Open-world RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance launches Kickstarter

When Warhorse Studios announced its realistic medieval open-world RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance in December, it seemed to still have trouble securing a publisher. So blow that! The studio founded by folks including the creator of Mafia today launched a Kickstarter so it can finish the game and self-publish. It's looking for $500,000 to prove to an investor that people are interested before the moneymen will pony up the rest.

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When Warhorse Studios announced its realistic medieval open-world RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance in December, it seemed to still have trouble securing a publisher. So blow that! The studio founded by folks including the creator of Mafia today launched a Kickstarter so it can finish the game and self-publish. It's looking for £300,000 ($500,000-ish) to prove to an investor that people are interested before the moneymen will pony up the rest.

"We want to bring you a strong story rooted in the height of the Middle Ages, brought to life in all its glory," Warhorse says on the Kickstarter campaign page. "Think of it as Braveheart: The Game. Majestic castles, armored knights, large, open field battles, and political intrigue set in a vast, emergent world."

It'll range across 3.5 square miles--"we want to concentrate on quality rather than quantity," says Warhorse--and offer nonlinear quests with paths from persuading to murdering. Expect castle sieges, horseback combat, skill-based crafting minigames, and no flipping dragons.

Warhose plans to launch Kingdom Come for PC, Mac, and Linux in the fourth quarter of 2015, and hopes to release Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions too. Pledging at least £15 (about $24) to Kickstarter will get you a copy of the finished game.

Check out today's new screenshots, and see a little gameplay in the pitch video:


Shacknews' crowdfunding policy requires games to have a prototype for front-page coverage.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    January 22, 2014 8:30 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Open-world RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance launches Kickstarter.

    When Warhorse Studios announced its realistic medieval open-world RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance in December, it seemed to still have trouble securing a publisher. So blow that! The studio founded by folks including the creator of Mafia today launched a Kickstarter so it can finish the game and self-publish. It's looking for $500,000 to prove to an investor that people are interested before the moneymen will pony up the rest.

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      January 22, 2014 8:32 AM

      This looks really awesome, one to watch for sure, rad \m/ , I would think the Chivalry fans just shit them selves.

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      January 22, 2014 9:02 AM

      I'm always a little wary when games like this ask for money, when they are essentially telling you that even if we hit $500k, we actually need more but we'll get the rest from some moneyman/publisher. At what point in terms of kickstarter backing can they remove this moneyman alltogether. I understand that we are not investors and do not get monies back from sales, but it worries me. How much of the projects costs are covered by this 500k? 10%? If it's a small amount and then the moneyman baulks, we would be out of luck if they closed the project(other than chargebacks, but that would be another nail in paypal's agreement to keep funding these projects).

      Remember that when there's no more money in the project owners bank, and we perform a chargeback, it comes out of the creditcard company/paypals pocket leading to them not allowing these projects to happen at all in the future as they try to sue these people for their money back.

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        January 22, 2014 9:11 AM

        The other point to this project is the $24-$100 dollar tier only comes with Act I. You have to pledge $200 to include Act II when/IF released. Red flag number 2.

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          January 22, 2014 12:58 PM

          Relax, the risk is shared by you and everyone else.

          Everyone has wasted $30, 50, 100+ on useless stuff before. This is voting with your money, it actually means something to encourage this type of entertainment that otherwise wouldn't get made.

          Not to mention this isn't just some nobody coming out of bumfuck Nebraska asking for a bundle with no prior experience and nothing to show for it.

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            January 22, 2014 1:42 PM

            If they were fully funding with Kickstarter then I'd agree about the risk as if the project wasn't funded, then my money is safer. This single investor could leave at any given stage and they would be very screwed.

            Also just because a developer has 10 years experience developing pieces of a games does not make one capable of handling a full game project of this magnitude. Small team/scope games do not take the same budget processes as large scale games of this type.

            I don't have a problem encouraging promising projects, and I certainly wish these guys luck in finishing their game, but I personally wouldn't put my money down with the knowledge known about the project today.

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              January 22, 2014 1:59 PM

              Silly man. You put your trust in unfounded assurance. So what if it's fully funded? Doesn't mean it won't go over budget or even finish for that matter.

              Also fully funded on KS budget means certain types of games, namely simple platform games, or 8-bit pixelated graphics. Broken Age had to do act I act II also and that's just an adventure game, despite being among the top 3 most funded games on KS.

              If you want 100% assurance, you're in the wrong place altogether. Kickstarter is not for you.

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                January 22, 2014 2:57 PM

                I've backed quite a few projects on Kickstarter, but I've also stayed away from some that have turned out to completely fail to deliver a product due to mismanagement and also caught a few unscrupulous projects and forced them to close with the assistance of others that had the same thoughts/research on the project lead(s).

                I'm not going to say this project is a scam, I do not believe it's a scam, but in terms of my feelings on whether this will be completed, I need at least more than a 10% assurance. I'm not convinced by the evidence they have provided so far. If 70% or more of the funding of a project is coming from crowdfunding, I'm not than likely willing to take a chance. 10%...no. Chris Roberts Star Citizen is a good example of showing enough detail and understanding that funding would be coming in a big way from the Kickstarter/crowdfunding sources and also understanding that Chris has been there done that when it comes to actually running a company successfully.

                I'm always wary of projects that use crowdfunding to show interest in a project so they can pitch it to a publisher/bigger investor. I understand that publishers are less likely to pick up a game like this, but this is why the scopes need to be reasonable, especially for a new company starting out.

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      January 22, 2014 1:00 PM

      Sounds good.

      I'm just tired of the setting.

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      January 22, 2014 7:12 PM

      Watching this trailer just makes me fucking pissed that the days of new IPs are gone. 2007 was the last good year I think, and now all the franchises are just riding on the successes of that time. Look at the amazing fucking stuff that can be done if publishers weren't so risk-adverse. I HOPE TO FUCKING GOD this game gets made.

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