Death Inc infects Kickstarter - £300,000 to unleash the plague

Death Inc, the strategy management game about spreading plague through 1660s England, has arrived on Kickstarter . The team at Ambient Studios - comprised of former Media Molecule, Lionhead and Criterion staff - are looking for £300,000 to unleash their game on the world.

According to the pledge page , Death Inc is "a unique mix of real-time strategy, god game and business sim, harking back to some of the classic Bullfrog games like Theme Park and Dungeon Keeper." Players propagate their plague by painting paths, replacing the usual click-heavy RTS system with an easy-to-use system that lets you direct and split infected troops.

The game also promises special abilities, including plague rats, dive-bombing pigeons and exploding livestock. I mention this mostly for an excuse to include this excellent concept mock-up:

Early backers can secure a download of the game for £10, after which the lowest reward tier becomes £15. Pledge rewards go all the way up to £5,000 to become the game's king or queen, and the main target for protagonist Grim T. Livingstone.

Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.

Latest in Gaming Industry
Atomfall screenshot
Rebellion CEO puts the studio's recent avoidance of layoffs down to control of scope and cost: 'Sometimes we say, guys, this game's too big'
Judge Dredd promotional image in Warzone
Half-a-dozen 2000AD games were in the works before fizzling out: 'The games you get to see are a tiny representative of the number that get started—sadly'
sniper elite 5 cover
Sniper Elite CEO reckons Swen Vincke is right to snarl at short-sighted publishers: 'You could argue that their business at senior level isn't making games… their business is managing their shareholders' perceptions'
Kasumi and Joker in Persona 5 Royal.
After 31 years in games, Persona director Katsura Hashino just got a 'Newcomer Award' and $5,000 from the Japanese government
A picture of Bowser behind jail bars.
Nintendo wins major French piracy case with EU-wide consequences: 'Significant not only for Nintendo, but for the entire games industry'
An AI-generated image, posted to Activision's socials, of a fake Crash Bandicoot game that doesn't actually exist.
Finding a new and inventive way to annoy everybody, Activision has company use AI to generate fake advertisements for games that don't exist
Latest in News
Pedro Pascal as Joel in a coat in winter looking unhappy
'Don't you know what he did?': The truth comes out in The Last of Us Season 2 trailer
Aloy
'Creepy,' 'ghastly,' 'rancid': Viewers react to leaked video of Sony's AI-powered Aloy
Split Fiction trailer still - Zoe and Mio standing side by side, wearing glowing neon sci-fi jammies
Split Fiction sells 1 million copies over 2 days
A soldier looks out over the Verdansk map, as a single tear rolls down his cheek.
The original Verdansk map is returning to Call of Duty: Warzone, to celebrate which we get a soldier crying to Nat King Cole
More than 5 years after launch, Control gets a surprise patch that lets everyone play the Hideo Kojima mission
Swen Vincke
Swen Vincke stamps seal of approval on Stardew Valley mod that yoinks the Baldur's Gate 3 cast out of D&D and into a cosy pastoral life