When your quaint seaside town has been besieged by imps there is only one clear solution: enchanted facial hair. At least, that’s what the team at Glovebox Games would have us believe. They are hoping to fund their game, Beard Blade on Kickstarter for $95,000.
Featuring cartoony 16-bit graphics and 2D platforming mechanics, Beard Blade cast players in the role of humble farmer turned chin foliage hero, Branson. With the help of a reformed wizard-turned-barber, Branson can change up his whisker style to unlock hairy new moves.
My sad attempt at beard puns aside, the game consists of solving puzzles and bashing bad-guys while exploring colorful worlds and mastering timed-attacks ala Super Mario RPG. The only thing Beard Blade didn’t seem to use his beard as, was ironically, a blade. He’s usually too busy using it as an extra hand or turning into walls.
Hirsute Heroes
Glovebox Games is aiming for a PC release on Steam, in the distant future of January 2018. In the meantime they have a demo to lure potential backers to the beard side (ha, got another one).
The overall campaign certainly looks good, but I do worry that $95,000 is a high goal for a simple 2D platformer by an unknown company. Glovebox admits in their ‘risks and challenges’ section that they’ve never tackled such a large project before, “let alone try to make an actual, real game that people are willing to support and buy.” This admission, while honest and transparent, might give some potential backers pause.
Time will tell if the world is ready for such overt masculinity. In the meantime checking out the Kickstarter campaign probably counts as No-Shave November prep work, if you are so inclined.
