Last night, we covered the successful completion of Stars Reach’s Kickstarter campaign: Thanks to gamers, Playable Worlds raised over $750,000 in crowdfunding, and at least that much again in off-site player investment, according to the devs, which means the unlocking of yet another stretch goal.
“When we launched this campaign, our goal wasn’t just to raise funds,” the studio wrote after the campaign ended. “We wanted to prove that there’s a real market and community for this game.”
“We’ve been quite pleased — and flattered! — to receive offers to invest from several playtesters and close observers of Stars Reach in development. Every one of them has noted the quality and level of engagement of the community that’s formed around Stars Reach as catalysts for their business interest. Your early belief in this game has already made a massive difference, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to grow this world alongside supporters like you.”
Earlier this week, the team clarified that it had already “accepted a first investment greater than the total dollars from the Kickstarter,” specifically from those players. (Obviously, it already had multiple rounds from other investors to get this far.)
When the campaign technically ended, it sat at just over 5200 backers and $739,000, but the period immediately after Kickstarter usually sees people changing their pledges around and last-minute backers, so as of this morning, the campaign now has over 5300 backers and crossed the $750,000 mark, hence the unlocking of a new stretch goal, which means new shield types will be added to the game before or with launch (rather than after).
According to PW, Stars Reach already has fortress shields and reflection shields, which draw from batteries and capacitors to, well, shield you in different ways. (They sound basically the same as personal shield generators from Star Wars Galaxies to me, just with more options.) The new shield types unlocked are redirect shields (allows the player to catch and eject incoming projectiles in the player’s chosen direction), absorption shields (energy from attacks are absorbed into the capacitor and redirected as an explosion), and phase shields (“creates a phasing shield around the character that moves them into a different phase of the world.”)
