Treasure Adventure World announces pre-order campaign
Spiffy new trailer shows how it's been shaping up.
Earlier this year one-man indie developer Robit Studios, aka Stephen Orlando, announced that he was remaking his beloved freeware 2D exploration title, Treasure Adventure Game, as a commercial release, Treasure Adventure World. For the remake, he's collaborating with a couple of other indie developers at Chucklefish to spruce up the art and sound, and now the trio has announced a pre-order campaign for the fruits of their labour.
Due for PC in late Q1 2014, the developer is now accepting pre-orders to help bolster its development budget. For $10 you'll get a copy of the game upon its release, as well as a Steam Key if the project is picked up on Steam Greenlight, $15 comes with the soundtracks for both the original game and the remake (the former being already available), and $30 allows users to access the behind-the-scenes development blog. Curiously, beta testing isn't currently listed as a reward, but the developer noted in its FAQ that it's considering adding that.
The proceeds from this campaign will add such things as retro costumes to the game, though that's the only announced stretch goal so far at $50K. That seems weak for a that much money, but it appears that the lion's share of donations will simply be to expedite the game's development.
It's a rather low-key campaign that way, but unlike a Kickstarter, this project will be completed with or without additional crowdfunding. "We've been working on the game for over a year and we have no intention on stopping if we don't raise much money in pre-orders," the developer explained. "It will undoubtedly slow down development as we'll have to take other jobs to bring in some personal income, but the game will get released one way or another."
When questioned about the not terribly enticing $50K stretch goal, Orlando clarified to me in an e-mail, "Our first stretch goal is set at $50,000 because that was the amount our three-person team felt we needed in order for all of us to continue working full-time on the game until it's finished. The money we raise through the pre-order goes straight into us being able to pay our bills and get by without having to find additional work. Thus, we wanted our first stretch goal to be something that wouldn't add much development time but would be interesting to fans of the original game."
Orlando then added that if the campaign breaches $50K, future stretch goals will be far more significant. He cited a bestiary and a fishing mechanic as examples.
It's worth noting that Treasure Adventure World isn't just a straight remake, but it will add loads of new content, such as remixed levels, puzzles, secrets, items, and an enhanced story with multiple endings. See how it's shaping up in the pre-order campaign trailer below.
