Some names, frankly, do not instill much confidence in the end product. Seeing the Kickstarter campaign for Rusty Tiger Production’s The Golden Turd certainly didn’t lead me to believe that, yes, this was a project worth noting. Certainly not to the tune of the $49,591 funding goal they have set for themselves. And yet, here I am telling you about it, because once you get past the name the game actually looks fun.
With a name like The Golden Turd this game could go several different ways, most of them unpleasant. Instead, Rusty Tiger takes the high road (airspace?) and sets the stage for a surprisingly engaging 64-player battle royal, with flies.
Players take control of one of 14 possible poo-hungry glory seeking warriors. Each member of the fly squad brings their own unique class-based abilities and absurd fly-sized weapons of destruction. Teams work together to harvest food from the towering human world. Along the way they will have to fight off rival fly swarms and potentially titanic human adversary’s.
Everybody Poops
The end game is to be the team to collect the most food and convert it into the coveted Golden Turd. It feels a bit like they had to tie the name in somehow and the rest of the game is too busy being about fun, squad-based combat. Considering all of the prototype gameplay shown on the campaign page focuses on exploring massive human-scaled environments and ridiculous weaponry, you’ll forgive me for feeling like the name seems a bit contrived.
I can’t decide if calling the game The Golden Turd is just an appeal to the sort of low-brow humor that my 8-year-old really appreciates or if there is more to it. Maybe the odd name is meant in a self-deprecating sort of way? A wink and a nod from Rusty Tiger about absurd humor? A clever American Dad call-back? Either way, the name makes it hard for me to take the game seriously enough to want to contribute funding towards it.
Potential backers might kick in a dollar or more to a game just because it looks silly or has a goofy premise. However, that usually isn’t enough to guarantee funding. This could end up being a real problem for Rusty Tiger if they can’t convince enough backers to take The Golden Turd seriously. Even writing that sentence feels ridiculous, so imagine being asked to fund that.
“Hey, want to give us money to make The Golden Turd?”
Who says yes to that? (At least 10 people so far).
Should have called the game Flymageddon. Now that’s some good shit.
