After all the drama that surrounded Electronic Arts’ acquisition of Double Fine’s Brütal Legend project, EA’s decided not to continue on with further Brütal games. So as announced during studio head Tim Schafer’s keynote at Develop 2010, Double Fine decided that they would be mitigating the loss of development time by starting work on not one, but four different, smaller projects. Today we have info on the first of those four, an RPG published by THQ for the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade called Costume Quest.
It’s the brainchild of Double Fine lead animator Tasha Harris – she’s one of a group of Double Finers who will be leading their own projects, where Schafer will be playing support when he’s needed.
The game features a hero that the player creates, who is searching for his little sister who’d been kidnapped by monsters on Halloween night. From there on, your young hero will team up with other neighborhood kids to fight monsters, seemingly summoned by their imaginations, and outsmarting neighborhood bullies. There are adventure game elements as well, one particular quest involves the hero gathering up elements of a makeshift patriotic costume in order to enter an exclusive “Patriotic Party,” in order to gain experience and information on his or her sister’s whereabouts.
Battles are full on RPG-style affairs, though when in this mode, the kids’ imaginations really take hold. The characters grow to tremendous sizes and their costumes become more of what they’re intended to be, and define each kid’s abilities. A cheap robot costume becomes an armored battle mech, and a salad bowl helmet and tin-foil sword become the basis for a gleaming knight in shining armor. It’s very reminiscent of many an early childhood, come to life onscreen.
While it may not fit in with the Halos and Call of Dutys that normally fill the late fall/holiday release period, it seems like a fun and genuine game with a lot of heart, and certainly worth keeping an eye on.
