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Republique Gets Kickstarted, Finally

It came down to the wire, but Camouflaj's debut title will get its $500,000 in funding.

That was ridiculously close, wasn't it?
That was ridiculously close, wasn't it?

While we here at Giant Bomb could pretty much give or take the vast majority of video game pitches using Kickstarter as a method of funding, we've silently been hoping for good news when it came to developer Camouflaj's Republique, a PC, Mac and iOS title based around stealth gameplay and what the Kickstarter page describes as "a believable, non-sexualized female lead." Up until this past week or so, it was looking more and more unlikely that Republique would make its $500,000 goal, as it was still at least $150,000 short. Then, somehow, some way, it happened.

With just six hours left on the countdown, Republique crossed the mark it needed for minimum funding. As of now, with just about four hours left, it's up around $517,000, so the end tally could end up being a good chunk higher than expected.

Camouflaj had the advantage of boasting a number of developers from major studios, some of which had worked on franchises like Halo and Metal Gear Solid. During the course of the Kickstarter campaign, voice actors David Hayter and Jennifer Hale came on board, pledging to provide their voices to the game. That gave the campaign a solid shot in the arm, but still it struggled for a good long while, before reaching the goal today.

Granted, Republique is not 100% set now that it has its Kickstarter money. Camoflaj is also working on raising additional capital via other sources, hoping to bring the overall total to around $1 million. That could, of course, fall through, thus making this whole Kickstarter thing a bit of a terrible disappointment. But regardless of what happens, we're sure they'll find something useful to do with your money.

If you haven't read up on Republique previously, their Kickstarter page has a wealth of details to sift through, as well as several pitch videos featuring Hale, Hayter, and others.

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88 Comments

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JillSammich

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Edited By JillSammich

well... that was unexpected.

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probablytuna

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Edited By probablytuna

I'm proud to say I contributed to it on the final hours of the Kickstarter fundraising. I never knew it was raising money through Kickstarter until I read an article about how it might not make it on Kotaku. Also glad to see they are making a PC version as well as iOS cause I won't have an iOS device to play it on. Bring on Snake and Naomi Hunter!

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CptBedlam

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Edited By CptBedlam

@Maajin said:

@CptBedlam said:

@Maajin said:

I just find it weird that the author is Alex, not Ryan. I guess he hasn't heard about it yet. We should warn him, right guys?

I find it weird that you name Ryan as the author who you thought should've covered this and not Patrick. ;)

I'm guessing you don't follow Ryan on Twitter! ;)

Err, no I don't %)

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Duffyside

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Edited By Duffyside

Watching the games press push this game so hard has been absolutely gross.

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EverydayOdyssey

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Edited By EverydayOdyssey

The game seems interesting. And, Ryan P. is pretty passionate about the project.

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Aegon

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Edited By Aegon

This is basically Ghost Trick. 

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otzlowe

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Edited By otzlowe

@Ujio said:

@Loiosh said:

This is a legitimate and interesting pitch.

Good. Then they should have no problem securing funding without having to ask gamers to donate money.

Oh wait....

Because we all know that publishers always have our best interests in mind and never complain about the influence they bring to games.

I love how jaded you all are.

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swiller

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Edited By swiller

@l3illyl3ob: I was following the funding closely since I was a backer on the day of the PC/Mac announce. The funding did bump, but not alot in the 4 days after. Same with the Header/Hale announce. I was really the final 3 days that made all the difference.

You PC gamers are giving yourself too much credit. Some of the hateful anti-OS sentiments really put a damper on the whole proceedings. The fact that iOS is not a gaming platform and their are no iOS hardcore gamers is simply not true. They picked the best platform for their vision.

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Quarters

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Edited By Quarters

Whoa whoa whoa...David Hayter and Jennifer Hale are on board? Yes. Yeeees.

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SpudBug

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Edited By SpudBug

They got exactly zero of my dollars. They were bound for failure before announcing a PC version.

Kinda like jeff said on his jar video - if you don't like something, don't give money to it. For me, that's iOS projects. Zero dollars.

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NegativeCero

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Edited By NegativeCero
@rebgav

I can't watch video of David Hayter without getting the urge to watch Guyver 2 again.

Man, someone should make a good Guyver game. Based purely on the terrible movies. Where's that kickstarter?

Dude, yes. I totally forgot about Guyver. I would love this.
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laserbolts

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Edited By laserbolts

@Maajin said:

It's a good thing Giant Bomb is covering this. I just find it weird that the author is Alex, not Ryan. I guess he hasn't heard about it yet. We should warn him, right guys?

You find it strange that Ryan didn't write this? Does he write anything?

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ocha

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Edited By ocha

Money well invested.

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Seastalk

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Edited By Seastalk

@Duffyside said:

Watching the games press push this game so hard has been absolutely gross.

This. If it didn't have those two voice actors behind it, it wouldn't have got any attention at all.

Think about all the other indie projects that have been self funded and have had amazing success regardless of media attention.

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vinsanityv22

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Edited By vinsanityv22

I don't think it's that surprising. I've seen a few Kickstarter projects in the past, like The New Kind, do the same thing. They look like they're not gonna make it but then a surge comes through at the last minute. It's gotta be nerve wracking for developers though - watching and hoping they make it in the final 24 hours. And man, it's gotta be heartbreaking to get close but fail, because then you lose that whole thing.

But whatever, good for everyone around. Republique is such a game I wanna see succeed. Ryan Payton has some serious experience making great games, and everything here looks promising from a story and survival horror/stealth game point of view. Plus, I just really want to support this effort - far too many western developers brush off the touch screen as an input device, or fall back on shitty "virtual gamepad controls". The developers at Camoflaj are really being thoughtful about this; games (like Suikoden Tierkries) have proven in the past how well the touchscreen inputs work for a game about guiding a character in a game world with fixed camera angles - they're really going to make a meaty adventure here. And it's not a shooter - thank god!

I'm glad this was successful.

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vinsanityv22

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Edited By vinsanityv22

@kyrieee: @kyrieee said:

Good for them, but I don't like the amount of pleading that was done by the press

These games need the promotion far, FAR more than the creatively bankrupt big budget games that are all derivative of each other anyway. Who the fuck doesn't hear about the Halos, Mass Effects, GTAs, Assassin's Creeds and Call of Dutys of the world these days? Yet gaming websites and magazines always devote the same 10-page cover stories and weeklong exclusives to them all the time. Not to mention, Gamestop has their backs, as well as about a hundred other advertising partners.

If you wanna see good ORIGINAL games, than let all the gaming websites pimp these Kickstarter titles out as much as they possibly can.

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dropabombonit

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Edited By dropabombonit

I give them $30 because the game looks interesting, they should be able to raise the rest of the money now that they have shown there is people willing to pay for it

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napalm

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Edited By napalm

@vinsanityv22 said:

@kyrieee: @kyrieee said:

Good for them, but I don't like the amount of pleading that was done by the press

These games need the promotion far, FAR more than the creatively bankrupt big budget games that are all derivative of each other anyway. Who the fuck doesn't hear about the Halos, Mass Effects, GTAs, Assassin's Creeds and Call of Dutys of the world these days? Yet gaming websites and magazines always devote the same 10-page cover stories and weeklong exclusives to them all the time. Not to mention, Gamestop has their backs, as well as about a hundred other advertising partners.

If you wanna see good ORIGINAL games, than let all the gaming websites pimp these Kickstarter titles out as much as they possibly can.

Yes.

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MadExponent

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Edited By MadExponent

"a believable, non-sexualized female lead." Quick guys flatten her boobs and make sure that she looks like a man because THAT is believable. Geez, we are so progressive and with it.

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Commisar123

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Edited By Commisar123

Well good luck to them, I hope everything goes well

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Scodiac

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Edited By Scodiac

@MadExponent said:

"a believable, non-sexualized female lead." Quick guys flatten her boobs and make sure that she looks like a man because THAT is believable. Geez, we are so progressive and with it.

I don't think they flattened her chest or made her look like a man.

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datarez

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Edited By datarez

I like funding the oddball or the genres that don't get published much anymore. This one I passed on because a) It's a iPad game and they seemed to be wanting to bring a console experience to it. I personally don't want that kind of game on my iPad. B) Just Peyton being the front man for it. I love devs making their names know but I haven't seen the work to back him being the name to bring in the dollars. It could completely be I'm ignorant to his influences on the games I might have played that he worked on too though.

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Danin

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Edited By Danin

The amount of hostility I've seen toward this project as a proxy for big-budget development on mobile devices in general astounds me. I get that there's a subset of hardcore players who hate convergence devices and want portable gaming to stay on platforms designed specifically for gaming, but that ship has well and truly sailed. In all likelihood, this is the last generation of successful portable gaming devices. We are at the point where either we embrace hardcore gaming on iOS and Android, or we cede the future of portable gaming irreversibly to Zynga and its ilk.

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Bourbon_Warrior

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Edited By Bourbon_Warrior

I dont see how they will make money with this game unless they dont spend all the money donated. As I see it about 90% percent of people interested have already preordered and all that money would be spent on making the game.

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Krakn3Dfx

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Edited By Krakn3Dfx

@Duffyside said:

Watching the games press push this game so hard has been absolutely gross.

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TheKbob

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Edited By TheKbob

Big PC Gamer. Gave $10. To play it on my iPad 2.

What's with the childish angst filling the comments?

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somethingdumb

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Edited By somethingdumb

@MisterWaingro said:

Alex, I am really sick of you priming your true opinions with cynicism and snark. Even if you come out in favor of something, you just have to throw in something catty about how things suck. Lighten the fuck up. Jesus, you have an awesome job. Quit being a little moping bitch about everything.

I think you read this article wrong. I don't think he did that at all.

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Edited By Bunny_Fire

personally i would never back a iOS game as i don't use any iPad's . but a similar thing happened to Starlight inception 24 hours to go and it had to make up $50k on the last 30mins it needed $15k it just scrapped though with $8k over its $150k goal.

It is understandable that this happens as kickstarter sends out last minute notifications and a majority of people have to budget in kickstarter i know i have to do that and so far i have backed 4 projects..

Anyway goodluck to them

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xbob42

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Edited By xbob42

@Krakn3Dfx said:

@Duffyside said:

Watching the games press push this game so hard has been absolutely gross.

Yeah, totally gross how people who love video games really want more video games to be made. Really disgusting.

I swear, people will fucking bitch about anything.

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ReyGitano

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Edited By ReyGitano

Sounds like it could be a good game, but I'm uncomfortable with giving money to a company that doesn't have a track record. With Double Fine I had some idea of what the odds were that I would like a game they'd put out... too much risk here.

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ColonelT

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Edited By ColonelT

Every time someone pronounces it "Re-pub-LEEK" Ryan Payton snaps the neck of a woodland creature.

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Krakn3Dfx

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Edited By Krakn3Dfx

@xbob42 said:

@Krakn3Dfx said:

@Duffyside said:

Watching the games press push this game so hard has been absolutely gross.

Yeah, totally gross how people who love video games really want more video games to be made. Really disgusting.

I swear, people will fucking bitch about anything.

I actually don't bitch about much, but other than Giantbomb, the gaming media world at large was trying to push this down people's throats like it was guaranteed to be "the next big thing". Then when it became clear that people weren't going to collectively pony up $500k for an iOS game, they decided to tack on the idea that a "unique" PC and Mac version would also be made. That helped them squeak through the gate and make their goal, yay for them. Nobody ever says shit for Crate's Grim Dawn, Stainless' new Carmageddon, or the hundreds of other projects that roll through Kickstarter, but because Ryan Payton is everybody's buddy, they not only got mention on a bunch of podcasts and sites, they got extensive news and talk time.

If you're going to cover Kickstarter games, picking and choosing based on who's your buddy is a pretty unethical way to do it.

Also, if you think quoting someone else qualifies as "bitching", you should have heard my rant Friday night over the way Torchlight 2 beta keys are being distributed.

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xbob42

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Edited By xbob42

@Krakn3Dfx said:

@xbob42 said:

@Krakn3Dfx said:

Yeah, totally gross how people who love video games really want more video games to be made. Really disgusting.

I swear, people will fucking bitch about anything.

I actually don't bitch about much, but other than Giantbomb, the gaming media world at large was trying to push this down people's throats like it was guaranteed to be "the next big thing". Then when it became clear that people weren't going to collectively pony up $500k for an iOS game, they decided to tack on the idea that a "unique" PC and Mac version would also be made. That helped them squeak through the gate and make their goal, yay for them. Nobody ever says shit for Crate's Grim Dawn, Stainless' new Carmageddon, or the hundreds of other projects that roll through Kickstarter, but because Ryan Payton is everybody's buddy, they not only got mention on a bunch of podcasts and sites, they got extensive news and talk time.

If you're going to cover Kickstarter games, picking and choosing based on who's your buddy is a pretty unethical way to do it.

Also, if you think quoting someone else qualifies as "bitching", you should have heard my rant Friday night over the way Torchlight 2 beta keys are being distributed.

See, that's a totally different story. Pandering to someone who's your buddy by never shutting up about a game is kind of sleazy unless you do it for people who aren't your buddy as well. What I was referring to is the fact that gaming media should be more enthused and less "burnt out" on ideas like Kickstarter. Everyone always complains about publishers or retailers censoring everything... and here's our chance to have exactly what we ask for, very literally for better or for worse.

But if they're just talking about it because "Ryan Payton" then yeah, that's lame as shit.

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zaccheus

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Edited By zaccheus

When I read the "feature a believable, non-sexualized female lead" bullet point few days ago I got pretty sad. What does it say about the industry that you have to specify it like that?

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VargasPrime

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Edited By VargasPrime

@Zaccheus said:

When I read the "feature a believable, non-sexualized female lead" bullet point few days ago I got pretty sad. What does it say about the industry that you have to specify it like that?

It says, pretty accurately, that most female lead characters in games (let alone other media) have their sexuality emphasized as a major character trait, either visibly or through their personality and actions.

Nothing to be sad about, though! At least some people acknowledge it and are trying to change the trend. If anything, the thing to be sad about would be that there are probably people who WOULDN'T support the game specifically because there is a female lead who is not overly sexualized!

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smirny

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Edited By smirny

Read's almost like an ARG in some ways, deff sounds interesting...

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shodan2020

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Edited By shodan2020

I'm glad that this is coming out. I really am, but I was kind of annoyed about hearing about it everywhere though.