Some of the great minds behind hit games such as "Fallout," "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II" and and "Planescape: Torment" are asking gamers to help them make their newest creation — a fantasy role-playing game for the PC — a reality.
The folks at Obsidian Entertainment announced Friday that they are trying to raise $1.1 million in funding for "Project Eternity." News of the Kickstarter launch spread quickly (and enthusiastically) across Twitter throughout the day and, within hours, they had already raised almost $400,000 in funding from more than 9,000 donors.
Meanwhile, as we found out last week, Kickstarter has proven to be an enormously popular — and successful — place for game-related projects. Kickstarter revealed that seven of the 11 projects that have raised $1 million through the crowdfunding website so far this year are games or game-related projects.
Will "Project Eternity" become the next million-dollar earner? It seems almost guaranteed.
Some of the people involved with "Project Eternity" include Tim Cain, one of the primary developers behind the original "Fallout" game; Chris Avellone, who created "Planescape: Torment"; and Josh Sawyer, who was the lead designer for "Fallout: New Vegas" and "Icewind Dale II."
In their Kickstarter pitch, they say they want to make "Project Eternity" the "next great RPG experience" — one that will revive some of the classic RPG gaming found in favorites like "Baldur's Gate," "Icewind Dale" and "Planescape: Torment."
Feargus Urquhart, CEO of Obsidian Entertainment, said in their Kickstarter pitch that "Project Eternity" is "a whole new fantasy role-playing game" with "compelling story lines, deep companions, tons of exploration, moral complexity and fun tactical combat."
Avellone, who is the "Project Eternity" creative director, said the game will not only be "very very rich" but it will dig into adult themes.
"One thing I'm looking forward to on Kickstarter is the opportunity to make an M-rated game," agreed Cain, who is the senior programmer. "I think many publishers steer clear of that these days."
"It's not just a fantasy setting, it's something that we can put these mature themes and topics into it that we've always wanted to," said Sawyer, who is the project director.
Most importantly, they said they are excited to get rid of restrictive publisher requirements (which have burned them in the past) and instead let gamers themselves be "the bosses."
"One thing that I appreciate about Kickstarter, is that it's given the game development community more options in terms of what content you can produce and what sort of game ideas you can bring to the table," said Avellone.
Winda Benedetti writes about video games for NBC News. You can follow her tweets about games and other things on Twitter here @WindaBenedetti, and you can follow her on Google+. Meanwhile, be sure to check out the IN-GAME FACEBOOK PAGE to discuss the day's gaming news and reviews.
