Petal Crash, released in late 2020, carried on the spirit of the cute arcade puzzlers of the 90's - but with completely original game mechanics. Since its release, it's attracted a passionate community, and has even been featured on RTA in Japan, one of the biggest speedrunning events in the world.

And now, after years of play from novice gamers and expert puzzle sickos alike, it's time to take the next step!

Petal Crash jumps out of the handhelds and into the candy cabs! With our new engine's incredible sprite scaling technology, the petal blocks bounce, squish, and spring across the screen - and massive blocks of garbage crush everything in their path!

The characters also return in a brand new art style - bigger, smoother, and more colorful.

With tweaks and refinements to the game's core mechanics, Petal Crash 2 is more accessible than ever, easing hangups that new players may have while keeping the skill ceiling astronomically high for the experts.

Two of the biggest changes are immediately obvious: the first is diagonal movement, which not only allows for flashier chains, but handily resolves all the unintuitive "corner case" interactions from the first game. Plus, it looks cool!

The second big change is moving spawners - the places where new blocks appear are no longer covered up when a block lands on them. There's so much less to keep track of!

All of the arcade modes from the first game are back! The Score Attack modes return, including those introduced post-launch. The Versus Mode is just as frantic and competitive as ever, and the new game mechanics allow for an even wider variety of puzzles in the Puzzle Mode.

Petal Crash 2 will also feature the return of the first game's Story Mode! The original script by Zack Morrison will now be accompanied by massive, expressive "visual novel" style portraits. Not only that, but even more secrets and surprises await between stops on your Sacred Blossom quest!

Petal Crash 2 introduces a brand new Adventure Mode, with a new tale to tell! Taking place in a mysterious world of dreams, the Petal Crash crew will have to brave a winding course of surreal obstacles - one that's never the same twice.

The Adventure Mode centers around a new Versus rule set: Dream Duel, where players have to balance keeping on the offense and deflecting "danger blocks" that threaten to detonate. Battle other heroes, recruit them to your team, and overcome a variety of unique puzzle challenges to find helpful items - including spectacular Dream Spells, which can be used to get an edge in battle.

Are you up to the challenge of puzzling through an ever-changing world of dreams, and facing the mysterious troublemaker behind it all?

Unlike the first game, we've been scoping to include online play with rollback netcode since the beginning! Jill Katze, the coder who brought rollback to Petal Crash Online, is now our lead programmer, building the game in Godot to get Petal Crash 2 online-ready.

With online built in, there's lots of new possibilities - including unlocking fun, random words to construct an expressive title for your profile. Let all your challengers know that you're "Master of Petal Crash"! That, or "Heartless Familiar", "Unsealed Gator", "Just a Little Fairy", "Geezer of the Void"...

With so many new additions before it's done, we're going to release Petal Crash 2 in Early Access during its development, so everyone can get their hands on the new game as soon as possible! Our funding goal accounts for the resources we'll need to get the game to Early Access, including the score attack and versus modes, alongside the puzzle editor and new puzzles to go with it. Further additions - the enhanced Story Mode, online play and lobbies, and finally the new Adventure Mode - will be added in major updates as development progresses.

The game will be PC only during Early Access, but once we're close to version 1.0, we'll be looking into additional platforms - like ports for consoles!

With a new game comes new rewards! Backers will be able to get a new, exclusive Petal Crash 2 poster, featuring the new key art by Ruby T.!

We're also offering something way cool - Lilibri & Yosoti enamel pins! A wonderful addition to a pin board, or the perfect start to a Petal Crash themed ita-bag! I don't know what else you can put on a Petal Crash ita-bag, but it's something!

Pledge more, and you can leave your mark on the game itself! Get your name in the credits, claim a backstage pass to the game as it develops, or get an animated credit sprite to represent you. And if you're willing to pledge vast resources to the cause of Petal, perhaps you can get a playable character of your very own.........

Became a Petal Crash fan way after the first crowdfund campaign was already finished? Lamenting every day that you never got access to the campaign-exclusive poster and sticker sheets? Lament no longer!

The Petal Crash 1 poster and sticker sheets return as optional add-ons! Never feel regret for anything ever again!

With BackerKit's addon system, you'll only get charged for shipping if you add physical merch like the posters or pins to your pledge! Shipping will be calculated and collected after the campaign through the Pledge Manager.

In case you don't know me, I'm Ashley, and I've been an independent game developer full-time for around a decade now. My first commercial game release was Grapple Force Rena, a grappling-hook based action platformer, and my second was Petal Crash, which you're likely familiar with!

When it comes to game development, I'm used to doing nearly everything on my own, even marketing and promotion, cutting together trailers and organizing crowdfunding campaigns like this one - though I would still get help here and there for music and other things I can't handle.

Petal Crash 2, however, is the first project where I've started to step into a more directorial role. I'm still doing most of the design, art, and animation myself, but I have more help than ever, and a talented partner in lead programmer Jill Katze. Not only that, but I'm getting help with assets, including from Ruby for character art and Titas Vilkaitis for background paintings. Plus, Michael Staple is back to compose the new soundtrack, with new arrangements of the familiar themes in a Sega Saturn-era style. And, of course, I have the backing of GalaxyTrail, who helped tremendously with getting the game into a state that we can show you. This time, I've got more than some help and support - I have a team!

My intention for this project is to make a version of Petal Crash that can be truly timeless - something I'd be proud to have as the highlight of my entire career. To that end, I have more support than ever, but I also have to raise much more than I ever have. If you're considering pledging your support, every last bit is deeply appreciated!