Sumo warrior. Along the way he adds Sumo moves to his combat repertoire and puts things right in the realm, helping its inhabitants break their own cycles of despair and dysfunction. As he does so, he overcomes his own obstacles.

"Our protagonist, Oji, is the epitome of the unlikely hero," the developers write. "As an orphan tormented by bullies, he is far from a traditional video game hero. But that is what makes this game so special; Oji's greatest attribute is his empathy for those in trouble. His vulnerability and sweet demeanour makes him the perfect hero that symbolises the essence of youthful courage." TAPRR, a multinational team founded by Chris Laurent and Rob Salha, say they understand "the connotations that come with a social justice game, and we are aware of the risk of becoming a Public Service Announcement (PSA) instead of a fun game. "SumoBoy, at its core, is a game about bullying, but it's also the creation of dozens of game lovers who want to bring you the best and most fulfilling gaming experience possible." For more on the project, see its Kickstarter page. As of writing just under $5,000 (Australian) toward its $100,000 goal has been pledged.

Coming from the creators of games like Halo, Battle: Los Angeles and The Lego Movie is SumoBoy, a new Kickstarter campaign from TAPRR.

(more…)

New Post has been published on http://newsworldtoday.net/sumoboy-the-game-that-requires-aim-at-bullying/

SumoBoy: the game that requires aim at bullying

TAPRR

There’s no denying that bullying is a rather big and lengthy-standing dilemma. It truly is fully attainable it’s one particular that will by no means be solved — but that isn’t going to stop some brave individuals from standing up and attempting.

One particular such group is a Sydney-primarily based international development studio called TAPRR, and its strategy has the potential to attain numerous. The crew is generating a game called SumoBoy — on its surface, a fun journey game about a boy saving a magical world, but dig a little deeper and the game will supply, the staff hopes, a powerful anti-bullying message, with the aid of anti-bullying advocates such as spoken-word poet Shane Koyczan, who has written and voiced the game’s narration, and anti-bullying organisation Angels Objective.

“The entire team at TAPRR have been victims of bullying (such as myself) and one thing that is only just starting to take place in video games now is that developers are employing video games as a tool to send a message consider The Final of Us with a female (Ellie) being the primary protagonist,” producer Rob Salha advised CNET. “We wanted to do the very same thing (sending a optimistic message) and produce not only a enjoyable game but a game that manufactured you believe after you had place the controller down.”

The game, which has been in advancement for a year, centres about Oji, an orphan boy who is routinely bullied at college, but nonetheless manages to stay variety and compassionate. One particular day, he discovers that his mom is the Princess of the Components, Kesa, from the magical land of Seishin — and that his homeland is in peril. Kesa has been kidnapped and held prisoner by Kurai Kami, and it truly is up to Oji to rescue Seishin making use of his Sumo powers and his Blade of Stability.

It is a familiar story for video video games — effectively, it works — and the fashion is a rather lavishly coloured isometric planet, but it’s not, Salha clarified, your standard hack-n-slash, alternatively becoming rooted in the team’s personal individual experiences of bullying, this kind of as that of the game’s lead designer, Henry Walsh.

“It is stories like these that actually fuel us to try out to give men and women a voice, as cliché as that sounds,” Salha said. “Also, we know how delicate bullying is appropriate now and it is a Huge challenge to balance this subject in a video game… but it is a challenge we are prepared to accept. We know we are going to spark debate and that is a very good thing. Even reading some of the comment sections of the place our post has been posted, there seems to be a misunderstanding of what bullying really is.”

And that is what SumoBoy would like to modify — although one particular could argue that a video game that requires utilizing violence to defeat foes may possibly not be the very best way to send that message.

The group, however, has believed of that too.

“Is the game’s message that fighting back is the answer to bullying? In a quick answer, no,” Salha explained. “Even though, through the game, Oji does battle enemies, not a single 1 of the ‘bullies’ in the game is actually defeated by fighting. There would seem to be a misconception relating to the trailer and the scene of the bullies turning into demons. In the game, Oji’s bullies do not grow to be demons that he then fights. Oji travels to the spirit globe in the game and fights evil spirits. Without giving also much away, the monstrous bullies in the trailer are component of an illusion, like a dream sequence.”

TAPRR

In truth, Salha, elaborated, not a single one particular of the game’s boss bullies can be taken down by fighting.

“One particular enemy, for illustration, in the Water Realm is a giant catfish spirit, the spirit is producing earthquakes that are threatening a village,” he stated. “This boss cannot be overcome with violence. It is too big and too potent. Instead, Oji have to find one more way, and he learns that the “bully” is in fact leading to trouble due to the fact Kurai Kami’s minions have taken in excess of its nest. This is a metaphor that represents that often bullies aren’t poor people, they are dealing with issues and just lashing out.”

And, although Oji is the star of the game’s Kickstarter campaign, the game will have a good deal more to offer you, with Salha hinting at, but not confirming, cooperative multiplayer.

“We truly had to hold ourselves back with our trailer,” he mentioned. “We have so significantly more to say and show, but we wanted to introduce Oji first.”

You can assistance the task and reserve a copy of the game for Pc, Mac, Linux and mobile for a minimal pledge of AU$ 12 on Kickstarter. Head in excess of to the SumoBoy Kickstarter campaign to verify it out.

Anti-Bullying RPG 'SumoBoy' Listed on Kickstarter

As video game storytelling evolves, we are seeing more and more of these touching narratives permeate the medium’s ecosystem. SumoBoy, a top-down RPG recently listed on Kickstarter, looks to continue this promising trend.

Go look!

Game I am working on!