Sundae Month raised $9,350 on Kickstarter for their weaponized child-rearing simulator, Dad Quest. The game put players in the patriarchal role of a father raising their indestructible child to battle for supremacy, or something. Basically, the premise was utterly ridiculous in all the right ways.
The Good, The Bad, The WTF?
Much of the original flash demo released for Dad Quest, and subsequently the Kickstarter content, showcased a number of features and mechanics planned for the full game. Unfortunately, as developer Sundae Month began to implement these features into a larger experience, they didn’t hold up. In their most recent Kickstarter update they let backers know which mechanics wouldn’t make it into the full game.
Dad Quest is first and foremost a game about throwing children around as weapons. As the very heart of this project, that much remains unchanged. Other Kickstarter mechanics, however, such as different classes of child and multiple generations of the Dad via the dad death cycle weren’t so lucky.
“We wanted the absurdity, but we also wanted to have recurring characters too; and the narrative/gameplay mechanics associated with dying, time passing, and your Child growing up to be the new Dad was very funny, but made it difficult to create a world where we could tell our story, have the player feel a strong bond to their child, AND have it all make sense.”
To that end, the developers have scrapped their old game engine and decided to focus on a new design direction for Dad Quest. The new story will focus on just one Dad and their powerful child. Rather than rely on procedural generation, the levels will be hand-crafted with planned sequences. This allows the team to work recurring characters and side quests into the adventure. All while leveling up the Child to be the most devastating weapon possible. The goal of every parent.
Dad Quest will be releasing as an Early Access title in February of 2017. You can check out the Steam page for more information.
