Help a beautiful Japanese-style RPG get made

I loved Mariel Cartwright's art for radical fighting game Skullgirls, and now she's working on a big new roleplaying adventure called Indivisible, inspired by classic exploration and combat games like Valkyrie Profile and Super Metroid.

Unusually for the genre, the cast of characters is visually diverse, with a young woman of color as the protagonist. Hiroki Kikuta, best known for the Secret of Mana soundtrack, will do the soundtrack for this one, which is pretty impressive too.

If it sounds star-studded and ambitious, it is—which is why the game is attempting to raise $1.5 million through crowdfunding. If it achieves that goal, publisher 505 Games will provide the remainder of Indivisible's $3.5 million budget. That might sound steep for crowdfunding, but throwback-style games in well-loved niches often raise large budgets.

It'll be interesting to see how Indivisible does—this sort of funding approach, whereby the audience provides the "seed round" that gives a larger company the confidence to produce and back the project, is one possible avenue for unusual or nostalgic games to get made. Vote with your wallet at IndieGoGo if you're interested in this one.