Devolver Digital to publish horrifying, adorable clown-based adventure Dropsy

Hotline Miami and Shadow Warrior publisher Devolver Digital will be publishing the crowdfunded, point-and-click adventure Dropsy, a game starring a well-meaning, but terrifying-looking clown.

The brainchild of indie developer Jay Tholen and programmer Justin Warnes, Dropsy follows the exploits of a down-on-his-luck clown whose mother died after his family's circus burned down. Dropsy's special talent is that he can communicate with animals, but when it comes to people he's lacking in social graces - something not aided by his nightmare fuel appearance. To simulate Dropsy's communication barrier, there will be almost no text in the game and dialogue will be handled via images. Their meaning won't always be clear, but neither is Dropsy's grasp of the English language.

Despite Devolver signing on for publishing duties, Dropsy is primarily a crowdfunded effort with a still running Kickstarter. Actually, this is Dropsy's third Kickstarter as the first only asked for $225 for a software package and the second only acquired half of its $25K goal. The current Dropsy Kickstarter has raised $21,264, overcoming its modest $14K ask. There's still three days left in the campaign too, with a 24th November deadline.

So how is the game crowdfunded and being published by Devolver? The publisher responded to the confusion by stating that it won't have any say in how the Kickstarter funds are used and it will merely provide additional funding, so Tholen can meet his stretch goals of bringing on composer Chris Schlard, animator Acacia Lawson, and voice-actors David Saulesco and Melanie Ehrlich.

"Any and all funds collected via Kickstarter will of course remain with the developer to fund the development of Dropsy," the publisher stated in its announcement. "Devolver Digital is not involved with money from backers nor do we have any say in how it is used. We're going to provide additional funds beyond Kickstarter to make sure that all stretch goals are met and that any additional features or content the team envisions for the game are possible because we love Dropsy and want it made without compromise. Oh, and marketing, QA, localisation, etc. The boring stuff."

To reward backers for their efforts in this, Tholen noted in an update comment that "there will definitely be something unique for backers, as it would be good to add some value for their faith in the project, but I'm going to have to think on it more." In another comment he mulled over the idea of a backer-exclusive location in the game, but he hasn't committed to anything yet.

Dropsy is currently slated to come out on PC, Mac and Linux in October 2014. You can reserve a copy and help finance the game by putting down $10 while the Kickstarter campaign remains.