Kickstarter Project of the Week: McDROID
For this week’s Switch Kickstarter Project of the Week, we will be looking at Elefantopia’s McDROID. The game is slated to release April 2021 next year on Nintendo Switch.
Here’s the overview:
Defend your *very* talkative Shuttle friend against a variety of alien species as they mutate, corrupt the ground or even turn your crops against you. Load up to 3 weapons on your back and take the battle to them. If it gets too crazy, turtle up behind your defensive perimeter, send your mini robot army to them and assume direct control of the turrets. It will challenge your trigger finger and your wits as you multitask running, building your base, shooting, harvesting, repairing, protecting, upgrading and researching all at the same time.
In December of 2011 McDROID was born off a dream: a boxy yellow robot gazing at giant creatures lumbering above tree tops in the mist. The adventure of its creation lasted 3 years, a dedication that only madness and love can inspire. In 2014 we released McDROID on Steam.
Let us say it was not a commercial success.
But we kept updating the game for 6 years, motivated by the kind words of our players who could feel the love poured into it, and the positive impact it seemed to have on kids during PAX, and the sheer joy of playing it ourselves.
A few years later, one of our player suggested an adaptation to the Nintendo Switch. The idea kept echoing in my head so I made a mock-up to see what this would look like…
… and once again fell in love with this little yellow robot!
So here I am, starting development on the Switch. It is already fun to play but the controls are off, it crashes a lot and it runs at 11 fps so I realize “oh boy this will take a lot of work”.
That’s why I need your help. I need a bit of funding to cover a few month of work and give me focus in order to push through this, and perhaps as a result McDROID will become a commercial success.
With McDROID having less than favourable success on Steam, it’s time to see whether it can make a dent on the Nintendo Switch eShop. We know that indie games have found great success on the hybrid console and McDROID’s cel shaded aesthetic with a twin-stick shooter-esque Doshin the Giant approach certainly peeks my interest.
McDROID required only $500USD and it is currently sitting at $993USD after 40 backers with 35 days remaining. If you’d like to support the development of this game to help it come to Nintendo Switch, click the link below to visit the Kickstarter page.
Thank you to our $5 and up Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:
- Andrew Caluzzi (Inca Studios / Camped Out!)
- Belinda Cubitt
- Jon Crispe