It took longer than I expected for Underworld Ascendant to hit its Kickstarter goal, although that can be put down to my powerful, nostalgic love for the game, and the strange notion that other people might not feel quite the same way. In any event, the line has been crossed, and with six days remaining in the campaign the focus is now on passing some stretch goals.
Recognizing that the Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter is not the red-hot, runaway success of, say, Shadowrun: Hong Kong, the OtherSide Entertainment team has rejiggered the stretch goals a bit to make some of them more achievable. "Once it became apparent that we would not necessarily be zooming up and past the $1.2M stretch goal, we decided that it made more sense to break out the $150,000 big stretch goals into 3 smaller $50,000 chunks each," the latest Kickstarter update explains. "Breaking it out like this gives the community a better chance to reach at least 1 or 2 of the 3 original features within whatever stretch goal we end up in, rather than making it an all-or-nothing proposition."
They've also swapped the Necropolis area and Haunt monster with the Underswamp and Lizardmen, which it said are similar in scope. The change was made because the Lizardmen "seem to be a fan favorite," and the studio wanted to increase the odds that they'll be included.
In a separate update posted earlier today, studio chief Paul Neurath said the team has recently been working with an Oculus Rift developer kit, but based on hardware limitations, expense, and the tiny number of people who actually have the thing, it's not ready to commit to supporting VR in the game. "We will be staying on top of upcoming advances in the technology, and spending a bit more time doing experiments over the coming months," he wrote. "But until we get to a point where we are confident that the hardware is ready, and that we could deliver a great experience, we need to wait and see."
The Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter will come to an end on March 6.
