Only 5 days into its Kickstarter campaign, aheartfulofgames’ first ever project Heart&Slash has already amassed USD$13,400 out of its USD$20,000 goal from over 250 backers so far. The project was unveiled on the website on February 14 (how fitting!), but has been in the works for almost a year and will hopefully be fully released by December this year. What initially began as a part-time personal project for lead developer and creative director Juan Raigada is now beginning to look like a full-time endeavor.

Set in a robot-dominated dystopia where humans are long gone, Heart&Slash will put players in the circuits of Heart, an adorable-looking robot fighting for a sense of identity within a world defined by programmed protocols and standardization. The game’s story will be set around the relationship between newbie Heart and veteran rogue robot Slash, who wants to bring down the all-seeing robot leader Quality Assurance System (QuAsSy). Although Heart’s memories are wiped every time it is caught by QuAsSy’s forces, the love story between Heart and Slash will be persistent through multiple playthroughs, as part of the “search for identity” theme that the game is aiming for.

Fights are going to be fast-paced, and will feature randomly-generated levels that are short and brutal. In addition, rather than providing a complex fighting system filled with combos, Heart&Slash will be giving players a large variety of weapons and body parts with simple move sets to change the way the game plays, without having to sacrifice approachability. You can get a sneak peek of what the gameplay looks like in the teaser above.

The concept for Heart&Slash is looking really interesting so far and shows a lot of promise, especially with the depth they’re going for in the story and the breadth in customization for weapon and body part combinations. The music is sounding pretty sweet too! The money from the Kickstarter campaign will be used to expand Juan’s team and allow them to work on the project full-time — polishing the story, creating assets to further expand the game, optimizing the game to work on multiple platforms and composing a full soundtrack among other things. Stretch goals for the campaign will be added soon and hopefully, aheartfulofgames will be able to put all these additions into this game full of love.

If you’re interested in seeing Heart&Slash come to shape in the best form that it can be, be sure to make a pledge or spread the word! The campaign is a little under USD$7,000 away from getting funded. Pledging at least USD$10 will get your name to appear in the game’s credits plus give you a DRM-free copy of the game. USDD$15 will get you both of those and a DRM-free digital copy of the game’s full soundtrack composed by Michael Cait.

Share the Heart&Slash love
aheartfulofgames Official Website
Heart&Slash Official Twitter
Kickstarter campaign
Steam Greenlight page
DevLog