Michael Mendheim had a problem. For years he wanted to remake his 1993 classic Mutant League Football. The game had spawned a Saturday morning cartoon show, a toyline, comic series and even a spin-off game called Mutant League Hockey. Regardless, he was unable to find a publisher willing to fund the development of a modern remake.
Mendheim took his pitch for the new Mutant League Football to Kickstarter instead. The original campaign launched in September of 2013 seeking $750,000. While positively received by a few loyal fans, the campaign fell way short of its goal, raising only $141,821 with the support of 1,105 backers.
Not quite ready to throw in the towel, Mendheim refocused his efforts on getting the game to a playable state. Now, three years later Mutant Football League is back on Kickstarter. The project was easily able to meet its $60,000 funding goal with plenty of time to spare.
If At First You Don’t Succeed, Build The Game & Try Again.
With Mutant Football League basically sailing through it’s second campaign it would be easy to assume backers just wanted a lower funding goal. While I’m sure that didn’t hurt, I suspect the fact that the game is now about 75% complete and fully playable probably had more to do with it. Where the initial campaign presented a fun idea (with a super campy Kickstarter trailer to back it up) the new one shows actual gameplay and colorfully animated 3D characters in all their bloody glory.
We often stress the importance of putting off crowdfunding until the project is ready. Backers are looking to fund development of a game they’ll love, not a cool idea you had in the shower one day. The reemergence and success of Mutant Football League is a perfect demonstration of this.
The current timeline has the game releasing in early access around July or August. The official PC launch is planned for October 2017. Mutant Football League will come to consoles in Spring 2018.
