Who can argue with that smile?
Double Fine Productions, the studio that put Kickstarter on the map for games by raising millions, is returning to the crowdfunding service to bring another project to life.
Massive Chalice comes from Trenched designer Brad Muir, a developer anyone familiar with Giant Bomb’s videos probably already knows pretty well. Massive Chalice is being pitched as a fantasy strategy game culling inspiration from XCOM, Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics, and others.
In addition to fighting it out with turn-based battles, players also have to manage a multi-generational layer in which units age, have children that spawn new units, die, etc. The original set of heroes is spawned randomly for each player, with the project’s page citing roguelikes as an inspiration.
Double Fine raised $3.3 million on Kickstarter for its first project, Broken Age, which was previously titled Double Fine Adventure. That game isn’t scheduled to arrive until September, which might lead you to ask why Double Fine is already looking to raise for money to build another game on Kickstarter.
The studio addresses this question on the project page itself.
“Broken Age team only represents a third of our multi-game studio,” said the company. “Double Fine’s goal is for all our teams to remain independent and responsible directly to their players. Kickstarting Massive Chalice allows us to maintain a pure creative vision, put out updates on our own schedule, respond to feedback without roadblocks, and release it all DRM-free.”
Double Fine isn’t the first company to roll from one Kickstarter project to the next, either. After InXile Entertainment raised nearly $3 million for Wasteland 2, the studio drummed up $4.2 million for Torment: Tides of Numenera. Wasteland 2, like Broken Age, has not yet been released.
With Massive Chalice, Double Fine is asking for $725,000, but with $300,000 already raised (as of this writing, anyway), it’s looking likely Massive Chalise will well exceed its original project goal.
The game is currently set for a release on PC, Mac, and Linux in September 2014.