Posted August 23, 2012 by Julie W in GO Critic Originals

Project Giana – Crowd Funding Pick

I could tell there was something special about Project Giana (working title) the moment I took a glimpse at the screens. As I poked around further, and saw video demonstrations of the game, I knew this would be a hit. But, like any other crowd funding project, the team needs a little funding help to make it all possible.

Black Forest Games, working on Project Giana is asking for $150,000 from Kickstarter in order to make their video game possible. Project Giana is a platformer, projected to be for PC, XBox Live Arcade, and PlayStation network with the hopes to come to Steam as well. The gameplay is said to be at its best when using a controller.

There were a few things that stuck out when viewing Project Giana. I noticed how far in development this game already is. With that, one can tell that by funding this project, there will be a full fledged game to follow. Sometimes Kickstarter and other crowd funding websites like it are full of dreamers who really have little to show. This is not the case with Project Giana. This project has the dream, the heart, and the hard work behind it already.

Just a little history behind Project Giana. It is a sequel to a game called, The Great Giana Sisters which originally was for Commodore 64, Atari ST, and Amiga. Essentially it was a Mario Bros clone with a female protagonist. Here’s a couple of photos of the original to give you an idea.

Moving forward, the new Project Giana has quite a neat feature to it. The concept is that on top of the basic platforming you can switch between two worlds on the fly. By switching back and forth between dream world, not only do Giana’s moves and abilities change, but so does the scenery and music. With that in mind, players will need to twist the world to their advantage to progress through the levels. To get an idea of what it’s all about. Check out the video below that shows a full level played.

Keep in mind this video may show a few little spoilers.

What you can see in the video is not only the level is at a sizeable length, but how the world completely changes at will. If constantly music changing isn’t your thing, it is projected that in the option settings of the game, one can choose to keep one song playing continuously instead of switching with the worlds. Personally, I think the music changing with the world is a really nice touch.

Additionally, Chris Hülsbeck, the original composer of Giana is working on the music, alongside of Fabian Del Priore. Each composer is working on their own scores for their designated world.

For $10 you can get a copy of Project Giana for PC when they complete the game, provided the Kickstarter is successful. There is quite a list of other swag you can purchase as well. Here’s some mockups of a few of the items.

Project Giana only has about a week left to go, with still thousands of dollars to fund. However, with a strong start and lots of support, one can only predict that they will have a strong finish.

Even if you can’t fund them financially, find them on Facebook and Twitter and show some love.

Like them on Facebook.

Follow them on Twitter @projectgiana

Julie W

Editor in Chief / Site Owner - Playing games since the Sega Master System and Atari, Julie has a love for games of all kinds; although her main focus in gaming is RPGs, RTS, and simulation. If she's not writing or playing a video game, Julie is baking nerdy cakes, playing piano, or illustrating.