If there’s one great benefit to the crowdfunding model of producing independent games, it’s that it exposes us to a swath of thought-provoking, nostalgic, and downright delightful visual styles and design philosophies. From Lab Zero’s Indivisible, to Nigoro’s La-Mulana, crowdfunding campaigns also let us participate in iterative campaigns; they make us feel a part of a greater narrative as we experience a game’s design process from its conception to its conclusion. Such is the case with Greg Lobanov’s Wandersong, which reached its $18k stretch goal on Kickstarter last Saturday.

Lobanov – who is also known for his previous work, Coin Crypt – posted a hearty thank you to his supporters on Wandersong’s Kickstarter page last Sunday.

Thank you so, so, so much from the bottom of my heart. I’ve been moved by all the energy, excitement, enthusiasm that’s some from all our backers. With the campaign out of the way, the road ahead feels refreshingly clear.

We didn’t hit every stretch goal, but I’ll make the best of what we’ve gotten and try to budget wisely to give everyone the best thing we can out of this. 🙂 Personally, I’m very excited to continue working on the game and to deliver something magical to our backers. In the coming days/weeks we’ll be sending out backer surveys and getting in touch about some of the special rewards.

Wandersong is an unconventional adventure platformer in which the player (as a bard) travels the world to save it from temporal reconstitution through the magical power of song. As its simple, papercraft visual style might suggest, the game is both charming and fey, with plenty of humor along the way.

Lobanov stresses that the game is not about simple pattern matching. Instead, song is used dynamically to affect the environment; different notes and tones can be used to manipulate objects in a variety of ways, and different combinations of songs will produce new effects.

Wandersong takes you on a whimsical, musical journey around the world! Use your singing to connect people, solve puzzles, and (hopefully) save the world!

Inspired by a 5,000 mile bike ride across America, this game is all about going on an adventure, meeting tons of unique characters along the way, and using the power of music to bring them all together!

This game is not about memorizing and re-using songs; it’s about observing what’s around you and using music to interact with each unique situation.

A game called Wandersong is not complete without a lovingly-crafted soundtrack, of course. Hyperduck Soundworks, who is also known for working on Dust: An Elysian Tale, and Martin Molin, of Swedish folk-pop bands Wintergatan and formerly Detektivbyrån, will be working on the game’s soundtrack. The game will be accompanied by simple tunes inspired by Irish folksong, in addition to a range of other influences like The Wind Waker.

Wandersong’s visuals, meanwhile, draw from a variety of animated media, from Nintendo’s Earthbound to animated features like My Neighbor Totoro and Over the Garden Wall. Lobanov discusses teh core tenets of the project in the video below:

Wandersong is set to release some time in 2017 for both Mac and Windows platforms. You can watch Lobanov’s livestream here, where he will document and showcase Wandersong’s development process.