The Polish game developer Image Power is currently in the later stages of developing its newest title, Creature Lab. In the game, the players assume the role of a mad scientist, a modern rendition of Dr. Frankenstein. Creature Lab was added to Kickstarter in late December, where the developer is seeking for further funding to finish the game on additional platforms and add new items to it.
The Kickstarter campaign has been online for just over two weeks and more than 65 percent has been funded, but the goal hasn't been reached. There is also a multitude of cool features, which the developer hopes to be able to add to the game, which requires reaching stretch goals. Game ZXC spoke to the Creature Lab developer about the campaign and some of its ambitious goals.
The Main Goal is to Get Creature Lab to More People
Creature Lab is a labor of love, which has been in the works for a while and in the idea bank for much longer. The indie developer believes in the concept wholeheartedly and sees promise in it beyond just a simple Steam release. The most important thing for them is to get the game in the hands of as many people as possible.
"We think that not only PC players would like to experience what we had cooked up. Mad science knows no boundaries."
This would require a comprehensive launch on various platforms, which in turn comes with a much bigger burden on a small team. The Kickstarter campaign was launched to make this happen. The $7,335 (10,000 CAD) goal was entered to make a console port of the game possible.
The funding goal would secure multi-platform development for Creature Lab, which includes all major current-generation consoles in addition to PC. Some of the first stretch goals are also designed to make the game more accessible to a wider audience, like including more supported languages.
The personal rewards for supporting the game are well thought through as well. In addition to simple perks like thanks in the credits, the developer is ready to offer game bundles, game-themed wallpapers, and with higher tiers even customized content in the game itself.
Image Power Hopes to Add More Content to Creature Lab
While most importantly the studio wants the game on as many hands as possible, it hasn't forgotten its ambitious plans for Creature Lab. The stretch goals on Kickstarter reflect this perfectly. Not only is Image Power going to add more customizations and an original soundtrack, but there are also much bigger plans for the mad scientist.
The developers are passionate about the game and would love to expand it to completely new heights. One of the first major additions to the game would be a player assistant Igor, which seems to be an immaculate fit for the theme of the game. The company already designed three different versions of Igor and allowed the community to vote for their favorite.
"Our favorite stretch goal is probably Igor – an AI companion that can help you in the lab."
Other stretch goals with gameplay additions would include more base mutants to start with and more limbs to upgrade the creations with. An outline for nine new limbs has been included in the Kickstarter, although they offer more than just a visual distinction.
Although all these are good additions, there's much more in store if Image Power can muster the resources to keep development going. One of the latter stretch goals is a mobile companion app. This would allow access to the game's Dark Web with a mobile device, and let the player browse contracts and make shady deals on the go regarding the game's side quest system.
However, by far the most ambitious of the stretch goals is naturally the last of them. The studio would like to build an active combat system instead of the game's visualized combat that happens in the background. It has already laid the groundwork for this addition when designing the current battle system. The same stats, units, and tactics would be used in the new combat.
We think that adding active combat instead of the visualizations we have in the base game would have a positive impact on the experience. That said, we will aim to keep it quite simple – we don’t want it to take over the other aspects of the game, just enrich it.
Image Power thinks that the active element would bring something valuable to the game. Players would be able to control their army of mutants and have an effect on the outcome during the combat. This could be things like managing the deployment of the units to controlling which military target they attack in a traditional turn-based system.
Creature Lab will be released soon on PC.