Stretch goals are usually added to a crowdfunding campaign in order for a game to earn more funding beyond the “base game”. Usually these are sweet enough to hopefully unlock as time goes on. Unfortunately, not all stretch goals for every campaign are met and there will be some stuff left on the “cutting room floor”. In the case of Inner Chains, though, this is not the case.
It’s not uncommon for a project creator to decide to still work on one or two stretch goals, especially if the funding came close to one, but it’s unheard of to decide to unlock every single stretch goal no matter how far from it the money is. Unless it’s funded already, that is. With Inner Chains they had only managed to unlock the first one, Linux support, before the clock ran down to zero.
As of the latest update Telepaths Tree made the decision to go ahead and work on all of the stretch goals mentioned. That means we’ll see expanded content in the form of extra enemies, deadly plants, more flexibility with the weapons, and an alternate ending. All this in addition to the core game itself. That’s a lot for such a small amount of money, and it certainly was an unexpected move, but most certainly one that’s sure to be well received.
Of course, all of this means that development for Inner Chains will take longer and the release date will be pushed back quite a bit as the update mentions a hopeful end of quarter three or beginning of quarter four of this year. And, frankly, it’s a wait worth waiting for to get the complete package from the get-go.