Unhappy Ever After Comes to Kickstarter with Low Ambitions

A common mistake made by Kickstarter creators is to set too high a funding goal. Not so with Unhappy Ever After, the character-driven RPG from developer Warped Tales. They’ve actually gone to the other extreme with an oddly low goal of only £200 ($260). So low in fact it was reached after just 24 hours with only 30 backers.

Perhaps Warped Tales thought Unhappy Ever After would struggle to attract backers, given it’s yet another game developed using RPG Maker. And while it does admittedly look a bit formulaic (the battles in particular seem a bit bland) the adult-themed story seems more intriguing than most. Terrorism, political coups, drugs – not what you’d expect from the charmingly basic visuals.

The pledge levels are also some of the lowest I’ve ever seen on Kickstarter. Just £2 ($2.60) is enough for a copy of the game and your name in the credits. That’s less than a cup of coffee! And interestingly, over on the Steam Greenlight page, the Kickstarter campaign is being promoted as a way to pre-order the game with 50% off the eventual launch price.

Unanswered Questions

The Kickstarter campaign clearly isn’t essential for the success of Unhappy Ever After. In fact, the developers have already stated that the game is 80% complete and due out by Christmas. There’s very little risk involved then, although I do still feel the Kickstarter needs some more information. While there are some images and gameplay footage available, I’d like some more details on how the various promised features work. More importantly though, I’d like to know about the developers. The Kickstarter page mentions they’re a team of six – but who are they? Between them they’ve helped develop and market five commercial games – but which ones?

Whatever the reason for the low price of Unhappy Ever After, it seems to have worked. The campaign has already been successful, and there’s still four weeks to go. I’m actually sorely tempted to back as well, but I’ll be holding off until the developers add a bit more detail to the campaign.