The development studio known as Project Milk wants to make an Advance Wars style video game for the current generation, and they’ve turned to Kickstarter for your help to make one as best as possible. Their project is Tiny Metal, and there’s one week left in their crowdfunding campaign that’ll let you contribute to their success.
Glancing over the extensive list of details for Tiny Metal, we get a pretty clear picture of what it’s all about. It’s a turn-based tactical strategy game where you gather a fighting force of soldier units, and move them across the isometric map towards whatever goal or objective that you have to accomplish. Some of the unit options you can choose from for battle include infantry, scout vehicles, tanks, and airborne gunships. Factors like how far and how fast you can move during a turn, what direction you’re facing, the terrain/buildings of an area, and what dangers could lurk in the fog of war beyond your sight are all things that need to be considered. The second part of engagement deals with your combat maneuvers. While you can go for the standard general attack sort of volley, there’s the ability to lock on to specific enemy forces, and then concentrate your fire at them. The Assault technique is what you can use to push forward into the opponent’s occupied space, as you simultaneously move forward and fire upon their position, hopefully forcing their retreat.
But what’s the point of fighting a war if there isn’t a reason behind it in the first place? Getting into the Tiny Metal backstory – Tensions rise between the countries of Artemisia and Zipang after a ship carrying the King and his accompanying escorts explodes. Lt. Nathan Gries is eager to get revenge, as one of the people missing in action appears to be his mentor Col. Luja Lindberg. Artemisia launches a counterattack against Zipang, and Nathan is tasked with recruiting the White Fangs group to help with that task. Together, their combined force launches a full assault on Zipang. The overall campaign mode is expected to have 8-10 hours of gameplay, with branching mission options to give things a sense of variety.
But what do they need the money for? Deep within the depths of the Kickstarter page, the team explains why. They already have the necessary things in place to guarantee Tiny Metal will be released, and this is proven to be the case by the fact that the game has secured a publisher with Area 34. Moreover, the team is filled will developers who have shipped games successfully in the past from the various studios they’ve worked with. The point of Kickstarter is to help them seal the deal, and guarantee Tiny Metal lives up to it’s full potential when it comes to content, polish, and balance. The lowest level of backer pledge that’ll get you the (digital download) game is the $20 Sergeant tier, which comes with some wallpapers too. But if this project ignites your video game passion, and your wallet, you can pledge $9950 for the Lord Commander of the Army/Air Force level. Your rewards for these are basically the ability to make your own character and design your own unit, alongside designing your own mission for the game as well.
Assuming everything goes according to plan, Tiny Metal will arrive for PC (Mac/Linux) and PS4 in June 2017. To learn more about the game, check out the developer’s Twitter and Facebook. A prototype build is available to try out for free, over here.
