About

New info:

Add-on copy: (for tiers $10 and up)

You can add to your rewards, extra digital copies of the game for $12AUD per copy, just don't change your tier! Just increase the amount of your pledge and we'll send you a survey. Add $12AUD: per extra copy of the game for Win / Mac / Linux / OUYA.

Physical Box Tier Added!:

If you've pledged in a tier above $50, you'll automatically receive this beauty package too!

Early Access:

The Early Access pre-release game Beta, available in the early-bird Champion Backer tier and above), will be released in February!!

Wii-U info:

the Wii-U platform will be available at the $16 tier and above. When you receive the survey after the funding period, you will be given the choice of either the "OUYA/PC/Mac/Linux" platforms OR "Wii-U".

Bonus Character Reveal #4:

Bonus Character Reveal #3:

Bonus Character Reveal #2:

Bonus Character Reveal #1:

Super World Karts is a retro mode-7 style 16-bit kart racer, it looks and plays like a classic SNES game but also adds some modern game thingies like:

16:9 - 1080p HD resolution ,

, achievements,

drift-boosts ,

, character unlocks,

collection goals ,

, analogue steering,

and 3 star rankings for each race.

It will be available for OUYA / Windows / Mac / iOS / Android / Linux. And now with a Wii-U stretch goal!

Inspired chiefly by the original Mario Kart game from the SNES, StreetRacer from the MegaDrive, and Wacky Wheels on the PC. It is something I've longed to do, and to do right. I often try new kart games I see popping up on the app store but they're almost always uninspired advertisements for kids movies (and play terribly).

Some of my major focuses here have been to get the controls feeling right (especially the drifting), achieving consistency in the graphical style, and crafting a believable AI for the cpu karts to provide a fun and challenging race.

The game already plays really awesome, even in this very early stage of development. So far it has been self-funded, but now my savings have completely dried up, I need your help to get it finished. What is left to be added is going to take around another 5 to 6 months full-time development time to complete.

The game has come a long way in a very short time (5 months).

Currently there are:

8 characters to choose from, all with their own individual handling stats .

to choose from, . 10 tracks filling up 2 cups

Boost pads

Ramps

Power-up jars ( with 7 working power-ups )

( ) Gold rings to collect

Drift-boosts to earn

to earn Hidden Golden Shrooms to find

Shortcuts to discover

to discover Hazards to avoid

3 star rankings for each race, and for the cups there are Bronze, Silver & Gold to be won

for each race, and for the cups there are Bronze, Silver & Gold to be won 3 speed classes, 50cc, 100cc, 150cc.

Everything, so far, has fallen into place very smoothly.

The 3 star ranking system provides an extra challenge to the races. To get all 3 stars in a race not only must you finish first but you must also collect a set of Gold Rings and Golden Shrooms.

Here are the 8 characters I've got right now (some still needing a little touchup work)

Rojo - A red tempered bull from Spain. Pronounced "Ro-ho", his name means 'red' in spanish.

Jordi - A cheeky magpie from the UK

Manoo - A fabulous frog from Paris

Squidgi - A gender mysterious goofy octopus from Japan

each character has their individual driving stats displayed on their drivers license

Yolanda - She's a cute Chinese panda who loves a high top speed

Jürgen - A crafty bear from Germany

Kimbo - A happy-go-lucky Aussie koala

Dixi - A young bald eagle from the USA

So the character list is already brimming with 8 unique individuals, but I'd like for there to be a further 8 unlockable characters (unlocked by completing cups). 4 of the new unlockable characters will be decided on by whoever pledges in the 'Character Designer' tier.

Choosing this tier lets you decide on an animal type, the characters sex, and you can also name them anything you want! Got a cool nickname that would fit well with your favourite animal? Or do you have a favourite pet you'd like to immortalise? This is for you!

Your character here when you choose the Character Designer tier

"Joy" is the creation of our first Character Designer tier backer. She's a "Snowshoe" cat, and looks like she'll be a lot of fun!

Joy - indifferent to your race position

Bonus Character Reveal #1

A new character added to the growing roster was born from a cross-promotion with Lefthanded Games Studio, and their game Lobodestroyo!

New Un-lockable character Mutt from Lobodestroyo

Mutt is instantly available EXCLUSIVELY to each backer who pledges their support to both Super World Karts AND Lobodestroyo. For everyone else they will have to earn his unlock by collecting a wolf's paw full of cups from the tournament mode!

Bonus Character Reveal #2

New Un-lockable character - Turing from ReadOnlyMemories

A second cross-promotion, this time with Midboss Games, has added the character "Turing" from Read Only Memories to instantly unlock, again, by pledging support to both SWK and ROM you will gain EXCLUSIVE access to this fantastic character. Everyone else will have to collect a trophy cabinet shelf worth of cups from tournament mode!

Bonus Character Reveal #3

Dr. Boom from Tuesday Knight Games

Dr. Boom is the third new character reveal, he's a first class character, and is available to everyone who collects enough cups in the tournament mode of Super World Karts. He comes from Tuesday Knight Games, who you may know from the game Two Rooms And A Boom!

Bonus Character Reveal #4

The ever Fisty, Tim Burr from Fist Of Awesome!

If you're a bear this will literally blow you away with a giant FIST in the mouth! I've teamed up with I Fight Bears to bring you Tim Burr from Fist Of Awesome! This awesome character will be an unlock, made available to you in-game, once you've gotten a few tournament cups under your belt!

Here's a selection of the tracks that I have so far completed:

Uluru / Ayers Rock - Australia

Amsterdam Tulip Field - Netherlands

Colorado - USA

The skyline for the track 'Monument Valley'. The large rock formations were created by my son (like all 10yr olds he's awesome at everything he attempts, if you can get him off of Terraria first!)

As you'd expect in a retro game like this there are several scrolling parallax layers for the skylines, adding depth to your surroundings.

There will be 30 tracks in the final game (10 of which are already mostly completed). 5 of the new tracks will be decided on by whoever opts for the 'Track Designer' tier. Fancy seeing your one-horse-town featured in a chunky pixel mode-7 racing game? Put your town on the map!

One new track has been created since the start of this kickstarter campaign:

Red Square, Moscow

As there are a few layers to the skylines, a track designed to be fun, new trees or plants for the individual locations, rings / shrooms / obstacles / weapon dispenser positions - each new track takes about a week of nose-down full-time work to create!

All of the weapons and power-ups are food based. So far there are:

3 Different strength Chillies for varying speed boosts

for varying speed boosts Deadly Melons to shoot like cannon balls ( or drop behind)

to shoot like cannon balls ( Orbiting Triple Melons , launchable and also useful as a shield from enemy fire

, launchable and also useful as a shield from enemy fire Explosive Pineapples , lob-able and drop-able

, lob-able and drop-able Ice-Cream Spill, a slippery pool of ice-cream dropped behind your kart

Weapons which are currently still being worked on:

Loco-nuts , heatseeking coconuts!

, heatseeking coconuts! Jelly Bomb , drop a giant blob of jelly/jello onto the kart in front of you, slowing their speed, transferable on contact with other karts

, drop a giant blob of jelly/jello onto the kart in front of you, slowing their speed, transferable on contact with other karts Honey Trap , a sticky puddle of honey spilled behind you

, a sticky puddle of honey spilled behind you Double Cherry , split yourself into two dimensions, neither here nor there ( invincibility )

, split yourself into two dimensions, neither here nor there ( ) and a few more as yet undetermined weapons!

The future of Super World Karts includes 25 more tracks, 8 more characters, more weapons, more details, more Tournaments, Time Trials, Battle Mode, Split-screen Races, Mirror Mode, Achievements, a super secret unlockable cup, and possibly, more supported platforms.

I am 100% dedicated to releasing a great player experience in June 2014 for Windows, Mac, and OUYA. With iOS, Android and Linux versions to be released shortly after that.

Mockup representation of a Split-screen Battle Mode - Get ready to fight over the "good" joypad!

Creating a game takes a lot of time and effort, and in turn time and effort don't come for free. Super World Karts has rapidly grown into a fun racing game with eight characters and ten tracks, but in order to thrive and really shine it needs a lot more. There needs to be around 25 more tracks created (including battle mode tracks). It needs to be more than just 10 tracks, as a typical 3 lap race on a SNES sized kart track takes between just 40 and 80 seconds to complete.

Currently creating and tweaking a fun playable track, and it's setting and skyline layers, takes about 5 days. That's 125 more days of development time just to create all of the tracks! After playing tracks for days on end, you begin to see slight tweaks which need to be made, frustrations to remove / corners to adjust / powerup containers and obstacle positions to move, to create a fun cohesive track that is still fun after days of repetitive play.

New characters take about the same amount of time to create (5 days each). This adds another 40 days to the development schedule.

my best estimates of the current progress

It will also take time to create the extra play modes too. (For example, adding mirror mode is not a simple case of flipping a camera over with a tick-box, sadly. Similarly, adding split-screen in a game full of camera-facing billboards is not just a case of adding another camera).

The release date is set at June 2014 because it is going to take another 6 months of full-time work to finish the game. Without funding I cannot continue working on the project.

The funding pie - Where your funds will go!

Mode-7 racers were my favourite types of games to play back in the early 90's (and the good ones were few and far between) and I have a solid understanding of them. Sadly, since the end of the Gameboy Advance era, they have been extinct.

I've created some mode-7 style racers before, which were really accomplished (for the little amount of experience and time spent making them), back when windows games were still being made in DOS, back at the turn of the century. So long ago it feels like it was in a previous life, but it is a positive to have past experience in this genre.

My F-Zero retro remake, created for a competition in 2002. It won 2nd place and featured in a special RETRO edition of EDGE magazine with a positive synopsis. Being one of my first completed projects it was a very proud moment for me!

The idea for Super World Karts began while out walking, daydreaming about what a mode-7 style racer would feel like, particularly drifting around bends, with tilt controls on an iPad. And it felt nice in my mind's eye.

So as soon as I got home I started a new project in Unity3d and within half an hour I had a sprite driving around on a track with some quick and nasty tilting controls. It was a moment of clarity where I knew this game would be great, and I knew I had to make it real.

I also had a search on the app store for mode-7 style games but found very little. Most of the kart games on there have a 3d look. It was a shock to see there was nothing that looked like the game I had in mind. Something I hope to remedy.

:: What happens without funding? ::

If we can hit the funding target, Super World Karts is going to be a great game, but I need your help to make it.

Without the funding I wont be able to work on it full-time, it will likely take 2 years of part-time weekend work, and after that length of time my excitement levels for the project would likely be severely diminished, I'd probably lose interest and not be able to finish it. There would be no Super World Karts, and mode7 would remain extinct! For shame!

At the moment I have the game tested on windows, osx, an iPod5 and an iPad4 (all running at very smooth frame rates). As I'm creating this with Unity3d it will run fantastic on Linux, Android devices, and Ouya too (my OUYA is in the mail).

Right now there isn't a musician on board, although I have recieved a lot of interesting emails from artists who are interested in helping in this regard. My hope is to find someone to work with who can create authentic snes sounding music which will also be representative of the locations of the tracks.

:: Stretch Goals ::

You've asked where they are, and I've listened, and listened, and listened.. And now they're here! Stretch Goals!

:: Pledging ::

I appreciate every pledge, big or small, and anything you can do to share this with others you think would get a kick out of it, will be doubly appreciated! When you pledge, consider sending a link to someone you battled on a kart game back in your SNES days to let them know. With the multiplayer modes you can find out which of you is the best again (obviously it's you, 'cause you're awesome!).

Thumbs Up for OUYA for supporting the little guys

Double Our Fun(ds)! We're participating in OUYA's #FreeTheGames Fund, created by OUYA to support developers making new and creative console games. OUYA will match your pledge dollar-for-dollar up to your goal amount (and a max of $250,000), so help us get there and make a great game for everyone! To be eligible for this match, we commit that this game will be an OUYA exclusive for a period of time. To learn more about OUYA, go to www.OUYA.tv. Note: the OUYA exclusivity period applies only to other console/phone/tablet versions and does not affect the Windows/Linux/Mac release!

I am also a very strong believer in the KickingItForward movement. You can find more great Kickstarter projects at http://kickingitforward.org

Click here to visit Super Wold Karts GP's KickTraq page

If you tweet about Super World Karts save some characters in your tweet for its hashtag:

Then I can retweet you. You'll find me on twitter @1leggedseagull

Cheers! :)

The “too long, didn’t read, just looked at pictures" version is:

What? - Karts

- Karts Who? - Me

- Me How? - You

- You When? - June 2014

I've put together these INCREDIBLY RARE high quality items EXCLUSIVE to kickstarter backers who pledge their support as a member of the Super World Karts GP *PIT CREW*!

*Pit Crew* status is achievable by pledging in the Pit Crew tiers or above.

Pit Crew members inhabit a special place in my heart, and their names will appear, not only on the credits roll screen, but also in a very special "Credits Highway" playable credits stage in the final game! (think Super Monkey Ball's credits roll) - Cool cool? Super Cool!

Here's a breakdown of some of the other tiers:

Get the cool wallpapers, of various sizes, to hang on your desktops.

Get the game for PC, Mac, & OUYA in June! (You'll also be eligible for the Linux build when it drops too) OR choose the Wii-U as your platform!

Find where all the Golden Shrooms and shortcuts are with this handy companion .pdf

Enjoy the 16-bit style soundtrack to the game by the, as yet unknown, musical artist, plus EARLY ACCESS!

A pack of stickers and badges with various character and game art combinatons

Grab a SNES style replica PC USB joypad, this helps bring the memories flooding back! PLUS *Pit Crew* member status!

-.- #swkarts