Recently a Kickstarter for the visual novel, Minotaur, was launched by the Russian studio U7 Committee. This sci-fi mystery is seeking to raise €30,000 (about $31,800 USD) by May 16th. The team has shown that they're already organized with a demo available and a Steam Greenlight page.
The game takes place in the futuristic city of Nova, DC. There a number of tenants of an apartment building are now stuck within their own homes. If they venture out into the hallways, a sprawling labyrinth awaits with many deadly twists and turns. Is there a legendary Minotaur waiting for them at the middle of the maze or is it sweet escape?
The game takes inspiration from the Zero Escape in set up and Danganronpa in its story. But the action will be through a point and click interface like the adventure games of old. The press release given by U7 Committee even lists the classic titles by Sierra and LucasArts as inspirations as well.
The game will also feature these differing aspects:
- Immersive hybrid of gaming: Minotaur features point and click exploration as well as various puzzles to solve, set against a visual novel-style narrative. There are tons of items to interact with and many collectables to find. There are also many special events like cinematic sequences & boss fights that require the players input
- 5 Playable Characters: There are five routes in the game, unlockable in succession, that each follow the story of another resident of the Royce apartments. The characters possess their own unique skills, which enhance gameplay.
- Multiple Endings: The choices you make and the actions you take in each route affects the next route, leading to multiple endings.
- Full HD: Minotaur is a 2.5D game that features a rich and detailed sci-fi fantasy setting, with hand-drawn characters & almost 150 animated photorealistic backgrounds.
- Full English Voice Over: Each character in Minotaur has its own voice, thanks to the folks at Kocha Sound. You may recognize the actors from other games & popular anime series like Tales of Zestira, Battleborn and Warframe.
The unique premise and art style definitely make Minotaur stand out from the usual visual novel fair found on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. They're even trying weird new ideas like having 'boss fights' in a point and click adventure. They've nearly hit 25% of their crowdfunding goal and with a month left to go, it seems like they will surpass their magic number.
The game is set to come out for Mac and PC if their campaign is successful. The estimated date of completion is December of this year. You can watch the pitch video below:
https://ksr-video.imgix.net/projects/2885966/video-769686-h264_high.mp4