Concept Art Corner: Skipping Turtles

Due to a personal fondness for turtles that most probably stems from a love-hate affair with the Mario Bros. games’ Shellcreepers and Koopa Troopas and religiously watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons as a kid, Leap To Mobile’s recently launched Kickstarter project immediately caught my attention.

The newly formed indie game studio are seeking backers to help fund the remaining development costs of their debut game, Skipping Turtles. All going well, this lovingly crafted sidescroller will skip onto iOS devices (natch) as well as PC, Android and the OUYA console in the not too distant future.

It’s evident that a whole lot of time and effort has gone into Skipping Turtles thus far, so we got in touch with fellow turtle-lover and Leap To Mobile team leader Kevin Bailey to find out more. He got back to us with some fascinating background information on the upcoming game and a batch of beautiful hand-painted concept art that showcases Skipping Turtles‘ cast of quirky characters and lush environments.

“We developed this concept due to our fascination with turtles, love of games and have always thought wouldn’t it be cool to have a hero in a game to be a turtle?! While I lived in Australia I had the opportunity to learn about the salt water crocodile, an ominous creature with the ability to jump its body length vertically out of the water. I put the two together, turtle hero and salt water crocodile in the hard Outback of Australia and came up with Skipping Turtles.

The object of the game is to navigate Skippy (our hero) through a water way consisting of pipes, slides, underground labyrinths, and tunnels to stop the work of Salty (Skippy’s Nemesis) and his minions from rerouting the water to his exile land. Skippy is joined by his best friend Snap, an alligator snapping turtle.  Snap and other characters, shells, abilities will be either “in app” purchases or earned by defeating levels and achieving milestones in the game. There will also be hidden levels throughout the game, similar to the old school Super Mario Bros., that allows players additional challenges.”

Kevin also revealed that a percentage of any funds raised will go towards a worthy cause: “We are extremely excited to finish development of Skipping Turtles and have decided to donate a portion of all sales to further animal education and zoos around the world. Reaching our goal on Kickstarter will allow us to finish Skipping Turtles and work with animal organizations around the world for years to come.”

If you fancy throwing your support behind this amazing sounding game, here’s that link to Leap To Mobile’s Kickstarter project page again. You can also find out more by following the developer’s Facebook and/or Twitter accounts and over on the game’s official site.