That might be oOne of the stranger headlines I’ve ever written, but it’s pretty accurate. Van Partible, creator of Johnny Bravo, and Scott Eaton, the weapons guy behind Call of Duty and Metal of Honor, are teaming up to make a game. The game, Dancers of War, sounds as wonderfully bizarre as the title implies. The main character, Sgt. Jack Dancer, lives in a world where dance has been weaponized by a maniacal pop star looking to cause some chaos. It’s up to Sgt. Dancer to fight back the only way that seems to work, through a little dancing of his own. Unfortunately Sgt. Dancer isn’t as good at moving as his name would imply, so it doesn’t sound like it’ll be an easy mission.
As you probably guess by now the Depeche Mode portion of the story comes in by way of the soundtrack, which is being provided by Vince Clarke of Depeche Mode, Yaz, and Erasure fame. The songs will all be original creations, so don’t worry about having to listen to a remix of The Dead of Night over and over.
As off the wall as Dancers of War sounds it immediately brings to memory the modern classic, Space Channel 5, so the overall concept seems sound; only time will tell if the execution works.
So far there’s a lot of great talent in place, including Andy Bialk (Dexters Lab, Samurai Jack) doing character design, and voice work from Jeff Bennett (Johnny Bravo’s voice), Dee Bradley Baker (American Dad, Adventure Time, Sponge Bob), Jennifer Hale (every video game ever made), and Charlie Adler (he voice your childhood, look him up).
Van and his team are looking to raise $750,000 by April 30th to fund Dancers of War. That target is an extremely aggressive one, especially with no gameplay to show, and no big name game legends on board. However, it’s safe to say that the team knows people who know people, so there could be some big backers ready to jump in. Keep an eye on this one.
