Orphan By Windy Hill Studio

Aliens have invaded, but instead of the chiseled hero single handedly saving the day, Orphan cast you in the role of a young boy. As the title suggests, our young protagonist might just be the sole survivor of the whole invasion. However, with an army of machines hot in his heels, his chances are not looking very good.

There are a couple of things about Orphan that really catches the attention and has us very enthusiastic about what it will have to offer. First up is the setting, alien invasions have been done to death before, but not many takes place in the hills and mountains of Appalachia. The developer promises interesting locations, such as fields, mountains, rivers, caves, railways and coal mines. The game also uses silhouette style visuals and while it is not the first to do so, the effect is still very impressive. The visual style also mean that the structures and machinery that you encounter on your quest will look just as menacing as your otherworldly foes.

Orphan takes the form of a 2D action platformer and, considering the young age of the protagonist, the emphasis will be on stealth and item discovery. Initially you will have to hide behind rocks or other objects to stay out of sight or distract enemies in order to survive. According to the developer, your character will become more powerful as you progress in the game and the emphasis will shift towards the action side of the spectrum. Considering that the item collection section of the Kickstarter page lists weapons such as a laser gun, anti-tank mine and M2 LAW we expect things to get rather explosive later in the game.

At the moment we only have the teaser trailer and some beautiful screenshots to go by, but the game is already looking incredible. As the developer cite titles such as Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey, Another World and even Journey to Silius as influences we are quite excited to find out how it plays as well. There are no shortage of indie platformers on the market, but Orphan definitely looks like it has the potential to leave its mark.

To find out more about Orphan head over to the Kickstarter page where you can even check out the game design document. There are still a couple of weeks left to back this project, so be sure to make a pledge if you like what you see. The game has already been greenlit by Steam and if its stretch goal is met will also appear on PS4, pending approval by Sony.