Cast Out: Outcast HD Kickstarter Fails

Back in the day Outcast aimed for the stars - perhaps even above them - and managed to be surprisingly excellent when you got past its many, many rough edges. The Kickstarter for Outcast's HD reboot took a similarly ambitious tact (to the tune of $600,000), but it's sadly fallen short. The Kickstarter's time on this mortal Internet is now up, and an enhanced remake of the open-world cult classic isn't happening. At least, not without some other form of funding to back it up.

Outcast's Kickstarter ran out of time with a mere $268,964 to its name. The crowdfunding effort got off to a pretty strong start when it first kicked off, but it slowed to a crawl and never managed to regain its footing after that.

The game's team was frank in reflecting on what exactly went wrong, noting that Outcast HD would've made a much stronger showing if it had more to show, a more representative trailer, better explanations of key features, and some sort of demo. The next step, then, is to try again in some form or fashion.

"Thanks to your commitment and the overall feedback we received, we truly believe, more than ever, that this project deserves to be done and we are more than eager to make it happen. Will it be through another Kickstarter or another crowdfunding platform, paypal, private investment, some bank loans, public support, distributor deals or a mix of all that, we will see."

"Now, time is for analysis and thinking of the different options we have to finance this project given the economic reality. It may require some time and we'll do our best to share with you any significant information we might have regarding the next step."

So Outcast HD will hopefully have a future, but it's tough to say what exactly that'll look like right this very second.

It sounds like developer Fresh3D is at least on the right track, though. Granted, learning through failed crowdfunding efforts often comes at its own sort of price. Even if you take another swing at it, you never really get that initial excitement again. Square one becomes square 0.50, and you have to run a couple extra miles. Here's hoping that's not the difference between success and failure if Outcast's team decides to take that route.