Earlier this week, we reported that 80s game developers the Oliver Twins have plans to return to their beloved egg adventurer Dizzy for his 40th anniversary, but new Dizzy projects aren’t the only things that the Oliver Twins are currently working on, as the developers recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to fun the production of their new physical game, Journey to the Emerald City. And in this instance by “physical game,” we mean a non-video game, as Journey to the Emerald City will be played using an illustrated interactive storybook, a set of 52 “adventure cards,” a cipher disc/spinner and a map.
The Oliver Twins say that: “Journey to the Emerald City has been designed to make you feel less like someone reading about an adventure…and more like the person having it. Just like it feels when you are playing one of our legacy video games,” saying that they set themselves the challenge of: making: “a video-game-style adventure that didn’t need a screen.”
With 13 days left to run at the time of writing, the Oliver Twins’ Kickstarter campaign to fund Journey to the Emerald City has already smashed its goal of £5,000 GBP, raising £6,450 GBP from 179 backers.
While the Kickstarter campaign isn’t for a video game per se, some of the rewards on offer are sure to appeal to fans of the Oliver Twins’ Dizzy games, with pledges made at The Dizzy Collectors Journey tier receiving a signed Dizzy archive print, and all backers of the game at a physical tier receiving a Dizzy sticker sheet (which was unlocked as a stretch goal perk), and a Dizzy badge.
While the Journey to the Emerald City Kickstarter campaign is proving hugely successful, those with objections to the use of generative AI should probably avoid it, as the Oliver Twins have been quite open about embracing the use of generative AI for the project, saying that: “We used AI tools to help generate the final artwork for the game. As game developers, we have always created artwork using technology. Humans created all the designs, and AI served as a supporting tool. The Oliver Twins and their team designed and created the game and content.”
