Game Garage, the developer of the upcoming Kirby Air Ride and Sonic Adventure-inspired title Star Garden, may have smashed its Kickstarter goal of $35,000, raising over $158,000 on the crowdfunding site.
But it isn't through trying to generate further support for the project, continuing to add a number of stretch goals to entice more people to back the project before the crowdfunding period is over in 20 days time.
This includes PlayStation and Xbox ports and (perhaps more excitingly for us) a $180,000 goal that would see the video game composer Shogo Sakai supply two original tracks for the indie title.
Sakai is a musician who is probably best known to video game fans for his work on the Game Boy Advance title Mother 3, but was also responsible for providing music for Super Smash Bros. Melee and Kirby Air Ride, having worked at HAL Laboratory. In 2023, he left HAL Laboratory to become a freelance composer, and since then has also been making regular videos on YouTube, where he shares his love of classical music and interacts with fans of his video game work.
Star Garden, on the other hand, is a promising indie title that sees players raising and training pets called Lumi (similar to Sonic Adventure's Chao), which can transform into Warp Star-esque vehicles you can use to battle and race.
According to Game Garage and Sakai, the prospect of this collaboration first came about thanks to Robert Maloney, the producer on Deltarune, who connected Sakai with the young development team. But now it needs your help to make this a reality.
In a blog post on Medium, Sakai wrote he was extremely flattered to be asked to join the project, stating, "To be honest, at my age, being invited by younger creators to take part in a new project is something I find profoundly moving.
"For me, there is only one way to respond: to pour everything I can into writing good music, and to help make Star Garden as compelling and beautiful a work as possible."
If you want to help the project reach this target, you can back the project now.