Xenocider is pretty much the definition of a niche Kickstarter. A niche Kickstarter with a fairly high funding goal of $92,000. It is a 3D on-rails shooter for the Dreamcast as well as PC, Linux, Mac, and 3DS. You can tell from watching the introduction video that these guys are hardcore Dreamcast fans.
Looking at this, my initial reaction was that it was too niche and doomed to fail. I might have to revise that thought though. Often it is the smallest communities who are the most willing to throw down cash for something. Xenocider is off to a pretty good start with $16k in funding, and the comment section seems to indicate a heavily invested audience.
Ever wanted to play as a highly destructive cyborg on a mission to shoot everything that moves for unidentified reasons? Me neither, but yay!
I was previously under the impression that on-rails shooters weren’t all that popular. I don’t think I’ve ever owned a single one, I think they were on the scene long before I became a gamer. The developers want Xenocider to pay homage to Space Harrier, and it’s clear this is a passion project for them. They have some compelling demos available on their Kickstarter page and they’re a clear example of hard work.
The Kickstarter has my blessing, but I’m very hesitant to predict success with it. The backers are mostly in the $40-$60 range, but are there going to be enough people like that to raise $92,000? Only time will tell, this is definitely going to be an interesting Kickstarter to study if it is successful. It’ll end up as a bit of case study of quality versus quantity.
Oh, me of little faith, am I being too pessimistic with the Xenocider Kickstarter? Is the on-rails shooter genre bigger than I thought? Let me know in the comments below.
The Dreamcast was the best unknown console platform ever created. I had the PS2 and Dreamcast and i am being honest in saying i had waayyy more fun with the Dreamcast than PS2. As, for this game, I hope it gets funded for the dreamcast, but it won’t revolution the console.