Former Dreamworks animator Lionel "Seith" Gallat's Indiegogo campaign for his action adventure game Ghost of a Tale ended yesterday with a little more than €3000 over its initial funding goal of €45,000.
Ghost of a Tale stars a small mouse on an epic quest in a medieval world full of talking critters. Gallet drew gameplay elements from Dark Souls, Ico and early Legend of Zelda titles, while the story was inspired by Disney's Winnie the Pooh and animal-centric fantasy novels like the Redwall series and The Secret of Nimh. According to the Indiegogo page, Gallet aimed to create a "small yet beautiful" title with movie set-like environments and stylized characters.
"I know it sounds [hokey] but I'm really trying to recapture the sense of wonder I felt as a kid when I discovered the games from the 80s and early 90s," he wrote. "But with a AAA quality (as far as I'm able) that's very much up-to-date."
Gallet's portfolio as a supervising animator includes Dreamworks' The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Sinbad and Spirit, as well as recent Universal Studios' titles Despicable Me and The Lorax. Gallet has been working on Ghost of a Tale on his own, but with the campaign's recently-acquired funds he hopes to hire other developers to assist him, upgrade his equipment and purchase professional software programs and licenses.
Gallet aims to have Ghost of Tale ready on Windows PC for the first half of 2014, with a closed beta launching this December at the latest. Mac and Linux versions are a "possibility" since the game is rendered on Unity and the program supports both systems.
