News sources everywhere were baffled back in 1955 when Governor Rollins — along with his wife and daughter — disappeared from their mansion one night without a trace, with the only clue remaining being a single bloody handprint that defied all analysis methods. Flash forward sixty years later and you find yourself — a freshly recruited rookie cop — on your way to Jackson, Missouri, gearing up to start training for your new career in an otherwise unfamiliar town. Sadly this town didn’t exactly believe in streetlights as much as you might have otherwise preferred, and now — when your car’s engine suddenly cuts out — you find yourself stranded alone by an abandoned mansion late at night.
You attempted to take the most obvious course of action and radio the station for help, but — just as you begin describing what happened — you noticed a light coming form the mansion property out of your eye’s corner. By the time the glow passes you realize that your only radio died before you could finish describing where your car broke down, so — with more curiosity than common sense — you decide to investigate the light you just saw. Now with nothing more than a flashlight — and a limited supply of flares — you suddenly realize that you’re somehow locked inside of the hedge maze that you just entered, and — worse yet — that there’s a creepy girl in there with you, stalking you, and getting closer.
Thus goes the setup to Taken, a survival horror game by Math Nerd Productions in which the player is challenged to escape from a procedurally generated maze (with the selected difficulty controlling the hedge maze’s size). The only way out, however, is to constantly evade pursuit by Lucy — the deceased Governor’s oddly still alive daughter, whom hasn’t yet aged a single day — until you can discover the secrets of the dark forces driving her. The game is currently slated to be playable in both an offline mode — in which the game’s AI will take control of Lucy — as well as a multiplayer online mode, wherein multiple players see who can be the first to escape from a Lucy controlled by yet another player.
However, even though Math Nerd Productions had already published numerous games — such as Get Wrecked, Wally Ball, Mr. Swatter, and Fruit Warfare — the scope of Taken’s concept was far more expensive, and furthermore involved licensing the Unreal Engine. It was to this end that they recently approached Kickstarter with a request for $3,000, in order to afford the licensing fees — art and music development costs — and overall programming and debugging that would be necessary to properly bring Taken to life. Kickstarter’s community must have really liked what they were shown as they’ve already chipped in nearly $2,000, but — with only five days remaining — there’s still much work to be done if the dark secrets of the Rollins family’s disappearance are ever to be unearthed.
Those intrigued should check out MNP’s early alpha demo of Taken’s progress, and afterwards — if they’re still interested — may even secure their own PC launch copy for a pledge of just $8 (an iOS edition is also coming, but isn’t available as a backer reward). Meanwhile — for those even more dedicated to fully uncovering all of the hedge maze’s dark secrets — additional backer rewards include: the official Taken backer T-Shirt, a full copy of the game’s soundtrack, the chance to somehow appear in game, and much more! However — for the positively most dedicated rookie cops ever — a donation of over $5,000 will secure for yourself access to daily updated playable builds of Taken’s progress, plus a 3D printed statue of the governor’s mansion as well!