Vaporware Dreams - Infinity: Battlescape On Kickstarter

For about a decade now, space sim Infinity has turned eyes starry with dreams of a universe so fancy you can even fly down through a planet's atmosphere to its surface. After Duke Nukem Forever and Diablo III finally came out, Infinity ascended to claim the title Lord Vaporware - Star Citizen has nothing on these timescales.

For real, though, Infinity might arrive in 2017 - if its Kickstarter pans out. Well, Infinity: Battlescape [official site] might, a pared-down vision which focuses on multiplayer combat so developers I-Novae Studios can actually finish and release something.

The idea for Infinity: Battlescape is large-scale battles with hundreds of ships duking it out across a single solar system, from kilometres-long capital ships capable of orbital bombardment to bombers ducking into planet atmospheres and down valleys. Each of the three corporations have factories, space stations, bases, AI-controlled defenses, and so on, so folks will need to coordinate if they're to achieve anything. It sounds a bit PlanetSide-y, but not persistent.

It will have an offline sandbox mode for larking about, but is focused on multiplayer.

I-Novae are looking for $300,000 (£200k-ish) to finish up Battlescape. Pledging £15 would get you a copy of the finished game, which I-Novae hope to release in September 2017. If the Kickstarter goes really well, they plan things like base-building and mod support. Look, here's a video showing off spaceships and all that jazz:

And here's a little planetary transition:

That idea was a whole lot more impressive in 2006, but it's still pretty cool. Heck, I'm just surprised to hear from Infinity again. It's a shame I-Novae don't have some solid gameplay footage giving a proper sense of the scale and intensity they're hoping for in the battles but hey, I understand half the fun of crowdfunding is daydreaming about what might be.