About

Dangerous Gameplay Video: The video is from a stable version, containing the physics developed for the game. The graphics are placeholders and are not intended to represent the final look of the game.

Dangerous is an exciting multiplayer 2D platforming shooter where quick reflexes and sharp wits are your key to survival. Set on an ancient island with diverse landscapes and immersive environments, Dangerous calls upon you to arm yourself for a frenetic fight to the death. Featuring a vibrant hand-drawn art style, Dangerous offers players a unique experience for an XBOX Live title for the XBOX 360 (with hopes to release on PC, and possibly other platforms). We’ve been developing Dangerous for over nine months and it is currently in a playable and stable prototype form on the XBOX 360 that includes many of the important features we want to include in the final game.

A Unique Gaming Experience

We started developing Dangerous with a desire to create a fun, shared experience similar to classic games like Worms, Goldeneye, Mario Kart, and Bomber Man. We wanted the excitement and camaraderie that we used to get by having friends come over and play games together, on the same screen, trash talking each other and pushing each other to see who was the best. With that as our foundation, we started creating a real-time 2D platforming shooter (think contra, but with four players fighting each other and the environment to survive), that was fast, hectic, and constantly changing. We then starting building off of a robust physics engine which creates a world that functions based on a set of rules that are universal to every player, element, and effect in the world. This means that the world lives by standards that are understood by everyone, but the specific elements of every level are able to change every game, so players can learn and adapt to the changing conditions of the match.

Below we have listed some of the exciting features that are in our game. We're excited to be making this game, and we hope you're excited to be able to play it in the future!

An Unforgettable Art Style with hand-drawn levels, characters and weaponry. The world of Dangerous is uniquely crafted to provide a memorable and aesthetically resonant 2D experience. Talented artists and level designers worked with pen and paper in order to bring Dangerous from page to screen. Each level has numerous graphical elements that are gorgeously hand-drawn and imported into the game that give it the look of a journal come alive.

Multiple Customizable Characters allow you to fight as one of the outsiders to the island or take up arms as a native and defend your honor as you battle in a contest to the death. Characters can be customized in and out of battles by acquiring new weapons, power-ups, and changing features. As players battle, they acquire "experience" (for lack of a better word) that allows them to upgrade certain paths to customize their character they way they want. Have a love of heavy weapons? Create a character to be a wrecking crew. More a fan of the stealth kill? Make use of the more subtle and covert elements in the game. Each character can be modified to meet your needs, or you can disable character upgrades to put everyone at the same level, and have everyone just go at it.

Destructible and Interactive Environments that alter the way you experience levels. Sniper troubles? Literally destroy the ground from under them, or channel rushing water towards them to flush them out. Or shoot the tree above, so that it falls and crushes them. Environmental hazards and destructible terrain keep you on your toes, while the physics based gameplay allows the levels to change dynamically as you play, so no two matches will ever be the same.

Four Player local multiplayer allows you and up to three of your friends to enjoy Dangerous simultaneously in the classic tradition of games from the past. Play with your friends in a real-time competitive environment that is designed to be a frantic, exhilarating, and fun deathmatch style experience.

Answer the Call. Join the Hunt.

Note: Our hope is that we will be able to release this as an XBOX Live Arcade title early next year, however, it should be noted that we are currently awaiting word from Microsoft regarding the release of their new console, anticipated this holiday season, which may impact the release date. Regardless of any new information released by Microsoft, we will at a minimum be able to release the full version of the game to all supporters over the XBOX 360 Indie Game store.

Multivarious Games is a start-up Video Game Studio in Columbus, Ohio whose leadership is composed of individuals who have been in the technology and game space for many years. Over the past several months we have developed a strong team of extremely talented artists, programmers, and designers - all local to Columbus, who desire to create and deliver novel game experiences that challenge both the players and the industry in a positive and captivating way. As a start-up studio we don’t have a lot of the resources of the bigger guys, but our team is committed to producing the best gaming experiences we can.

With this overall mission, and your support, we will be able to grow this burgeoning industry in a city that's not otherwise known for game development. With this in mind, we turn to you for assistance.

The purpose of our kickstarter campaign is to make Dangerous the best game we can. We have already logged hundreds of hours with a staff comprised entirely of volunteers in what has been a true labor of love. In order to get to that next step in the development process we need funding to cover the production costs that become necessary when creating this type of game. This funding will assist with development costs, including our aim to release this on the xbox platform, such as localization and external Quality Assurance Testing, and the purchase of the XBOX SDK. Additionally, we want to offer financial support to all of our team members, who have been tirelessly working on the game, and lastly, we need to have funds available to pay for any future work and unexpected expenses.

This support will allow us to continue development at the pace that our current design plans will require. Additional funding will give us the opportunity to create more intricate and dynamic levels, additional content, and perhaps even a single player and multiplayer story campaign. With all of this in mind, we have turned to Kickstarter to assist us with our debut into this industry.

Below are some of the expected costs when implementing over XBOX Live Arcade.

Kickstarter Related Costs

Kickstarter + Amazon Fee = ~$2,250

Kickstarter Reward Fulfillment = $2,000-$3,000

Taxes = $5,000-$6,000

Total = $ 9,250 - $11,250





Fixed Development Costs

Xbox 360 SDK = $10,000

Quality Assurance Testing = $2,000-$3,000

Localization = $2,000-$3,000

Total = $14,000 - $16,000





Additional Costs

Conferences for Marketing/Promotion = $2,000-$3,000

Advertising = $1,000-$3,000

Total = $3,000 - $6,000





Our kickstarter money is designed to go primarily towards the fixed development costs, and the kickstarter related expenses. With almost all of the other costs coming out-of-pocket. These initial funds are going entirely to development of Dangerous.

Additional donations will allow us to enhance the features of the game, make use of other advertising sources, help us attend expos and conferences, such as GDC and PAX, to better promote the game, and compensate our team for their hard work.

In the past, there were few options beyond what the established studios were releasing. But now, new content and even entire games are available nearly instantaneously over download services, which reduces the cost of development substantially for smaller studios. It also allows for a closer connection between fans of the industry and those making the games. This lets smaller companies such as ours, who are really a collection of fans themselves, to put out higher quality games. But these games still have a significant cost.

We are a small business based in Columbus, Ohio. All of us are currently volunteering our time to work on projects, and our team is extremely excited to keep working on Dangerous. Unfortunately, the reality is that the development process has a variety of fixed costs which we must cover.

At the end of the day, we're just gamers, like most of you. We want to do what we love; playing and making video games. This is one of the biggest challenges we've ever undertaken as a team, and we're excited and hopeful that you'll join us.

Why simply back a project, when you could also be netting yourself a lot of cool, one-of-a-kind swag. We've created a variety of reward tiers to suit just about everyone, each tier with more interesting rewards than the last. And don't forget, you can always support our project at any dollar amount if you aren't interested in the rewards.

But that's Not all!

By selecting Artist or Coder in either the $50,$100, or $500 dollar section, you'll not only be supporting us and grabbing your rewards. You'll be helping to settle the age old argument of what makes a game great, The Art or The Code?

4/21/2013 Update: Artists pull ahead for the first time in our competition. Only 10 more days to support your side!

Take a few moments to look at our rewards and chose the one that is right for you.

Given the nature of game development, we've created a series of stretch goals for the project based on possible support levels. Additional funding will give us the freedom and flexibility to create an even more dynamic and interesting gameplay experience!

We would like to thank all of our partners who have helped to support and promote our Kickstarter and Dangerous. Without the help and support of people like these, we wouldn't be able to do what we do.

Amorphia Apparel

Amorphia Apparel helped us by donating materials for our Kickstarter Kick-Off Party and promoting us online.

AbleGamers Foundation

The AbleGamers Foundation has been extremely generous in helping us promote our events and Kickstarter, as well as supplying us with equipment to video capture our game. We look forward to working with them more to make video games more accessible to everyone.

Ajumama

Ajumama was one our first partners. They donated several prizes to our raffle that helped make it a great success. They've also been great at promoting us and helping to spread the word about our Kickstarter.

Bad Movie Nite!

Bad Movie Nite! a local Columbus good time was generous enough to donate free tickets and t-shirts to our raffle. Check out the link for more information for something to do on the first Friday of every month!

Griffen Hollow Studio Kickstarter

Alex of GHS has been a great partner to work with and is support MVG as a fellow local kickstarterer. Please show some support to his project, it's really awesome

Play It! Games and Music

Play It was one of our first partners, and helped with our kickstarter event, as well as promoting Dangerous through their stores. Check them out if you're in the need of some new games!

Seventh Son Brewing Company

Seventh Son let us host our Kickstarter Kick-Off party for free as well as donated some of their pint glasses for the raffle. Thank you for letting us make use of such a great space.

Emily Holt (emilyholtproductions@gmail.com): Thank you to Emily for spending the day with us and getting all of that great video footage for our videos. We owe you big!