Nine Dots Studios have unveiled their newest Kickstarter Campaign, GoD Factory: Wingmen, a 4 VS 4 competitive space combat simulator for the PC.
GoD Factory: Wingmen puts players into the cockpit of the Vaisseaux (vessels), piloted by one of four different species--species that Nine Dot Studios are proud to say are vastly different from each other, and won't just be "humans with funny ears and scales"--like the dragon-like quadrupedal Guantri, the levitating robotic-like Chorion, the plant-like Ar Blossom, and humans. Two other species are being designed: the giant bumblebee-sized Magniscient, and a yet unnamed tangle of seemingly sentient fabric.
Each Vaisseau is customizable with up to 12 different parts that can be swapped in and out for vastly different gameplay. Players can also assemble up to two gunships at a time, one to pilot with, one that can be saved for later or lent to teammates. Parts can be unlocked with the game's Credits, and the Vaisseaux can be played in 3rd person, or fron inside the cockput. The Vaisseaux fly with your typical flight controls, including pitch and yaw. Nine Dot Studios say that they've had many influences when developing GoD Factory: Wingmen, including Freelancer, Armored Core, Starfox, Star Control, and Ace Combat.
These teams of vaisseaux all have one objective: destroy the enemy's Carrier, while protecting their own. Carriers are 13 kilometers long, and very resilient. With that in mind, cooperation is key in GoD Factory: Wingmen. Each part of the Carrier is full of vulnerable but vital stations: like the radar, communication tower, forcefield generation, repair station, ammo warehouse, cannon, and main deck. Every time one is destroyed it inflicts a penalty on the opposite team: destroy their radar, and it reduces their enemy detection range.
GoD Factory: Wingmen has been running on five year old laptops, so Nine Dot Studios is sure that they can bring the game to a wide range of PCs, with Mac and Linux as possibilities. The game is also receiving Oculus Rift VR support using the cockpit view, which the team hopes to have ready by the time of launch.
With this Kickstarter campaign, Nine Dot Studios hopes to further support their game, which they say they've done with absolutely no real salary over the last year, between two programmers, three artists, one studio manager and one recently added game designer. The $70,000 they are asking for would go into producing a well-polished game, one that could go into an Alpha funding stage, and hopefully follow the success of Minecraft and Path of Exile. Ideally, $300,000 would help the team pay for salaries, software licenses, servers, sound effects, music, marketing, rent, insurances, bank fees, accounting fees, and more. But again, they're only asking for the bare minimum of $70,000 for now.
Stretch goals would include the following:
$70,000: We can bring the game to a polished enough state to start selling it following the alpha funding model. Features that might not be included when the alpha funding starts include some of the gunship parts, the progression system (all parts would be unlocked from the start), it will probably be still a little bugged and some balance issues, etc.
$100,000: If we reach that much, then we can guarantee that we'll make a different cockpit model for every species, which will be especially cool for Oculus. Of course, we'll also get closer to a more polished game for any amount above $70,000.
$150,000: The ability to choose between at least two different carriers, with very different layouts and major gameplay differences.
$200,000: We'd REALLY like to raise this much since we've been in talk with a famous composer to make music for our game, and we would be incredibly happy to have him do the soundtrack for our game.
$250,000: More complex levels, including space stations that must be captured to gain benefits for your team, such as power-ups.
$300,000: We'll have a clan-based ladder ranking system. We'll also be able to guarantee that we'll support the game for at least a year from launch. We'll put extra money into our servers and release the game early in August so people can start interacting with it, even if it's not final! That will also give the players a bigger say on how the game will turn out.
For a closer look, check out the trailers and screenshots below, and the team's Kickstarter Campaign page and Steam Greenlight page. Also, check out the giant face in the background of the carrier stage in the trailer: isn't that awesome?
http://www.youtube.com/embed/A59mQBbUyQQ?feature=player_embedded