System Shock Remastered!

sgupta

1st Lieutenant
Heya all!

Been a bit. =)

I figured in case some people don't know about it, System Shock, another Origin game (and along with Wing Commander and Deus Ex, tied as my favorite game of all time) is being remastered and is currently running a Kickstarter campaign:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598858095/system-shock/

There's already a quite polished pre-alpha tech demo!

Super excited about this project and CANNOT WAIT.
 
It really does look great. I did a double take when I realized there was already something playable.

It's looking very much like we'll make the initial amount, at least. Upped my pledge twice now. =oP I'm a little too excited about this (and now jazzed to play the classic version again because it's been quite a few years). But I definitely encourage everyone who's as enamored by the original as I am to show them some love if you're interested!
 
In short, I have never experienced something like this. It looks exactly like the Original Game and I mean *EXACTLY*. How can it possibly be that you can actually capture the look and feel of a DOS-Area 3D game with its 32x32 pixel wall textures when using high-definition assets? If you have ever played the original, try this immediately! I am still flashed. They capture the feel, the look, the environment and even the gameplay and simply use modern controls and UI.

It is System Shock.

I think these four words suffice and summarize everything you need to know. Other than that, there is not much to review or discuss here. This is a very promising promo for a Kickstarter Campaign which you can find here (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598858095/system-shock). And from the looks of it, you should throw in your support ;-)
 
Vidmaster, yeah, the feel is captured incredibly well. I always loved the original Serv-Bots you first fought, and I think everyone can relate that back in those days (similar to the original Wing Commander ships), you could get an idea of what something looked like from the pixel-y graphics, but the mind filled in the blanks. Seeing the models, I can't even say how right they got it for me. (But they also have the original concept artist onboard, so I'm sure that helps!)

I definitely threw in my support and think it's on track to happen, but I hope anyone thinking about it or with an appreciation for this type of game considers backing!
 
Glad to report it's been funded at the base goal! Now to focus on those stretch goals (some of the latter ones are hidden!). ^.^
 
Great news.

According to Kicktraq, it is trending for $2,245,633 (I have no idea how accurate that is)

dailychart.png


I wonder if Wing O (https://www.wcnews.com/news/2015/10/05) will be included?
 
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I think Kicktraq bases that trend on all the money it raised so far, so that would be accurate if it continued to maintain the average over the time it's already done. (That may be unlikely given the first couple days it raised substantially more than it has since, but it's still doing fairly steady).

If you look at some of the other charts, the Projection one might be more accurate, which still puts it at 1.2M to 1.7M or so.

That said, I could foresee a few things increasing funding dramatically:
- They still have no method to process PayPal payments, which they've said they're looking into and several people have requested. That could be a pretty substantial amount of new backers.
- There's no announcement for it coming to PS4, but they mentioned talking to Sony and exploring that possibility - that could certainly add people.
- They've already added one new tier (with Art Book) and promised it available as an addon for other tiers. Other addons or new tiers could come too.
- They ought to get some more media attention for meeting their initial goal, and the right coverage could certainly make a difference.
- Finally, if we don't meet all the stretch goals, there's nothing saying they can't decide to make a website and continue selling packages/addons/the original games, etc. to possibly meet some more funding goals while it's being developed.

Either way, I think it's going to be a great game, but I'm hopeful funding will be enough to allow it to be all it can be.
 
Usuallly most projects surpass the KS estimates because of the 48 hour rush at the end. Many people only pledge at the last moment possible in order to be able to best estimateif a project is worth their money.
 
I've done a few Kickstarters, but this is definitely the biggest - does that 48 hour phenomenon usually happen even if the project is at goal? I was aware there's usually a rush if it hadn't quite met initial goal yet, but I didn't know if it still surged near the end as much even if it was funded at base level.
 
I've only seen it once that the rush didn't happen and that had very specific reasons to that KS. As long as a KS has substantial stretch goals there are many people who just mark the project and see in the last 48 hours which goals were achieved and pledge if they find that the KS is worth their money by now. A rule of thumb usually is that the last 48 hours make as much as the first 48. But of course it isn't a guarantee.
 
I think it is great that this is getting funded. Successful efforts like this may make ip owners revisit some of their older properties. Consumer interest can be very unpredictable . . .
 
The end-of-campaign bump isn't automatic these days, but most campaigns know how to invite it.

Early on, there was a fairly vibrant and distinct 'Kickstarter community' separate from the one you might immediately be appealing to... people who saw themselves as helping good ideas rather than being fans of a particular genre, person, world, etc. As crowdfunding has become more commonplace, that group has faded a bit... but a well-planned campaign knows to invite the bump by planning some live events the last day.

On Star Citizen we did a 24-hour livestream, although that's a bit more extreme than most projects now. Expect them to do a livestream of some sort at the end of the campaign, though, and it'll be a lot of fun to tune into! You have to make your own ending a bit more these days, but it's very much worth it. (I was a bit surprised they released the demo right off; it would have been well-utilized to bump pledging somewhere in the middle of the campaign.)
 
Thanks, LOAF - interesting info!

I really hope they have some plans for more video content/dev info or a livestream. Right now they have some stuff in the backer stretch goals, but I worry that they need to do those things to get the attention in the first place. But alas, hopefully they know better than me and are quietly planning for it. =) I'm also wondering if they will plan for further pledges/addons after the KS completes.

At any rate, I happily backed Star Citizen (though after its KS days as I found out about it a bit late to the party...still in the earlier days of the RSI site tho') and I'm very happy to back System Shock. I love that these older titles and styles of games are getting the love they deserve these days and the community can choose which projects to support. (Also, thanks for the twitter reply - I've been tweeting System Shock stuff to try my best to get the attention of people, even though I knew you prolly already were well aware!) ^.^
 
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