Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi went to Kickstarter in May in search of $500,000 to support the development of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Tomorrow, that Kickstarter will end as the most successful videogame campaign to date, with close to $4.5 million—and quite possibly more—in the bank.
The record was previously held by Torment: Tides of Numenera, which notched up $4,188,927 over its campaign. By comparison, Bloodstained stood at $4,357,579 at the time of writing, a figure that continues to climb. There are still stretch goals to hit: a prequel mini-game at $4.5 million, a version of the prequel for portable systems at $4.75 million, and procedurally generated roguelike dungeons at $5 million.
"In this mode you’ll face a new castle every time, braving its treacherous (and massive) halls for loot, glory, and the simple, satisfying feeling of going where no Miriam has gone before," the latest Kickstarter update states. "Once you’ve explored its passages and defeated its boss, you’ll get a code that will enable you to share your randomly generated dungeon with a friend. (If you find a particularly hard one, you can even share it with an enemy! IGA isn’t picky.)"
It's not uncommon for Kickstarters to experience a big push at the very end, and with 31 hours left in the campaign, this is where things get interesting. $650,000 is an awfully long way to go to reach that magic $5 million mark, and since Bloodstained was funded literally hours after the campaign launched, there's obviously not going to be any last-minute panic to ensure it gets across the line. But interest in the game is clearly off the hook, so I'm not discounting any possibility.
Igarashi and developer Inti Creates are currently aiming to have Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night ready for a March 2017 release.
Update: And in the end, it was no trouble at all: The Bloodstained Kickstarter soared past $5 million with roughly six hours to spare. Pledges are still rolling in, and there's even a new "Boss Revenge Mode" stretch goal at $5.5 million. I don't think it's likely to be achieved, but at this point I sure wouldn't bet the house against it.
