Monochroma, an indie game in development by Nowhere Studios, will by coming to Wii U if they can hit their funding goal on Kickstarter.  Monochroma is a ‘cinematic puzzle platformer’ set in the 1950’s.  The game features highly stylized visuals and difficult, environmental puzzles.

Monochroma tells the story of a boy and his brother – two kids against a massive corporation that makes all their money from building and selling robots to city dwellers. One day, the two brothers witness something truly awful, a crime hard-to-believe committed by the same corporation. Alone in the rain, they must survive six hours of devilishly clever puzzles in order to save their world from tyranny.

In Monochroma the boy’s brother injures his leg.  Throughout Monochroma players are tasked with carrying the injured brother through the worlds.  The trick to the game is that players will not be able to leave the brother behind and the brother can only be set down in areas of light.  There are four chapters in Monochroma all set in this dreary, grey world. Each world in Monochroma is designed with unique assets so no two worlds will look alike.

Monochroma’s gameplay builds upon the relationship and unspoken sacrifice between two brothers. Early on, your little brother injures his leg—so you must carry him on piggyback to continue further. You can’t run fast or jump high while carrying your brother. Furthermore, you must put your brother down temporarily in order to solve most of the puzzles—but you can only do this where it’s bright. Like most small children, he is afraid of the dark—and you can’t leave him behind. This is just one of the elements that makes Monochroma unique and engaging. Both brothers must survive for the player to win the game. However, if one dies during the process, don’t worry: Monochroma has a player-friendly, ultra-fast checkpoint system!

Monochroma Worlds

Monochroma’s gameplay is built primarily on physics-based puzzle solving but there is plenty of action to be found across the game’s four unique chapters; the full game will contain 60+ puzzles and a 6-hour single player campaign. In order to extend replayability, players can seek mysterious flowers hidden within each chapter.

Monochroma has four 90-minute chapters: Outskirts, Ghetto, Factory, and Zeppelin. Each chapter has its own game assets and puzzles, without cutting-and-pasting and/or repetition.

The tentative release date for the Wii U version of Monochroma is May 2014 but before this can happen, the project needs the funding from their Kickstarter. To help Nowhere Studios make this game possible head over to Kickstarter and make a pledge.  Still not convinced?  There is a free demo of Monochroma available at the Monochroma website.  Check out the demo, watch the video, and then make a pledge at the Monochroma Kickstarter.  As of this writing the Kickstarter sits at 36% funded with $29,471 of their $80,000 goal raised and 22 days left until the deadline.