An email I received from Black Foot Studios (since I pledged in their previous Kickstarter campaign):
Project Update #23: The Pheonix is rising!
Backer_whiteFor backers only, Posted by BlackFoot StudiosLike
Calling all Ground Branch supporters..... the time has come to finalize our plan to move forward with funding Ground Branch and could use some valuable feedback from our loyal supporters.
Lots of work has been put into Ground Branch over the past year, but as you can imagine, without actual funding things are slow. We decided that a second full blown Kickstarter campaign was not something we wanted to tackle though. Partly due to KS overload and the resources involved with pulling off another full campaign. Believe it or not, it takes a LOT of work and time.
Check out
http://www.groundbranch.com/ to get an idea of whats been going on if you haven't been following.
So we have determined that the best course of action is to follow in the footsteps of some other âsmall developerâ made titles and go the "Alpha Early Access" route to fund as we go. Successful titles like Natural Selection 2, Overgrowth and Prison Architect are great examples of how this is beneficial to all parties involved. To do this in the way that we want, we need to be able to have a solid Pre-Alpha build ready to go when that campaign is launched. People will need a tangible idea of what GB is all about. This is where our loyal supporters come in.......
To complete the Pre-Alpha build to an acceptable state in a timely manner we need to secure a budget of roughly $25,000. The money will specifically be used for:
Content creation to round out the initial map(s)
Completing creation of enough weapons and gear to accurately show off customization features
Reworking of character models to better utilize revamped customization features
Bring on person to work specifically on UI
Have groundbranch.com professional redone for a more polish presentation with official Pre-Sell ecommerce component added ( not to exceed $3,000)
While we will do the Alpha Early Access ourselves, we have also contacted Valve about doing an official Early Access sale on Steam and they are interested. However, they would like to see a more polished and complete build before committing. So here we are, suggesting a "low key" kickstarter campaign specifically targeted to our loyal supporters and previous backers without a lot of PR. This new campaign will be the funding we need to "kickstart" development into a higher gear so that we can reach our goals faster. The idea is to keep this KS lean and focused on you (that means we may re-use some things from the previous KS). Though feel free to show it to friends... we won't turn anyone away! And to alleviate some concerns surrounding what GB was going to be, the final product will have a robust Single Player and co-op component which you would have input on. So by funding this way, we believe Ground branch will be a more well rounded title.
We would greatly appreciate it if you could take a couple of minutes to complete this survey to help us out:
http://kwiksurveys.com/s.asp?sid=zyvl4xza31q2y0i222063
Rest assured that by pledging you will receive the FULL Ground Branch release (and more) when itâs done. You will NOT need to buy in again at any time. You will also receive access to our live development wiki and private forum access where you will be able help shape the game during this process. And get some juicy inside info only available to you( There is already some that we can't share publicly yet, but you would know as a supporter). Playable builds will be available at some point before finishing the Pre-Alpha as well.
Ground Branch is being made. But we need a little help in getting over this hump so that we can open the flood gates and finally get development moving at a consistent pace and get the game we all want to play faster.Â
- The BFS Team