Comic ConQuest announced

Remember Costume Quest? Co-developers Sleepy Giant and Free Lunch Design are now working on Comic ConQuest, a game with a superficially similar notion. That is to say, it’s an RPG where your characters’ costumes grant them real powers.

There are a couple of key differences that stand to make Comic ConQuest quite different, however. First: the setting. It takes place in the context of a comics convention rather than Halloween. Second: the subgenre. This is planned to be a turn-based tactical RPG, not a jRPG.

The official description lays it all out:

Comic ConQuest is a party-based tactical RPG in which players battle their way through a comic con gone wrong, fighting enemies and collecting swag along the path to freedom. Trapped in the building by a mysterious force, players are empowered with costumes and weapons that become real, transforming them from cosplayers to comic commandos.

There are nine character classes planned, three apiece from the realms of comics, sci-fi and fantasy: superhero, mutant, and vigilante; commander, space marine, and bounty hunter; warrior, wizard, and rogue.

In a move that doesn’t exactly call to mind actual cosplay (but which does make sense within the bounds of the game’s genre), you’ll be able to find new bits and pieces to upgrade your characters’ costumes as you play. Comic ConQuest is slated to feature “geeky” trivia as part of the game’s mechanics as well, though it hasn’t been explained just yet exactly how this will factor in. All in all, the details of the game’s mechanics remain pretty vague at this point.

I have one main concern about this game, and that is that the developers are billing it as “free-to-play.” On the plus side: no up-front cost and monthly content updates! On the minus side: the very real risk of this kinda stuff. We’ll have to see how it shakes out.

Comic ConQuest is on Kickstarter. I have been assured that the game will still be finished even if funding doesn’t come through; “it would just change the scope a bit.” The devs are seeking only $20,000 in funding, though, which is really not all that much for an sRPG.