Mighty No. 9 launches second crowdfunding campaign for "bonus" content
There's also an animated series.
Japanese developer Comcept has launched a second crowdfunding campaign for side-scrolling platformer Mighty No. 9.
Comcept and design star Keiji Inafune launched a Kickstarter for Mighty No. 9 last year and on 1st October it was funded with a whopping $3.8m raised from over 70,000 backers.
Now, it's going back to crowdfunding via PayPal in a bid to raise more money for bonus content, a move Comcept said was sparked by feedback from the game's fans. There's only one stretch goal announced so far: full English voice acting for $100,000.
And to coincide with the announcement, pre-orders for the game have been opened up. You can pre-order a digital copy of the game for $23. The digital copy plus the digital reward bundle, which includes a digital retro-style manual, digital art book, strategy guide and soundtrack, costs $50. And there's an $80 version, which includes the digital copy, the digital reward bundle and Steam Early Access. Comcept said money raised through pre-orders does not go towards the bonus content stretch goal.
Meanwhile, a Mighty No. 9 animated series has been announced - there's a teaser below. This also requires funding, which will be sourced separately through Digital Frontier, the production company working on the series.
In a video message, below, Inafune said development on the game had progressed smoothly, and that funding already raised will "take care of the present game". But with further funding, "we can make the game evolve even further".
"We don't want the Mighty No. 9 project to end with the game alone," he said. "We want the game to be part of something greater we deliver on a global scale.
"We feel this is something we can do with even more support from the fans."
In a FAQ Comcept preemptively addressed concern about the second round of crowdfunding.
"The video game we proposed in the Kickstarter campaign last year is going to be completed with all of the funding we received from backers," it said. "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."
And it distanced the animated series from the game, at least in terms of how the money raised is spent, insisting Comcept did not use Kickstarter funds to produce the cartoon.
"The funds from the Kickstarter are going towards the game and all related content our partners are creating for us. 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. They've been really passionate and amazing, and we're lucky to have them put their faith in the franchise!"
Mighty No. 9 is due out April 2015.