You know a good way to get your project funded? Set the limit so low that anything beyond that will be a worthwhile donation to your production. That's exactly what technical director and game designer for Treyarch's Spider-Man 2 for Xbox/PS2/Gamecube did.
Jamie Fristrom took his expertise to the interactive screen and opened up a plethora of city-swinging antics and a fantasy playground of fanfaronacious acrobatics and score-devouring stunts for ambitious grapple goers.
The name of the game is Energy Hook and it distills the notion of needing a strong narrative or plot to encapsulate a little something-something from the Golden Age of gaming known as “fun”. The objective is simple: Use the energy grappling hook to swing in, out, up, down, around, about and through various obstacle courses to rack up as many points as possible.
Using the crux of gravity as the basis for stunt acclivity, Energy Hook is a game that doesn't short change a completely ridiculous premise in place of something more grounded. As indicated by the video above, the indie title is all about embracing the motion of breaking through aerial barriers.
One last thing of note is that the Kickstarter campaign for Energy Hook was more of an experimental test that expanded, evolved and eventually snowballed into a very noteworthy crowd-funding drive that is actually heading towards some very lofty goals, including a release of Energy Hook Linux.
The game is currently looking for some upvotes and favoriting on Steam's Greenlight. You can check out the Kickstarter page to learn more. Huge props for Fristrom using a really wacky method for getting his game out there and earning some proper funds to make it into a game-changing reality.
