Rad Rodgers, a Love Letter to 90’s Platformers
Rad Rodgers is an action-packed 4th-wall busting 3D side-scroller inspired by the precision platformers of the 90’s, powered by Unreal Engine 4. In development by Interceptor Entertainment, the game has around 70 hours to go on Kickstarter and is within the grasp of its first stretch goal. If the first stretch goal of $75,000 is reached there will be new bonus levels added and it will give the team a head start on World 2.
Twelve-year-old Rad Rodgers is our hero and his console-come-to-life ball busting buddy, Dusty is his companion. Dusty is an overused last generation video game console who’s likely just one restart away from a red-ring-of-death. He rides along in Rad’s backpack, providing (sometimes questionable) verbal support, and lays waste with his punching power gloves.
It’s no secret that Rad is a 12-year-old boy who gets sucked into his video game world one night, to find himself the star of his very own gaming adventure. But what hasn’t been revealed yet is precisely how Interceptor wants to handle their World changes. Well, they work a lot like changing out the game cartridge in an old video game console.
Not only does the locale and environment change between worlds, but most of the game itself is fundamentally different. The world doesn’t have to behave anything like World 1 did, because, in essence, it is a completely different game that gets loaded up into Dusty.
Of course, it’s still a platformer at heart, so much of the side-scrolling nature of platforming will persist. Particularly with respect to how Rad moves, how tight the controls are, etc. And the Pixelverse (the space and time between the running game and the physical hardware) will be a common thread between Worlds. But other than that, all bets are off with how the world behaves, what kinds of puzzles or enemies the player will encounter, and surely the boss fights.
Rad Rodgers’ second world has yet to be fully designed, but early concept art is meant to give players a sense for just how different a place World 2 might look and feel. If the $200,000 Stretch Goal is reached by the end of the campaign, all backers will receive World 2 at no extra charge when it is finished and released.