Sonic-inspired platformer Freedom Planet has quintupled its Kickstarter goal in a week

Last summer I wrote about a retro platformer in the works called Freedom Planet. It had a rather polished demo and hearkened back to the olden days of Sonic with some Rocket Knight and Gunstar Heroes thrown in for good measure. Now developer GalaxyTrail has taken the project to Kickstarter where it's made over five times its goal in a week.

Of course, GalaxyTrail's initial goal was a modest $2000, but as of writing this the total comes to $10,676 with 23 days to go before the deadline on 14th February.

In fact, Freedom Planet was so successful that it met all of its initial stretch goals earlier today and had to add new ones. Based on the first 10 grand, GalaxyTrail made enough to add animated cutscenes and a fourth playable character named Spade, hire extra programmers, and get a leg up in advertising costs so the developers can get a head start on the next game in the series.

Looking ahead, the newly added stretch goal of $20,000 will ensure that members of the cast will do Let's Play videos in character.

Freedom Planet may not do any one thing drastically new, but GalaxyTrail seems to have a keen understanding of what made these games work so well in the first place. "We jump in quickly with an equal mix of high speed action, platforming, and exploration. Most platform games focus mainly on one of these three elements, but with our 360-degree physics engine, we believe there is a lot of potential to mix them all into the same package," wrote the developer on Kickstarter.

"Imagine barreling down a road while being chased by a giant death laser, at which point you run up a wall and end up on several different routes depending on which direction you take and whether or not you decided to jump. Or, how about a room with ceiling crushers where you can either blast through them to cut down on time or chill on a bench and wait until the coast is clear? The kind of experience we're aiming for is one in which almost any action you take leads to something interesting."

"Another notable difference Freedom Planet has is something we wish was more common in video games: Female heroes that are quirky and endearing," the developer added, noting its playable character roster as Lilac the Dragon Girl, Carol the Wildcat, and Milla the Hound: each of whom will have their own distinct personality and abilities.

Reward-wise, those who pledge $10 will receive a PC copy of Freedom Planet and a Steam key if the game is accepted on Steam Greenlight. $20 grants access to a full soundtrack, too, and those who pledge $30 will get all of the above plus early beta access.

While no firm release date has been announced, GalaxyTrail is gunning for a February 2014 launch on PC, and it would like to bring it to Mac, XBLIG, iOS, and potentially Android as well. When asked about a Wii or Wii U launch GalaxyTrail noted, "We currently don't have the means to export the game to Nintendo systems, but if it ever becomes possible, we would absolutely love to see Freedom Planet in the eShop."