Deathfire Launches Direct Funding After Failed Kickstarter

I was never too confident for Deathfire's chances. A classic-style RPG, aiming to breathe narrative life into a Wizardry style game, certainly sounded appealing. And coming from a well-loved RPG creator, Guido Henkel (Realms of Arkania), it was reasonable that it might get funded by Germany alone. But $390,000 was always an enormous figure for an archaic genre, and while it did pretty well, it could only bring together $200,000 in pledges. Of course, they're not giving up. Instead the team is moving to a direct pledging model, and planning to release the game episodically. So far they've picked up $43k from just under a 1,000 people, but they're going to need a lot more than that.

Emulating the Kickstarter model, they're offering a bunch of rewards based on what you donate. A copy of chapters 1-3 is $15, while 1-6 is $20. (A cloth map comes in at $55.) But - BUT - please, please be aware that they're not emulating Kickstarter's need to reach a target. Pledge that money, and they get that money. And when they've made it clear they need $400k to make the full game, having raised less than an a tenth of that so far means you could be funding a project that doesn't get finished.

There's some new footage since we last mentioned the game. Some troll animation, in-game:

And here's a reel of in-game stuff:

Finally, there was a Kickstarter update that they appear to still be planning to go with - a D20 bluetooth dice that will let you roll your actions on your desk.

(That should piss a few magicians off, since that's basically Hugo Shelley's gimmick.)

You can read our interview with Henkel about the project here.