Unbeatable is a beautiful rhythm adventure game that has already caught the eye of many people. So many, in fact, that it met its Kickstarter goal of $55,000 in less than 15 hours. It took about 10 more hours to raise $80,000. At the time of this article’s writing, it’s sitting at over $109,000 raised with 26 whole days to go until the fundraising campaign ends.
In this “half rhythm, half adventure game” developed by D-CELL GAMES that is “narratively hyper-focused,” you’ll play as a young pink-haired girl named Beat. Years ago, a cataclysmic event shocked the city — which is likely related to why music has been outlawed in the world of Unbeatable. There are some people who have never heard music at all. As Beat, you’re trying to bring music back, but you’ll find yourself in the crosshairs of the police and a mysterious new enemy. And among some really cute characters. Though I’d be surprised if anything in this game looks anything besides wonderfully stylish — just look at its visuals.
One half of the game will be spent exploring the world. You’ll travel across the open cityscape and the surrounding countryside under a day and night cycle. You’ll talk with and help the locals, “meeting terrible people” in the process. And lastly, you’ll get to rehearse setlists for upcoming concerts with your band. The other half will consist of arcade-rhythm gameplay punctuated by an already incredibly catchy soundtrack. Be sure to check out the Kickstarter page for a soundtrack medley full of absolute bops. Based on these snippets, my favorites are Forever Now, Mirror, and Worn Out Tapes.
As the trailer shows, you need only worry about two buttons: up and down. But the team is working on making it even more accessible. Unbeatable will have several accessibility options, one of which will be an “Assist Mode.” One of its features, “AUTOPLAY,” will make the player character automatically attack even if you do an incorrect input. The team looks forward to including modifiers that disable health and adjust regeneration, options for color-blind players, options to configure dialogue visibility, and full controller/keyboard custom bindings. The demo coming out soon already has toggles for the VHS filter and post-processing, controller presets, configurable scrolling speed for incoming enemy attacks, configurable game offset, adjustable game speed, and no-fail mode.
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Unbeatable began development in 2018, leaving the pre-production phase in mid-2020. Since then, the team has been locked into full production. At the minimum, the team expects getting Unbeatable out the door to be a two-year effort. While reaching the basic funding baseline allows the team to make concrete efforts to reach the 2023 release window goal, the actual development costs for the final project are estimated to be “roughly ten times” the base number. As a result of the campaign meeting its first stretch goal, the final product will have online leader boards and custom profiles. If the project reaches $150,000 in funding, the game will get a dedicated map editor. The team will reveal more stretch goals as they are met.
Whatever the final funding number is will play a significant role in how long the team can work on it before searching for partners to help bring Unbeatable to completion. This is all to say: if this already-charming project appeals to you, consider pledging your support. (Yes, this game very much appeals to me, so I want more people to pledge their support.)
A demo for Unbeatable, titled “[white label],” is coming soon. While it’s been delayed from its originally scheduled release, it will be “roughly the length of a full episode” of the game — and will even be regularly updated during and after the Kickstarter campaign. We’ll be sure to share our thoughts on it once it’s out. In the meantime, you can play a smaller demo focusing on Unbeatable’s rhythm combat and music here.
Currently, Unbeatable is planned for release on PC, Mac, and Linux.
