With just three days left in its Kickstarter campaign, The Critterverse’s game project The Adventures of Rubberkid has met its initial funding goal. The game is designed to help teach kids how to cope with bullying in school. The main character, Rubberkid, protects his classmates by reflecting insults aimed at them back at the bullies. Eventually the bullies take enough returned abuse and realize their mistakes, running away in shame. It’s a bit of like classic arcade game Breakout, but with a moral purpose.
The world of The Critterverse is the brainchild of creator Charlie Jackson. “The original concept of The Critterverse was to make games for kids that weren’t so much ‘educational’ as they were encouraging, inspiring and self-confidence boosting,” Jackson tells SideQuesting in a recent interview. He chose bullying as the first topic that he wanted to cover because of its ability to have prolonged effects over generations.
Each level in the game has Rubberkid protecting a specific child; after the level is complete and the child is “saved” the player is presented with a short biography about him or her. “I felt that one of the main reasons bullying remains so common is that the kids who do it don’t realize what an effect bullying has,” Jackson says about the backstories. By giving a sense of connection to the child and the feeling that this really could be — and probably is — someone getting bullied in school, he hopes it becomes all that much more impactful.
Upon completion of the game, the player is presented with a certificate of achievement that can be printed out to show that they vow to help out an end to bullying.
The Adventures of Rubberkid is currently planned as a free Flash-based game. “I’d love to make the game as accessible as possible. If the game does well enough, I’d definitely look into porting it.” Jackson admits he’s not a coder and that he doesn’t have the resources to develop the game for other platforms, but perhaps down the line if demand grows it is something he’ll look at.
To donate to the Kickstarter campaign, click here.
For more information and a playable prototype of The Adventure of Rubberkid, visit the game’s website.
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