Here at 1001-Up.com, we became backers for the Kickstarter project for Candle last month. Now all of Teku Studios’ hard work has paid off, with the developers receiving a well-deserved 130% of their fundraising target from 1,653 backers on 16 August 2013.
We’ve been following Candle closely since seeing its stunning hand-painted artwork on Steam Greenlight, becoming intrigued and finding out more about the project on the Kickstarter page. The campaign has received glowing endorsements from both Tim Schafer and American McGee, describing it as ‘a cool-looking graphic adventure by a guy with Metal hair and a guy in a Monkey Island t-shirt’ and stating that ‘the team is pure win’ respectively.
Teku Studios have said that it’s hard to say much without spoiling a big part of the title’s plot but they’ve recently released more detail: “The story of the game has a rather deep background and topic, however it is told in the form of a childbook. We want it to have mature contents told as a child story, shrouded in innocence and ingenuity.” Players take on the role of Teku, a shaman pupil who begins his search for survivors after his village is attacked by the rival tribe of the Atipax. All characters wear a mask and team have teased us by saying that this is for a reason, but one that will only be discovered as Candle progresses.
What’s the reason behind the masks? Only time will tell…
Information about gameplay has been released also, and the more we find out the more we can’t wait to play. Teku is a defenceless protagonist who has a candle instead of a hand and this key feature can be used in dark spots to reveal hidden items and solve puzzles. However, it can’t be lit whenever he wants; instead, he has to look for fireplaces which act as safe spots. There are many hazards that will extinguish the flame so players must think carefully on how to avoid or overcome these, and enemies can detect our hero when he is shining brightly so stealth is an important part of the game.
Hitting 130% of the $40,000 fundraising target has meant that Teku Studios has achieved two of its intended stretch goals. Mac and Linux versions of Candle are now confirmed so players will be able to choose between these versions, PC and Wii U for their rewards, and the game will also be fully-localised into English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. Sadly, the next goals weren’t reached so we won’t be seeing an expanded title or the intriguing secret level; but we’re sure the team still has plenty of surprises in store for us.
It’s going to be another few months before we can bring you a review of the full version of Candle in early 2014 but we can certainly say that this is one project that is going to burn brightly. Check out Teku Studios’ video on our original article or Kickstarter, and be sure to give a thumbs-up to the title on Steam Greenlight.
