It’s always frustrating to see a Kickstarter game with a cool premise crushed by poor presentation. Sleeping With Third Eye Open looks to be one of the more experimental indie titles on Kickstarter right now. Its campaign also has some serious issues.
Third Eye Open probably won’t reach its funding goal this time around. Currently the campaign is sitting at $5,341 raised of its $34,687 goal. With only 13 days left things look dire. This is a real shame since the game clearly has something special going for it.
A Diamond in the Rough
A lot of this comes from its art style. Players are treated to a visual feast complete with odd patterns, layering of textures, and an impressive amount of detail. All of which portray a sense of energy and intrigue. Set against the backdrop of an RPG mystery taking place in a hotel entangled in the occult, this promises an experience players could easily lose themselves in.
Unfortunately, poor translation, both in its trailer and Kickstarter campaign, are dragging these promising elements under. Everything from basic grammar errors to incorrect word usage muddles the intended message. The project fails to communicate its goals effectively to potential backers, making its quest for funding that much more difficult.
The Price of Clarity
What’s worse is that this doesn’t appear to be a problem that will be easily remedied. Kanin Sunthornsuk, the creator of the title, is based out of Bangkok, Thailand. This means he either paid someone else to provide a translation — which, as we looked at in an earlier piece, can be surprisingly costly — or had to translate the information himself. Either way, going back to re-translate the project will require a significant investment of time, money or both. A big ask that would likely delay the game past Sunthornsuk’s intended release.
That said, a delay might not be the worst thing for this project. While its promising art style can help carry a portion of the project’s weight, currently the rest is buried by other errors. This could lead the game to finding far less success than it otherwise would with the benefit of additional polish.
Sleeping With Third Eye Open isn’t unsalvageable. On the contrary, there’s more than enough worth making it a title that can go all the way, and hopefully we’ll see it again soon either on Kickstarter or through another medium.
For more on Kickstarters with the potential to be great, check out our coverage of Omega Pattern and the cost of its translation.
