Just because our world is having economic troubles doesn’t mean there aren’t others suffering at the hands of globalized influx of material wealth and blah blah blah… My point is that sometimes even knights in the medieval ages have to contract themselves out to makes money. Such is the basis for IGF-submitted game Catapult for Hire.

Catapult for Hire is probably one of the more unique takes on the traditional medieval/fantasy setting that I’ve ever seen. As I already mentioned, you play as a knight who, well, has a catapult for hire. He’s a freelancer! Only instead of freelancing out his writing, programming, marketing, etc. skills he’s freelancing out his catapulting skills… and his catapult!

Here’s a more official description from the developer himself:

In Catapult for Hire you take on the role of a Knight trying to make ends meet in a collapsed Medieval economy by doing “freelance catapultry”. Catapult for Hire is not simply a game filled with fun and whimsy. It also features a deep story-driven campaign.

I can’t yet vouch for its deep story-driven campaign, but I can certainly gush over it’s aesthetic style. Bright, whimsical, cell shaded… everything looks absolutely amazing. Combine all that with some amazing destructibility of castles and other things in game and you’ve got the makings of an amazing indie game.

… And here’s a feature list:

• Campaign – Take on jobs to earn gold, get new catapults and payloads, upgrade your keep and become the greatest catapultist in all the land.
• A projectile system that allows the player to combine payloads with attachments that modify their behavior.
• Upgradable catapults and payloads.
• An upgradable castle for storing catapults and defending against attacks.
• Compete in Colosseum events for fame and gold.
• Procedural destruction. Objects that can be broken dynamically.
• A sophisticated fishing system. Fish react to bait and payloads in unique ways. Scare fish away or attract them with different payloads. Upgrade your fishing hook to catch deeper, heavier or just plain more ferocious fish. Catching a fish isn’t based on random numbers. It is based on knowledge of their behavior, having the right equipment and skill in catching them.
• Hidden items that can be collected using the Retrievo 9000. The Retrievo is a small mechanism that when launched can grab items. If items are collected it will open into a helicopter and return to the player with the items in tow.
• A crafting system for creating upgrades from collected items and fish.
• An overworld map like any good old-school game should have.

I… can’t… wait.

Catapult for Hire is still in development but the game was submitted to the IGF so it should be relatively far along although no release date has been announced. But feel free to gush over the IGF trailer below! I know I will…

The game is planned for release on the PC and Mac.

[Catapult for Hire]

IGF Trailer