Portia sequel My Time at Sandrock heads to the frontier
Arrives on Kickstarter today before Early Access next year.
My Time at Portia is getting a frontier-themed follow-up, My Time at Sandrock, which will launch via an early access version in March 2021.
Before that, though, you can support developer Pathea Games via a Kickstarter campaign for My Time at Sandrock, which is live now.
Pathea is asking for $100,000 over the next 27 days to help work on the game - which is already looking polished.
$20 will get you a Steam key ($15 for the first 50 people), while $25 will get you a copy of the game on PlayStation/Xbox/Nintendo Switch. $30 tiers and up unlock Steam beta access.
Today's reveal trailer shows a new character heading out west to a ramshackle town set amongst grand mesas and canyons. You'll help rebuild the town to its former glory while getting to know the locals.
Sandrock was originally meant to be a Portia DLC, Pathea said today, but eventually morphed into its own game with improved graphics, gameplay systems and story "with higher production values across the board".
"First, Sandrock will have a similar pathos to My Time at Portia, but offer a completely new experience with new types of gameplay," Pathea said. "We're still aiming for a Miyazaki-inspired kind of world, but with a few other surprises thrown in...
"Second, we wanted to have the overall story arc be more satisfying, but also with more focus on each individual NPC. Third, we're going to have a dedicated single-player RPG and a special mode where friends or strangers can play together. Fourth, optimise it and make it as bug-free as possible (we learned a lot of lessons from Portia). Fifth, make sure the sound and voice-acting in this game are up to standard. Finally, we're going to self-port to the consoles so that we can make sure all the content is consistent across all platforms."
So, why Kickstarter? After a successful Kickstarter campaign for Portia, Pathea said it was returning to the crowd-funding platform as it was keen to self-publish this follow-up (Team 17 handled publishing duties last time around) and polish its multiplayer offering. Money will be spent on hiring staff to do all of that faster.
"Overall, we do have the funding to finish the game in a timely and fully realised manner," Pathea concluded. "If the Kickstarter somehow fails, we'll probably only have a basic version of multiplayer until the sales of the game pick up."