Jamie Fristrom is a name you may not know, but if you played Spider-Man 2, you should. Up until the game's release, comics included, the web head had this amazing ability to swing on webs attached to either clouds, or an unseen flock of tiny, silent helicoptors. It was kind of one of those unwritten rules that never had to be addressed, and video games followed suit.
Until Spider-Man 2 that is. That was the game that finally broke the mold, and ensured that if Spidey wanted to keep swinging, he'd have to make sure he attached his webbing to something tangible.
I think I spent more time swinging in that game, blissfully ignoring all the lost balloons and random criminal activity than I did playing through the game's campaign. I even regressed into the old childlike game where the floor is lava, seeing how long and fast I could keep Spidey off the ground of magma.
The man behind that whole swinging ordeal was Jamie Fristrom, who served as Treyarch's technical director and designer for the game. If you loved swinging around Manhattan, pay attention, because he has a new project all his own.
Fristrom has since left Treyarch to make games at a development studio all his own, Happion Laboratories. The most notable project he's been working on since then is Energy Hook, built on the same swinging mechanic he pioneered for Peter Parker to use. The game takes place in the future where swinging through environments isn't limited to vigilanted crime fighters. Rather, it's the extreme sport of the future.
With the game mechanic and the cel-shaded style, it certainly looks a lot like Ultimate Spider-Man, but here's the interesting part about the game. Like many others, Fristorm took to Kickstarter to get the word out about the game with the shallowest funding goal seen for easily 99% of the game's on the crowd funding service. The total Fristrom was looking for? $1. In essence, he's using Kickstarter more as a pre-order service than anything else, guaranteeing that the game will see the light of day.
Despite the meager amount needed, interest has exploded in the game, and the money's certainly been coming in. Maybe not rolling in, but raising over $30,000 when all you've asked for is $1 is certainly nothing to scoff at.
With the game guaranteed to get made, the purpose of Crowdfunding now is to add in more features, like tricks between swinging, first person views and Oculus Rift support, additional levels, and more.
"It is pretty much the same game," he tells Polygon. "The stretch goals add breadth. They add more stuff, but I don't think they fundamentally change what the game is. It's still fundamentally a game about swinging around stylishly and doing various sorts of - I used to call it parkour, but then really parkour aficionados were like, 'That's not parkour.' So you know, like wall running and stuff like that."
The Kickstarter campaign for the game comes to a close in 11 days. If you're a Spider-Man fan, be sure to check it out, and we'll keep you posted if new updates are introduced.
