Grab your stuffed elephant and get ready for a head trip with 2D platformer Oscar

At their core, games provide us with a few hours of escapism - but in the promising platformer Oscar, this escapism takes centre stage.

That's because you'll play as a young girl on a surreal quest to escape reality. Drawn in by beautiful, atmospheric artwork and audio, it's easy to think Oscar is an ambient game - but you'll soon get the idea that something isn't quite right.

Clutching onto her stuffed elephant for hope and support, Oscar wanders blithely onward - but suddenly perspectives change, the music shifts, and Oscar undergoes something of a deep, existential crisis.

Clearly, Oscar's not just another platformer.

Oscar's creator describes it as being "about what happens when we can't express what's wrong or when no one listens; it becomes better to mask our problems, both to other people and ourselves."

This still-waters-run-deep approach is central to Oscar's allure - or, rather, it will be if it's funded on Kickstarter.

Oscar won't be a straightforward journey, and it certainly won't be for those interesting a quick, action-packed platformer fix, but it might be worth checking out the Kickstarter if you're the type of player who enjoys having a good ponder at the end of a game.

Currently, Oscar's raised $7,000 CAD of its proposed $40,000 CAD (~£21,600) budget with 26 days left in its Kickstarter campaign.

Assuming the campaign is successful, it'll come to iPad - as well as PC/Mac/Linux - with the decision to launch for Android tablets "still up in the air".

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