Hey all,
I've put off this post for quite a while now, as funding is such an awkward topic. I felt like I needed to show enough of what the game would be before talking about it, so that people wouldn't claim that I was either in it for the money, or incapable to delivering on my promises. I think I have passed that point.
The fact is without funding Universe or Nothing cannot be completed. I am doing my best over the past few years to get it as far as I can without funding, but ultimately this game is beyond the scope of one person working part-time. I have always worked on the game with the belief that we would secure funding, otherwise I wouldn't have put in all of the time that I have.
The good news is that all my work up to now means a lot of the heavy lifting is done (in terms of game design, art, and programming), which reduces the overall cost of completing the game.
The not-so-good news is that in order to complete the game we need a minimum of €150,000 (EUR). That would get us to a complete base game, with all of the features we have discussed excluding the dynamic campaign (the game would have scripted scenarios, which could be chained together). The dynamic campaign would be the primary stretch goal.
My plan is to do a Kickstarter campaign in a few months, I don't feel we're quite ready yet. I think it is important to show the Tactical Ops and Engineering roles in action, with some cinematic in-game combat footage, for the Kickstarter video. As well as that Kickstarter campaigns which are run without an already existing community are rarely successful, so I have to keep working on marketing the game to get more people interested (which only slows down my other work).
I won't lie, it's going to be tough to get to €150,000 on Kickstarter. I am going to continue to do my best to get there though.
Assuming that the game gets funded, whatever the amount, I will continue to expand the game in terms of extra features and content post-launch. That includes the dynamic campaign, if we don't reach that stretch goal in the Kickstarter campaign.
If you would like to help, the thing I need more than anything right now is for more people to know about Universe or Nothing. If you can help to spread the word online, across online communities (Reddit, Facebook, Twitter etc.), I would be forever grateful.
Thanks for reading!
Mark