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Kickstarter Launches for Digital Card Game Based on Osamu Tezuka Characters

Active Gaming Media's Project Atom launched a Kickstarter campaign on Tuesday for Astro Boy: Edge of Time, a digital collectible card game based on the works of God of Manga Osamu Tezuka. The project is seeking to raise US$50,000 by September 21.

Active Gaming Media previously teased the project with a countdown website.

The game's cards will feature Tezuka's characters redesigned by modern artists. For example, Gantz and Inuyashiki manga artist Hiroya Oku provided a new illustration of Tezuka's Magma, pictured below.

Osamu Tezuka's son Macoto Tezka is supervising the project. The artists redesigning the characters include:

• Hiroya Oku (Gantz, Inuyashiki manga creator)
• NekoshowguN (Lollipop Chainsaw character designer)
• Satoshi Yoshioka
• Hiroshi Matsuyama (president of CyberConnect2)
• Hiroaki
• Seiichirow Hosokawa (character designer for .hack//G.U. Trilogy, .hack//Roots)
• Suda 51 (Gōichi Suda, CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture and director of Killer is Dead, No More Heroes)
• Sina Faroughi
• Juan Fandiño Martín
• Chu Yi-Cheng

Composers Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill series) and Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (pioneer of disco and electronic dance music) are working on the music for the game.

The game will feature an online multiplayer mode and a single-player story mode. The story takes place in The Sprawl, a city that lies outside of normal space and time, where characters from different universes gather in peace until the demon king Goa invades. Players take on the role of a "summoner," who is able to summon "hard light construct" versions of characters they have met in order to fight off Goa.

A demo for the game is available on the project's Kickstarter page. If funded, the game is slated for early 2017 and will be compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems as well as iOS and Android mobile devices. Active Gaming Media also promised regular updates to the game after its launch, including new cards, story mode episodes, and multiplayer modes.

Backer rewards include beta access, game cards, and merchandise such as a t-shirt, poster, and art book. Higher tier rewards include chances to help design an artifact, avatar animation, boss attack, card sleeve, or achievement. Backers pledging US$2,500 or more can get their likeness in the game.