It’s kind of hard to imagine a “serious” game with the title Ninja Pizza Girl, but Australian developer Disparity Games is giving it a shot. The team behind the platformer is currently knee deep in development and seeking completion funds through a recently-launched Kickstarter campaign.

And from the sounds of it, Ninja Pizza Girl is the kind of game that a major publisher wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole (and we gamers would be the poorer for it). The Sonic-inspired platformer is, on its surface, about getting teen pizza delivery girl (and also ninja) Gemma to each of her customers before the clock runs down. Okay, it’s a platformer with a weird salad hook in terms of where the main character does and where she’s from – what’s the big deal?

It’s in the health system: instead of losing energy for falls or getting hit while making a run, Gemma is hurt more if she fails in front of her fellow ninja, who will laugh at and taunt her. “Fail” too many times, and the color will drain out of the world, dropping Gemma into a state of depression.

According to the campaign page, Disparity based Gemma’s story on the very real story of two of its programmer and designer Jason Stark’s teen daughters. The eldest delivered pizza in her free time and would bring home some of the odd and harrowing experiences of taking food to strangers’ homes. Disparity hoped to add some action to that experience with a futuristic setting and ninjas while still making it about navigating the world as a teen girl.

Disparity describes the gameplay as “inclusive,” so if Gemma doesn’t hit a perfect jump or take the fastest track, the game doesn’t end, instead sending her and the player on a slower, lower-scoring track. Basically, the developer wants everyone to be able to give Ninja Pizza Girl a try.

The Kickstarter campaign still has four weeks to go, but if you’d like to give a very early pre-alpha build of the game a try, Disparity has offered up the demo.

[Source: Rock Paper Shotgun]