Project Rap Rabbit’s Switch stretch goal leaves handheld fans discouraged (update)

Project Rap Rabbit brings two celebrated rhythm game designers together under one, crowdfunded roof. For Nintendo Switch owners excited about the upcoming collaboration between the creators of Parappa the Rapper, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! and other franchises, its new Kickstarter campaign’s stretch goals aren’t leaving them with much confidence.

The combination action and rhythm game has an initial campaign goal set at $1.1 million. Reaching that benchmark will enable the development team to launch the historical hip-hop title on both PlayStation 4 and Windows PC, with other platforms left as stretch goals.

That’s a standard practice, but some big fans of Keiichi Yano (Ouendan, Gitaroo Man) and Masaya Matsuura (Parappa the Rapper) aren’t happy with how high the bars are set. To get the game onto Xbox One, the team is asking for $3.1 million. The Nintendo Switch version — which will also add three exclusive costumes along with it — requires $4.95 million in funding.

At nearly five times the initial ask, Switch owners longing to play a narrative-based rhythm game on the console balked at the stretch goal.

Although Project Rap Rabbit is doing alright for itself thus far — it’s grossed just shy of $50,000 at time of writing, with 35 days to go — nearly $5 million is a lot to task from potential backers. Nintendo’s new hybrid console could certainly benefit from more rhythm games, especially one with such prestige behind it. Wishful Switch fans are reminding themselves that, as unlikely as hitting the stretch goal by the game’s estimated August 2018 release may seem, they just gotta believe.

Update: An FAQ on Project Rap Rabbit’s Kickstarter page explains the Nintendo Switch situation in more detail.

This is the team’s response to the $4.9 million ask, in full:

We are building for four platforms while adding a game mode, extra difficulty (remember the cheerleader difficulty level in Elite Beat Agents?) and extra levels (a music game lives and dies by its levels of course!). We also must factor in the various fees and cost of goods to fulfill backer shipments (including console platform fees) and the Kickstarter platform fee to make sure we can safely meet our goals. We do NOT want to be in a position where we are fabricating low goals and then failing to deliver because of that. We need to be sensible about our development resources and ensure we neither bankrupt our development studios nor under deliver on our vision of making the most innovative rhythm-action title in generations.

The ordering and pricing structure of our Stretch Goals are designed to protect the quality of Project Rap Rabbit and the viability of our development studios, and are not driven by any other agenda. We are desperately keen to develop Project Rap Rabbit for all major formats, and are tremendously excited by Nintendo Switch. The Nintendo Switch version is set to a higher tier as it requires game data to be specifically adapted for the console from the PS4 and PC versions due to the differing performance characteristics of that platform.

Development of Project Rap Rabbit is well underway using Unreal Engine 4, which means we’re in a great position to port Project Rap Rabbit to Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. Because of format architecture and studio experience, it’s easier and less expensive for us to initially focus on PS4 and PC versions, followed by an Xbox One title. We must be mindful of the costs needed for development kits and extra staff, and conscious of the fact that this will be our first title for Nintendo’s new console if we hit our Stretch Goal. It is important that we ensure Project Rap Rabbit is fully polished and perfected for every launch platform.