With this year’s EGX Rezzed less than a fortnight away Square Enix have not only announced they will be attending for the first time but also that they’ll be showcasing the first five games that they’ll be publishing from the Square Enix Collective catalogue – three of which were successfully funded through Kickstarter.
Of those three the only one we already knew about was Goetia, having been revealed back in October 2015 as the first of the Collective titles that Square Enix would be publishing rather than just supporting. However this more recent report confirms that both adventure-visual novel hybrid Tokyo Dark and platforming-puzzler Black the Fall would be joining the Square Enix line-up.
As previously outlined here on Cliqist, the Square Enix Collective is a philanthropic scheme that allows small developers to exhibit their projects and in the process receive both publicity and feedback from the community. A small selection of those titles will be offered the choice to have support from Square Enix if they choose to seek funding through Kickstarter or Indiegogo, while a lucky few may eventually be offered a publishing and distribution deal.
The announcement from Square Enix also helpfully confirmed 2016 release dates for these promising looking titles with Goetia set for the second quarter, Black the Fall due for release in the third quarter while Tokyo Dark is set to join them in the fourth quarter. Having seen several Kickstarter titles from new developers endure difficult releases I would definitely see this as a very positive step for all three projects, and for the Collective it will be a huge boost to see some tangible results for the often low-key platform.
