Can A Video Game Make A Statement About Bullying? Introducing Kickstarter SumoBoy

We have a new Kickstarter to share with you, that is the talk of the gaming press due to its unique message. Can it live up to its ambition though? Presenting SumoBoy.

SumoBoy isn’t ambitious in the same way that Destiny or A Realm Reborn is ambitious. Rather than hitting after performance benchmarks, or building large online open worlds, SumoBoy’s ambition is conceptual and workable within a budget.

The people behind SumoBoy want to seamlessly incorporate an antibullying message into the framework of the game. This won’t only be a part of the narrative, but gameplay itself seems to want to teach children with ways of coping with bullying. For example, some of the game goals include ending a cycle of bullying among sky-dwelling dragons, and another one involves calming the soul of a monstrous catfish. It would seem you will be placed in analogues to real life situations, where you can simulate how to stand up to yourself, as well as how to deal with others.

Speaking of your character, you play Oji, himself a victim of bullying. He escapes into a new reality when he learns his mother is a kidnapped princess, and he goes off on a quest to rescue her from Kurai Kami. Along the way, he investigates the mystery surrounding his missing, famed sumo wrestler father, and quests with the Hitoshii, the Blade of Balance, on hand. We don’t know the full details on how the blade works, but apparently it has two modes, love and hate, to use on the residents of Seishin.

This is certainly an interesting project, but it’s hard to strike that balance and strike just the right tone for a sensitive topic like this.  To make a tenuous comparison, it’s the difference between the films Drillbit Taylor and Ronan’s Escape.

And then there’s trying to make a good game. TAPRR seems to have all the people they need to pull it off, including Shane Kozcyan, who himself went viral for his anti-bullying message in his video named To This Day. There’s something else this game needs, however, and that’s $ 100,000 Australian. This is equivalent to around $ 92,310 US, and it’s no small amount for sure.

SumoBoy is planned for a December release on Windows, Linux, Mac, and Mobile, with a $ 400,000 stretch goal set for consoles. You can help TAPRR try to make a difference by funding the game here, and check out the pitch video below.