Look At You, Backers: System Shock Kickstarter Ends

The Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund a remake of System Shock [official site] ended yesterday and - surprise surprise - the news is good. Shooting for $900,000 (£680,000-ish), Night Dive Studios drew $1,350,700 (about £1.02 million) in pledges from 21,625 backers. Turns out, quite a few people would like to see a remake of Looking Glass Studios' classic sci-fi horror. Who knew! Now begins the wait until December 2017, when Night Dive plan to release the game.

I do really like that the remake is still keeping the angular architecture of the original game, though my knuckle tattoos have something to say about its texture filtering. I'm always fond of turning technical limitations into artistic flair, and it does look really good in the remake's blue-green light. Alec compared the original and the remake, if you want to see more of that.

That $1,350,700 total means Night Dive hit several stretch goals. They've committed to Mac and Linux versions, support for the Razer Chroma light-up keyboard (go figure?), localisations in French, Italian, German, and Spanish, and new locations, crew members, and audio logs not seen in the original game. They fell $50k short of committing to adding even more areas - new Groves, new floors, and more cyberspace are examples they gave. The vague "RPG elements" once listed as a stretch goal have been rolled into the game anyway but, don't worry, they're not nearly as bad as they might have sounded.

Do remember the $1,350,700 includes all sorts of fees Night Dive will have to pay for the Kickstarter, plus the costs of manufacturing and sending backer rewards, plus... it's not as much as it looks. Just a reminder.

So! December 2017. If you fancy a teensy peek now, the Kickstarter demo is still on Steam and GOG.