Greetings fellow adventurers, and welcome to our Kickstarter campaign! We are Rain Games, indie game developer based in Bergen, Norway. We’re so happy to have the opportunity to create a videogame in the Girl Genius universe, and we hope you’ll give us the chance to excite you too! We’ve been making Steampunk games (“Teslagrad”, “World To The West”, “Mesmer”) for about 10 years now, and getting a chance to work with Studio Foglio’s Girl Genius series is a dream come true!

Let’s show you what we’ve got in store for you!

We want to make a character driven, Action Adventure “Metroidvania” game in 3D. You play as the main protagonist in the Girl Genius series, Agatha Heterodyne. 

Your mission? Explore the mysterious Castle Heterodyne “Metroidvania style”, and reclaim Agatha’s ancient birthright as a “True Heterodyne”.

As Agatha discovered that her true family is not the Clay family, but the Heterodyne family, her life turned in a completely different direction. The last Heterodyne heir was thought lost 20 years ago, sending Europe into chaos. The powerful families of Europe clashed in a power struggle for control of the Heterodyne lands and properties, and at the center of the stage is Castle Heterodyne. Now used as a prison by the Wulfenbach’s, the castle is in disrepair. Agatha must repair and gain control of the ancient castle, in order to proclaim herself a “True Heterodyne”, and heir to the throne. 

Agatha is a “Spark“, a genius capable of great feats, heroic actions and MAD SCIENCE!

Gain new character abilities and tools in the game as Agatha learns more about herself and her powers.

Gameplay example: Use your Grapple Gun in exploration, allowing exploration of new areas in the castle.

Castle Heterodyne is not without dangers. Ancient war clanks and other Fun-Sized-Mobile-Agony-And-Death-Dispensers of MAD SCIENCE still inhabit its derelict walls.

The Heterodyne Fencing Clank, a dual wielding swordclank from old times of war. It’s a worthy foe to even the mightiest “Spark”!

The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Also, they punch harder! 

 Some fencing clanks were even given personalities, possibly to let attackers know they’ve been humiliated after defeat!

It’s so cute! But also deadly! The “chicken bomb clank” is small, fast and EXPLOSIVE! 

The old Heterodynes dabbled in many experiments of MAD SCIENCE, and there are rumors in Mechanicsburg that the Herbatorium in Castle Heterodyne houses living plants! 

What would be more devious than a parasite capable of “mindcontrolling” clanks!? 

Thankfully, Agatha is not without tools to handle hairy situations. As Agatha grows in power, new equipment will be available!

Gameplay example: Fight foes in “Action Adventure” combat, in this case melee combat using “Occam’s Electric Razor”. Popularized by classic games like the Zelda-series, strike at enemies with sword swings and lunges.

Even heroes need a break! Here, have a refreshing Heterodyne Tonic to heal those scratches after a wild fight!

Agatha is not alone in the castle though! In order to help her explore the castle, Agatha has her trusty lil’ Dingbot at her side!

Your Dingbot is a controllable minion, with some special properties. As Agatha grows in power, she can upgrade her Dingbot with new gadgets to help her explore the castle further! 

Gameplay example: Explore the castle, and solve puzzles using your Dingbot!

As Agatha explores Castle Heterodyne, she will find that she is not the only one trying to gain the power the castle holds. Experience a story based on the Castle Heterodyne storyline in the Girl Genius series. Meet an array of popular and unpopular(?) characters from the series, like Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, Tarvek Sturmvoraus and the oh-so-fabulous Zola Malfeazium! 

The stage is set for a game of ACTION, ROMANCE and MAD SCIENCE, and we hope you will join us for the journey!

We think the Girl Genius world is awesome! As game developers, we get excited about the excellent potential to create compelling gameplay in a world of MAD SCIENCE! As fans of the series, we love the wealth and richness in the visual language, the story and the characters. We believe the world of Girl Genius will translate very well to the video game medium, and excite both newcomers and veterans of the series.

We have many exciting backer tiers, for every wallet size and with rewards to match!

 One of the reward features we’re very excited about is showing you behind the scenes footage, during game development. We will produce video content, and do Q&A live streams with you, and show you a bit of the secret sauce that makes a game comes to life.

Join the Community Hub on  Discord, and talk to us and the other backers. We’re looking forward to have a thriving community around this game!

For Devil Dog tier and above, you will get the very special Artbook we are creating for the game. You will get to see the concept art, sketches and the creative process to make the game in 3D, with anecdotes and written stories from the team members.

We are already well underway in setting up the game engine for the game, using the Unity Engine with a lot of our own tech added. The engine has been used before for our game “World To The West“, and by re-using the engine, we save a lot of development time; meaning more game content, less backend development. The teaser trailer displays the visual language we’re going for, and we’re well underway in the design process of game content. We can’t wait to show you more content during the progress of the campaign!

The Kickstarter funds goes solely to game development production. The funding pays for game design, art & animation, programming, licensing fees of project software, music and SFX production and all the other exciting things that goes into making a great game. If we meet stretch goals, the additional funding will go to creating an even better game with more game content and features.

Funding of the game development is done through partial funding from Kickstarter and partial funding from other sources. Please see “Risks and Challenges” section. 

We are fully committed to the creation of this game. It is a solid undertaking to create a  video game. We have commited resources and manpower to create a wide array of content to show you in the Kickstarter campaign, to excite you, and hopefully make you believe in us and our talent. We thank you for your support, and we are looking forward to seeing you in the community hub on Discord!