Checking out the Kickstarter page for Demoniaca makes it seem like the 1990s never went away with a grunge soundtrack, pixel graphics and a gothic atmosphere. But it’s the attempt to use ‘explicit violence and sexual content’ as a selling point that seems particularly outdated for this Castlevania-inspired effort.
Of course many modern games do feature adult themes but nowadays they tend to aim for a either a mature approach such as the Witcher series or a satirical portrayal as seen in titles like Grand Theft Auto. Demoniaca in contrast seems to be hoping that blood and some cheap titillation will attract interest. A censored version of Demoniaca will actually be available with backers able to choose between the two, but it’s notable that even with the cheaper price of €10 ($11) only one of the thirty backers so far has opted for the censored version with most going for the uncensored €13 ($14.50) option. What a surprise, the Internet is full of perverts!
Seriously though, I’m not aware of too many Kickstarter games where the sexualised content is a main feature (apart from some visual novel romance titles). However as a regular backer of Kickstarter comics I’ve witnessed (and avoided) plenty of amateurish projects that raised far more than expected due to explicit content so it is a valid tactic, although with the pixel graphics of Demoniaca it just seems even seedier than usual.
With a €15,000 target the promise of blood and boobs could potentially be enough to get Demoniaca funded but there are other issues that I imagine will put off most potential backers. While the brief clips of gameplay footage do look OK there is a real lack of concrete information about the project while developer Mnemosyne doesn’t actually seem to exist yet, with only the personal website and twitter account of the director/artist available, and that alone is enough to make me steer well wide.
Track the progress of the Demonaica Kickstarter in our Campaign Calendar.
Kickstarter is weird when it comes adult content, sometimes they allow, and sometimes they don’t!
Meh, sex does not a good game make I reckon.
Not necessarily, there are plenty of 18+ titles that play very well. However that’s the catch, the game has to be built from the ground up on that premise.
[…] it looked quite promising. Sure, the King of Fighters-meets-Castlevania project might have been selling itself partly through the promise of sexually-explicit content, but the decent concept, lovely pixel art […]
[…] I briefly remember Demoniaca: Everlasting Night as the game that kicked up a bit of fuss within the community because some fans were disappointed with the animations and gameplay mechanics after they saw the first pre-alpha video. Part of this was covered in an article on Cliqist. […]