Get the Energy Hook Trailer Off WP (45mb)

You play as Delilah, one-time Energy Hook great who has been out of the competition for years--raising her daughter--and now needs to get back in to pay for her daughter's medical bills. Maybe not as daunting as it sounds, with the anti-aging medical technology of The Future, but still, she'll have to learn the ropes all over again, as she competes to earn her way back up to the top of the Energy Hook league. An old friend, crippled in an Energy Hook accident, will help her through these tough channels and the changes that have happened in the sport since her heyday. 

Happion Laboratories has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund Energy Hook, interested fans can back the project here.

I’m Jamie Fristrom, and back in the dark ages I was technical director and designer on the Spider-Man 2 game, the one that came out with the movie. Unlike most movie license games, Spider-Man 2 turned out pretty good, and one of the reasons was its crazy swinging system, a system that I invented. Players who dove deep into the system really got a sense of what it might feel like to swing from rooftop to rooftop, holding onto dear life from a tiny thread, as momentum and gravity did their work.

You've probably noticed the one dollar funding goal and are wondering WTF. Well, as I’ve been working on this game I’ve fallen in love with it, and I’m going to finish it, no matter what, even if I don’t raise a dime. Now, since I went indie years ago I’ve been bleeding money, and I don't know how much indie resolve I have left. And having a family to support, it would be irresponsible of me to keep working on the game for too much longer or blow what’s left of our savings on it, which is why I’m trying to raise some money—to get an idea of how much people want this game, and find out how much more time and money I can responsibly spend. So it’s up to you: whether I’m going to spend just a few months tying a bow on this and shipping it, or, in my dream world, spend many months, bring more people onto the team, and do something super-extra-awesome.

Strech Goals:

$10,000: Social leaderboards and trophies, plus Gear Customization feature. 

Unlock new capabilities and adjust parameters on your jetpack, energy hook, and gravity boots that let you play the game the way that feels best to you.

$20,000: Linux support and new feature: zipping. 

Be able to play on Linux, and adjust the length of your energy hook in mid-air, or push a button to retract all the way, zipping you up to dizzying heights.

$30,000: Original music and audio by Brian Luzietti. 

Brian Luzietti is a veteran game musician and sound effects designer who has worked on an insane number of titles, including Descent, Fallout, Die By The Sword, and a nearly endless list of NBA, NHL, NFL, and ESPN sports titles. (Which could just come in handy here.) He’s the $30,000 stretch goal, and if we raise that much, everyone who backed the game at Beta level or above will get a digital copy of the soundtrack. 

$40,000: Oculus Rift support and New Level: "Wallrun Heaven"

Doesn't this sound like it would be cool with VR? A handful of people have suggested they'd like to play it with the Oculus Rift. 

Sounds cool to me, too, but doesn’t that mean it ought to be First Person instead of Third Person? So there’s going to be a lot of work to do to make it work with the Oculus Rift. And I’ll be honest with you: I bet it’ll be too hard to control, and could induce motion sickness. Finally, most people don’t have an Oculus Rift, so I don’t want to spend their money pursuing an experiment that might not even work.

So what I decided to do was this: yes, I’ll make Oculus Rift support part of an early stretch goal, but also only give it to the people who support at the Beta level or above. In other words, if you want the Oculus Rift support, you need to kick in a little extra.

Side note - the first-person mode should be...interesting...even without the Oculus Rift, and everybody will get to try that.

Also: additional level, one with lots of long walls pointing at each other to make for a wall-running paradise.

$55,000: Grab bag of new features

Ziplining: slide down diagonal ceilings as if on a zipline. Sliding: when hitting a floor or wall at speed go into a slide (for bonus points!) Ragdoll bails: when you eat it, it’ll hurt. But in a fun way. (Stair dismount, anyone? Or maybe think Trials.) These are features that I experimented with in the early days of prototyping and aren’t quite there yet, but with more time I’m sure I can make them work.  

$70,000: Rail sliding/grinding. 

Be able to grind rails and ledges; we’ll retrofit all the existing levels, including the bonus ones, to put opportunities to grind everywhere.

$90,000: Additional, seventh level: Sky City! 

Don't miss.

$110,000: Grab bag of midair tricks

We'll contract out more animation so you can do flips, big air, grabs, boneless, spin, and more. 

$130,000: The big one! ART MAKEOVER. 

With this much funding we can afford to bring on a full-time artist (to be named later) for several months to make across-the-board improvements in the game's look.