Kickstarter is an amazing resource for modern game development. It allows developers to raise money and make their dream project a reality in a way that wasn't possible before. Today, we're taking a look at Rad Venture, a fast-paced 3D platformer from Knick-Knack Games whose Kickstarter launched a few days ago, and that is showing a lot of promise as a fun and thrilling game exploring a variety of unique worlds. Let's take a look!

Going On a Rad Venture


When it's your turn to talk for the school project, but you forgot everything you've learned

Rad Venture is a 3D platformer in the style of the 3D Rayman games, but with quite a bit more speed added in. The main character, Rad, is similar to Rayman in that he has nothing connecting his hands to the rest of his body. The design screams 90s "radical" energy, with a jacket, gloves, sneakers, and spiky hair that would make the character feel at home in a Sonic game, especially with his more reptilian features.

In terms of combat and traversal, Rad has a basic spin attack and a homing attack that you unlock later and doubles as a grappling hook. He can't double jump, but he can hover in the air indefinitely by spinning his hands, and can run faster while on the ground. Both the run and the hover are accomplished with the Right Trigger, though I sometimes found myself wanting to double press the jump button to hover. I don't know if Rad gets a double jump that would interfere with this control scheme, but the devs could look into adding the option in the final game.


Everyone knows you can use your hands as chopper blades if they're not attached to your body.

The demo itself is MASSIVE, with a pretty well defined hub world and two of the full game's four levels present in the game. Granted, those levels were present during the previous Kickstarter, but it still feels like the demo is giving away too much of the full game, which is a good problem to have in a way. Unfortunately, the demo doesn't have a save function as far as I know, so I didn't get to finish it.

The hub world is a nice little town called Vistabell, with a port and a few cliffs for you to explore. It's pretty easy to get lost in, and is where I spent most of my playthrough, but I'm also terrible at orienting myself. The two levels present are a forest/cavern obstacle course where you get the grappling power-up, and a noir city where you get to explore the sewers and which I didn't get very far into.


A nice view of Vistabell, the hub world of the game

Overall, the gameplay is responsive and very fun, with only a few hitches when moving to fast through an area, but those can be chalked up to the game being in alpha. Personally, I think the demo should've ended after the forest area, maybe have a boss fight if the devs have one ready. I also hope Rad gets a ledge grab in the final version, for those close platforming calls. All in all, I'm excited to see what the final game looks like.

The game will have alternate skins for Rad, a lot of which are available in the demo already. There's a nice variety in the game, from simple colour swaps to completely different character models. My personal favourite is the one that's a straight-up Bionicle. All the skins will be unlockable with in-game currency, but you can cycle between the ones in the demo using Ctrl + 9.


Gentleman Radcliffius Venturiosis, at your service

One technical issue with the demo is in the start screen. The prompt says you need to "Press Any Button" to proceed, but what you really need to do is click on the actual text. I recommend the devs change it to "Click Here to Start", but you know what to do to get the game started. You also can't control the menu with your controller, you'll need a mouse, but it works flawlessly in-game, so that's not that much of an issue.

You can download the demo on Steam. Why don't you go ahead and give it a shot yourself?

Kickstart My Rad

As mentioned in the intro, this game has a Kickstarter going on right now. Its goal is about 20.000 USD, and it's sitting at about 14k as of writing this article, so it's already three quarters of the way there, with 27 days to go. This is the team's second Kickstarter attempt, and it's already doing a lot better than the first, likely due to the far better quality of the demo.

The lowest pledge you can make that gives you the game is 20 USD, which is likely what the game will cost once fully released. For 40 USD, you also get the soundtrack and a digital art book. If you have a lot of money to burn, you can get access as a beta tester for 200 USD, design a hat for one of the in-game characters for 350, design a costume for the character for 500, or design an optional obstacle course for 750.

Oh, right, should probably talk about the levels. The game is planned to be split into the Hub World, 4 Exploration Levels, 3 Boss Levels each with their own boss fight, and a number of Obstacle Courses. You can see why I said the demo is showing too much, that's a good chunk of the game already available, even if the final version will be Rad Ically different.

There's a lot more to talk about the Kickstarter, such as the various stretch goals, so I suggest you visit the Kickstarter page to get more info. The estimated release date is December 2027.

What do you think of Rad Venture? Are you planning on supporting the project? Let us know in the comments below, and good luck to the devs at Knick-Knack Games.