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For over 14 years, the global cult phenomenon CHIKARA has dazzled wrestling fans with its over-the-top high-flying lucha libre style. Now, we are excited to announce the development the officially licensed CHIKARA video game… CHIKARA: Action Arcade Wrestling!
Game Controls:
Create-A-Wrestler:
Why CHIKARA: Action Arcade Wrestling?
Sometimes fans of football video games are in the mood to play simulation games like Madden. Other times, they’re in the mood to play crazy arcade interpretations like NFL Blitz. Both are a tribute to the game of Football, but each of them takes a totally different and very fun approach to the sport.
Similarly, there have been many great simulation wrestling games over the years. We, like many wrestling fans (and fans of video games in general) have enjoyed games like No Mercy, Fire Pro Wrestling and the latest WWE 2K series. CHIKARA: Action Arcade Wrestling (CAAW) takes the video game interpretation of professional wrestling in a totally “CHIKARA” direction… over-the-top, no-limit, arcade action. It’s the NFL Blitz of wrestling!
CAAW’s ultimate goal is to bring back the fun, old-school arcade-style pro wrestling games once found in arcades and 16-bit home consoles. But we want to bring it back in a way that also takes advantage of features found in modern wrestling and fighting games as well... including online play, an extensive creation suite and multiple match variations.
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More details...
Check out the article from iDigitalTimes about CHIKARA Action Arcade Wrestling:
One of the biggest goals David Horn, Producer and Creator of CAAW , has for the game isn’t to make a better wrestling game than his competition, but to make something altogether different. “I'm not one of those angry developers shaking his fist saying ‘We deserve a better wrestling game!! I'll show you how it's done!!’ Quite the contrary,” he said. “I have nothing but respect for the awesome work 2K is doing as well as the old N64 and PlayStation simulation wrestling games. I just want to make something different.”
Horn draws a comparison to what the gaming scene used to look like for football games. “I want CAAW to be the the go-to arcade wrestling compliment to those games when you might be in the mood for a more NFL Blitz-style arcade interpretation of wrestling,” he said.
Click here to read the full article!
What We Need & What You Get
In order to create the animations for the game, a flat $5,000 will be used to purchase custom-made animations.
With the remaining money earned, funding will be broken down into the following categories:
40% programming / development
20% specific to the creation suite development
20% specific to online / research / development / servers / etc.
10% 3D asset creation
10% design / UI
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Platforms
CAAW has been greenlit on Steam. Fans of CHIKARA and CAAW greenlit the game in only 10 days.
CAAW will be available for PC (Steam) and consoles. The timing of these releases depends greatly on the success of this funding campaign (see Risks & Challenges below).
Features
The following are features of our game that we’d like to be included in both the initial release of the game as well as continual free updates. Depending on the success of funding, we will be able to include as many of these features in the initial release of the game as possible.
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Cell-shaded look.
This has been chosen for several reasons.
- It promotes the fact that this is a fun arcade game and NOT a slow simulation.
- CHIKARA is about fun. This look fits more with the "fun" "super-hero" branding of CHIKARA
- It will be MUCH easier for players to mod and create their own textures/wrestlers/rings using the creation suite edit mode
- It is a nod to the nostalgia of the arcade games that inspired it.
A simple 2-action-button control scheme
Again, this is ideal for gamepad or keyboard as well as representing the simplified control schemes of the arcade machines that came before it.
Hundreds of unique animations
We already have hundreds of animations created and imported into the engine from the very talented Erik Novak, animator for the second Action Arcade Wrestling. With the funding, we will be adding even more - specific to our incredibly talented roster.
Tons of game modes/match types
Fans of CHIKARA will see their favorite match types well represented.
Our planned initial line-up of match types includes:
- One vs. One
- Tag Team
- Three-way match
- Four-way match
- Four-way elimination
- Trios match (6-man tag team)
- 6-man elimination
- Infinite Gauntlet
- Battle Royal
- Cage Match
Many more matches are planned in upcoming free updates. But we want to make sure that we have a solid foundation before we branch out to make tons of match types. When we do, they will all be available as part of free updates.
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Realistic cloth and Rope physics
Using the built-in physics of Unreal Engine 4 as well as the custom-built VICODynamics soft-body physics plugin, we are able to simulate very realistic cloth and rope physics.
The zany and colorful cast of characters from the global cult phenomenon, CHIKARA!
While we’re not ready to reveal the entire roster, you can be sure that the top stars of CHIKARA will be well-represented!
“Wrestle Factory” Creation Suite
We are incredibly excited to announce a Creation Suite for players to create and share rings and wrestlers with friends across PC and consoles! So we’re planning on making the creation suite a free PC download.
Wrestler creation includes:
- Image texture import
- Body morphing
- Moveset assignment
- 3D Parts (hair, horns, masks, flowing capes & pants, etc.)
- And much more
Risks & Challenges
There are many challenges to creating a wrestling game. However, since this will be the third wrestling game made by David Horn and Eugene Tchoukhrov, most, if not all, of the pitfalls of creating this type of game have already been discovered and solved.
The biggest challenge now is time. We are currently working on CAAW part time. The money will allow Eugene to dedicate resources full-time in order to create a great initial release along with the other development costs like animation, user interface and 3D asset creation listed in the above funding section.
The Team
David Horn | Producer and Developer
- Original creator of the Action Arcade Wrestling series
- Past work includes:
- Action Arcade Wrestling (Solo creator/developer )
Xbox 360
- Action Arcade Wrestling 2
Xbox 360
- Tappy Golf (Solo creator/developer)
iOS, Android
- Small business owner for over 12 years
- Avid fan of video games and pro wrestling
- Dad :)
Eugene Tchoukhrov | Producer and Lead Developer
- Nearly a decade of AAA development experience
- Past work includes:
- Call of Duty
- CryEngine
- Action Arcade Wrestling 2
- VICO Dynamics
- SculptrVR
- Founder of VICO Game Studio LLC
- Been working with Unreal Engine 4 well before it publicly released
- Experienced with game development on PC and Consoles
- Optimization Guru!
