Frogteam Games began the Kickstarter campaign for their latest title this past October 13, and with just 24 days remaining until its end date, the small team of developers has garnered 233 backers, crowdfunding just under $11,000 of their $21,389 goal. With the game achieving this level of success only five days into the crowdfunding process, hopes are high that the team will be able to reach their goal swiftly and begin pursuing stretch goals. It is detailed on the Kickstarter for Stomp and the Sword of Miracles that this is the second game Frogteam Games has crowdfunded on Kickstarter. Their previous title, Frogsong, saw great success in its early development stages on Kickstarter as its campaign saw 899 backers crowdfund the team’s nearly $30,000 end goal.

Stomp and the Sword of Miracles is a 2D platformer metroidvania whose origins date all the way back to its creator’s childhood. As detailed by the lead developer on the game’s Kickstarter page, 

Stomp himself is a character I first came up with when I was only 10 years old.

The game sees Stomp embark on a journey to save his world from annihilation at the hands of the god of chaos, the Duskman. Stomp will have to explore the intertwined and connecting areas of his world in search of the sword of miracles, the one thing capable of stopping the advancement of the Duskman’s plans.

Upon first glance, Stomp and the Sword of Miracles shares a striking resemblance in terms of gameplay with Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight series, due to Stomp’s basic sword slash ability that we see used throughout the Kickstarter trailer. While this similarity is effective in detailing the game’s intended audience, Stomp differs from Hollow Knight in several aspects, such as item customization, weapon arsenal, and art style. Besides just using the Sword of Miracles, Stomp has an arsenal of tools at his disposal, such as a boomerang—useful for cutting ropes for puzzles, and taking out enemies from a distance—bombs useful against groups of enemies, an enemy scanner to log the various enemy types you encounter, and more to be revealed with time. Stomp and the Sword of Miracles’ tile-based relic system is another aspect that sets it apart from other metroidvanias, as it adds an extra layer of depth to the game’s collectables and equipables. Each relic has its own unique shape, meaning that you will need to choose the correct orientation and combination of relics to fit into a three-by-three grid. This mechanic’s depth is further amped up with the changing of a relic’s effect depending on its orientation in the grid. This opens doors for gamers to have direct control over exactly how they want to play the game, through the means of personally preferred relic placements and combinations for specific ‘character build’ type effects.

In terms of art style, the vibrant and expressive children’s book art style that Frogteam Games has employed lends itself to a more lighthearted tone that is reminiscent of other lighthearted narrative-driven metroidvanias, such as Sectordub’s PIKUNIKU. Thanks to this, a wider audience of gamers will be able to be reached and drawn in by the charming atmosphere present in Stomp and the Sword of Miracles.

Fans of narrative-driven indie metroidvanias and all things Hollow Knight are sure to be excited about the upcoming release of Stomp and the Sword of Miracles to PC via Steam, and the potential release to Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. A free-to-play demo will be available for PC gamers via Steam until the end of the Steam Next Fest this coming October 20.