Night, Night: Project Awakened Kickstarter Falls Short
Project Awakened is ostensibly a game about everything ever. All the places. All the powers. All the graphics. It also heralds from a bunch of former Psi-Ops and Stranglehold developers, who originally got the superpowered idea off the ground while Midway, well, existed. And it's still going to happen! Just, you know, eventually. In maybe a long, long time. Phosphor still plans on realizing its ridiculously all-encompassing vision, but - out of necessity - its focus for the foreseeable future will be on things that involve slightly less of everything.
Much as Awakened's Kickstarter seemed destined to leap tall orders in a single bound, it instead fell slightly short of its goal - huffing and puffing across the finish line at $338,498 of a needed $500,000. An impressive last-second rally nearly saved the day, but sadly, it didn't generate nearly enough interest.
Phosphor does, however, have a backup plan. It explained to Joystiq:
“If we don’t make the $500K we have to keep making the game very slowly in our spare time, if nothing else comes up for funding elsewhere – we will keep looking. We would not be able to promise a 2014 beta, and it would likely take a long time to complete.”
"We will keep talking about it with everyone, but we have been doing that for years, and it has always been a scary prospect for publishers. Maybe seeing how excited and dedicated the fanbase is will change some minds. Only time will tell."
So it's tough to say what exactly comes next, but Awakened at least has options. The idea that a publisher or other third-party could give it one last, much-needed push isn't entirely far-fetched, either. Most recognizably, Wildman (or, if nothing else, Gas Powered Games) got a second lease on life from Wargaming, so the prospect's not without precedent. Plus, a little interest goes a long way, and being able to tangibly demonstrate it is a potentially powerful tool that we've yet to see the full extent of.
In the meantime, I'll continue concepting Crowdfunderman, whose powers include opening portals to the past, stretching to incredible lengths, and randomly dropping the people he rescues. Also, his lair is called the Crowdfunderdome, and that's pretty much all I've got.