After completing a massively successful Kickstarter Campaign, developer Night Dive Studios has launched full force into preproduction of the System Shock remake. The campaign managed to raise over $1.3 million dollars to produce an updated version of the 1994 classic. Fans who missed their chance to pledge during the campaign’s run needn’t worry though, they’ll soon be able to contribute via Paypal.
According to a recent update by Game Director, Jason Fader, the team has been hard at work ironing out the details to receive additional funds. “We have all of our legal stuff sorted out for it, but still need to wire things up on the website and Backerkit. We’ll probably have a bulk of it finished early next month, but probably won’t bring it live until January since it will be easier for us to start it in a new tax year.”
It’s certainly not unheard of for projects to enjoy a second funding run on Backerkit once the initial Kickstarter attention has died down. However, it’s a bit annoying when it feels like the developers are spending time panhandling on separate platforms rather than getting down to business with what they’ve already raised. Especially considering they finished well over their initial $900,000 goal.
Starting from scratch?
In the same update, Fader says that most of the lead team has been assembled and they are about 30% through preproduction. Since this is basically laying “the foundation for the rest of the project,” it seems weird that they didn’t do this step before securing funding. Admittedly, I’m not a developer though, so this may very well be standard procedure.
Regardless, Night Dive also shared some concept art and the link to their revamped website where System Shock fans can stay up to date and participate in community forums. Still, after such a successful campaign this update feels like a step backwards for Night Dive.
