Eco Spirits Brings Pokemon-Style Gameplay To Kickstarter

Pokemon is such a popular phenomenon that you would expect more clones popping up faster than MisterXMedia can drum up conspiracy theories radical enough to make the X-Files look like a collection of paranormal documentaries. However, that's not the case and we don't get many quality Pokemon clones the way we might usually expect... until now.

Ambitious indie start-up DOT Studio is looking into the whole role-playing, capture, trading, battling paradigm popularized by Game Freak, and they're doing so via Kickstarter.

The game is pretty straightforward, throwing players into the role of a monster hunter, though not of the Capcom kind where you strap up some mean-butt armor and attempt to cut down monsters that are big enough to give Godzilla some trouble in the ring. Nope, instead gamers are the kind of hunters who carry around bug nets and capture various elemental monsters.

Players will be able to gather items, level up their monsters and grow stronger, just like in Pokemon. The game also takes cues from other titles like Metabots and Digimon, insofar that players can unlock new abilities and grow their monster to face off against 249 other digital rascals.

The game has a pretty hefty ambition, coming out of the gate with a $95,000 basic goal for tablets and mobile handsets, but with far bigger plans set in place for other platforms via the stretch goals. So let's roll it out:

At $600,000 an Amazon and Windows 8 version will be made... but no one likes Windows 8, so I imagine most people will just skip over that and keep throwing money at the project toward the real gaming platforms.

At $1,000,000 they plan to make a web version of the game... but that's pretty much for the Farmville and Facebook audience. Most gamers who plan to play Eco Spirits like a core game don't care about the web.

At $1.5 million gamers will get a PC version, and here's where things start getting real. A PC version enables for real gamers to put in some real time with the title.

At $2.3 million they'll make a Nintendo 3DS version... which is nice, but $2.3 million is a pretty big stretch goal for an unproven IP.

At $2.7 million they'll pump out a PS Vita version, but that's about the equivalent of heading out to the desert and feeding rodent bones a bowl of water. The PS Vita is so dead that vultures are too embarrassed to pick at the carcass.

At the $3 million mark we start getting serious... a Wii U verison. This is the one that will make or break the game and could potentially even help move some big units for Nintendo's latest console. For $250,000 beyond the Wii U stretch goal, the team would consider an Xbone version and for $500,000 more, they'll consider a version for the console that can regularly pump out 1080p at 60fps. I guess it makes sense to pay more and get more, right?

Let's hope they can at least get to the Wii U version... eh?

If you want to see this project become a real thing, feel free to learn more or donate by visiting the official Kickstarter page.