It was back in October 2014 that the Kickstarter campaign for Beyond Human was launched by developers Dominique Hendricks and David Morales Hernández. It showed much promise, before ultimately falling well short of its modest €20,000 ($22,600) target. However, Beyond Human will be coming back to Kickstarter this Autumn. A countdown clock on the dedicated website is ticking down to September 7th 2016 as the date for the relaunch.
The failure of Beyond Human the first time round was puzzling as the action-exploration platformer seemed a fairly safe bet for success at the time. The campaign page is well presented, and showcases some nifty pixel art. Brief gameplay clips featured a Guyver-esque hero shooting and slashing enemies at impressive speed.
Several other key Kickstarter essentials were ticked off as the game will land on multiple platforms. It namechecked well-loved classics Metroid and Devil May Cry. Another nice touch was that even the lowest reward tier included a PDF art book, Kickstarter exclusive character skins and your name in the credits.
Despite all this, Beyond Human failed to attract enough interest on Kickstarter. This is most likely due to the fledgling developers not being able to attract enough publicity. They didn’t help themselves with a brief video, and only three updates during the campaign.
Following the failed Kickstarter, there were a couple of updates in 2015 and again in 2016 promising things weren’t over. I wasn’t getting my hopes up though. However, it looks like the developers have actually learned from the painful experience. Now fully embracing social media, they’ve set up a new website with even more flashy gameplay clips. The new Kickstarter campaign is also set to feature a trailer and, more impressively, a playable demo.
From the comments I’ve seen it looks like many of the original 330 backers (including myself) will be happy to pledge again. Beyond Human will need to attract a significantly bigger audience if it’s to have any chance of succeeding with its second attempt. However, with the many improvements I’m sure it will manage it this time.
