Ohio-based Independent game developer Joseph “Flardonics” Strobelt unveiled his second game, Flightless Fables, with a Kickstarter trailer this past July to announce the beginning of the game’s crowdfunding process. The announcement video garnered a substantial amount of attention, with just over 4,000 likes; however, the Kickstarter only saw a total of 403 backers within its fundraising period. Flightless Fables’ Kickstarter managed to crowdfund only just over $9k of its $15k goal by its ending date on August 28. Those backers who had supported Flardonics’ Kickstarter—understandably disappointed with the fundraiser’s failure— urged Strobelt not to let his dream die along with the fundraiser.

As a result, Flardonics continues to engage with his backers through development updates, which he uploads to his YouTube channel, detailing new additions and features present in Flightless Fables, which acts to both document his progress on the project and bring in new potential fans. Flightless Fables is a charming, coloring-book-styled dungeon crawler roguelike where you play as one of a crew of three little bird-like adventurers, each with their own unique play styles. This crew includes the Backpacker—equipped with the ability to hold more items, and a dodge roll—the Mage, and the Rogue, who’s particularly quick and weilds only a dagger. Randomized dungeon layouts will keep players on their toes with each attempt, as potion, enemy, and even dropped weapon attributes are randomized to have you always on the hunt for something better.

Interesting design choices like these are what set the concept for Flightless Fables apart from other dungeon-crawling platformers; however, if we take a step back to look at the initial inspirations and similarities the game has to other titles, we can more deeply imagine its true possibilities.

Gameplay in Flightless Fables resembles that of Derek Yu’s Spelunky, complete with climbable ropes that hang from the ceiling and interactable, destroyable surroundings such as flammable wooden ladders. This game also holds a striking resemblance to Big Mode and Billy Basso’s Animal Well, due to their shared colorful yet dark dungeon atmosphere that feels both wrong and right at the same time, given their thematic vibrance. While these two games hold striking resemblance to Flightless Fables, Strobelt specifically names Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. series and Zelda: The Windwaker—on the game’s Kickstarter page—as his game’s true inspirations. Though gameplay has yet to be seen of much of the game’s combat systems, as is the influence stated being brought from the Super Smash Bros. series, the influence mentioned from Zelda: The Windwaker’s art style is palpable in all of the footage available of Flightless Fables, as both have contained a similarly vibrant, coloring-book aesthetic. Fans of all of these franchises and the genres associated with them can find something to be excited about in this game, whether that be the different playable characters and their combat styles, the dungeon-crawling aspect of exploration, or the nostalgically whimsical art direction.

Though the game’s failed Kickstarter spelled bad luck early on, fans remain excited for the eventual release of Flightless Fables to PC via Steam and Itch.io. If all things go well with marketing efforts, hopefully, given time, Flardonics will garner enough of a following to warrant reattempting the game’s Kickstarter campaign.