Fight Knight blends dungeon-crawler exploration with first-person fisticuffs

If you've ever wondered what it would be like if Batman took on an old-school dungeon crawler, then Fight Knight, which debuted (and was funded) today on Kickstarter might be something you'll want to take a look at. It's a game about a hard-punching knight—the Fight Knight, as you may have guessed—who embarks upon a quest to ascend "the Tower" armed with nothing but his clenched, armored fists. 

"Fight Knight is a mix between a first person dungeon crawler and a high speed action game. Players spend their time ascending a massive Tower, learning the story of Fight Knight and getting to know friend and foe alike," the Kickstarter pitch says. "Along the way they'll solve puzzles, collect artifacts and help Fight Knight grow in power. Encounters take place in real time, through grid based melee combat. Wits and reflexes pave the way to victory. Will YOU master the Tower and those who wait within?" 

It's thoroughly silly—Fight Knight does everything with his fists, from opening doors to interacting with friendly NPCs—but it looks to be a complex and challenging dungeon crawler-slash-face-puncher, too. The Tower will have at least eight zones, each featuring "multiple floors of puzzle-filled dungeon exploration," and "hand-crafted levels ... designed to take Fight Knight's unique fisty capabilities into account." Combat is obviously central to the experience, and your real-time fisticuffery can be enhanced with consumables, energy-based specialties, and a range of gauntlets tailored to different styles of play. 

The Kickstarter has already blown past its modest $13,000 CDN goal and so stretch goals seem likely. The developers said they're avoiding them at this point, though, "as we want to focus on creating the product we had in mind, and don't want to promise anything that we aren't 100% sure we can deliver on." But that was before they killed their goal on opening day, so I wouldn't be surprised so see that position change. 

One of the things I like most about this Kickstarter is that there is a demo, with two zones, four floors and two bosses. It's tiny (32MB) and free, as demos are, and fun, too: I couldn't make the sound work (although I made no real effort to try, either, so that's at least partly on me) and I got my ass kicked by the first real monsters I met, a skeletal duo called the Bone Bros. But I liked it, and I'm looking forward to giving it a proper go after I read the instructions. 

The Fight Knight Kickstarter got underway today and will run until July 31. There's no website but there is a Tumblr you can check out, and you can also get some insight into the team's creative process below.