Imagine a world where everything you know about platform jumping titles is wrong: coins cause you to instantly explode, power ups have extremely bad effects, pits and enemies are all helpful, and spikes serve as trampolines. Commonly referred to as the “Anti-Mario” — for obvious reasons — that is the exact setup of Default Dan by Kikiwik Games, which was the team’s entry for a Games Jam back in September 2012. Since then their freely available PC demo has been widely enjoyed/hated by many, but the staff at Kikiwik Games wasn’t quite ready to just kickback and rest upon their laurels.
The team has actively been refining Default Dan’s gameplay ever since, not to mention tons of new stages — graphical improvements — and a whole new soundtrack by the legendary Brentalfloss. However, the team has had trouble managing to fund their ideal vision for Default Dan — in part because they’ve been giving the game away for free — and to this end they recently started a Kickstarter to raise an additional $8,000. They have also promised — should their Kickstarter goal be accomplished — that they will furthermore release Default Dan, in all its mind-bending glory, on a variety of mobile devices.
However, Kikiwik Games are currently still about $600 short — with only five days remaining — and are still going to need all the help that they can get if Default Dan is to travel the whole nine yards. Currently those interested in pushing Default Dan into the end-zone can secure for themselves a copy of the final release, on any platform of their choosing, for a mere $5 donated. Meanwhile, the project’s most generous benefactors can secure rewards such as: Brentalfloss’s soundtrack, early beta tester access to all of the new content, the official Default Dan t-shirt, and even a physical copy of Dan’s hat.
If all of this inverted goodness — flipping every platform trope you’ve ever been near and dear to — has interested you so far, then be sure to keep in mind that Default Dan’s Kickstarter has been set to close down on January 31st.