There are few trickier subjects for a developer to tackle than another shake at the crowdfunding pot. Double Fine split Broken Age in two to avoid a second Kickstarter campaign, and even then drew the ire of thousands.
The nuances of the debate don’t seem to bother Comcept, though – the Japanese team behind Mighty No. 9. They’ve ploughed ahead with a second Paypal campaign to fund bonus content for the Kickstarted side-scroller.
Comcept insist that they haven’t run out of money: they raised “enough to take care of the present game” during last year’s Mighty No. 9 campaign, and development has progressed according to plan. But they want to make the game bigger.
“For this new funding campaign we are looking to add new content to the game that we did not or could not add to the stretch goals during the original funding campaign,” said the developers in an FAQ.
The new campaign’s goals aren’t entirely clear as yet – full English voice acting is its sole current stretch goal at $100,000.
“We don’t want the Mighty No. 9 project to end with the game alone,” said director Keiji Inafune – the name Mighty’s concept was sold on. “We want the game to be part of something greater we deliver on a global scale.”
That said, the related Mighty No. 9 animated TV series will draw from a different pot of cash.
“The funds from the Kickstarter are going towards the game and all related content our partners are creating for us,” explained Comcept. “The animated series project is a completely separate endeavour; the good people at Digital Frontier took it upon themselves to reach out to us, pursue the idea of an animated series, and generate all of the assets/content seen so far.”
Confusingly, pre-orders have also launched alongside the new campaign – but profits made there won’t contribute to the new stretch goal.
Were you a Mighty No. 9 backer? And, er, do you think you might be again?
Thanks, Eurogamer.