Pop the Champagne! Put out the party nibbles! System Shock has surpassed it’s initial Kickstarter goal of $900,000 and continues to climb steadily.
Stephen Kick, CEO of Nightdive Studios released a fairly lengthy statement yesterday giving his thanks to everyone who has backed the project:
“When Nightdive started in 2012, it was a one man operation with a singular goal- Recover gaming’s lost treasures and make them available again for all to enjoy. As operating systems and video cards become more complex, we lose the ability to go back and replay many of the games we grew up with. I wanted to do everything I could to breathe new life into these forgotten classics.
“The journey started with System Shock 2 and the reception/support I received allowed me to seek out other like minded individuals who would help locate and revive more lost classics like: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, Wizardry, and The 7th Guest series to name a few. As we continued to grow in team size, so did our ambitions. With the release of The Original Strife: Veterans Edition and Noctropolis we were able to restore the games and add additional features. We fixed original bugs, included unfinished games mode, added support for widescreen monitors, and implemented OpenGL to update the visuals. Next was Turok, followed by System Shock: Enhanced Edition and an even greater desire to take our mission to the next level.
“We had done everything we could to make the Enhanced Edition more accessible to a modern audience but it reached the point where we began discussing a remake from the ground up. We started with a core team and a simple prototype to see if we could capture the look and feel of the original game.
“Pleased with the results we then brought on Robb Waters to help us re-imagine the enemies, weapons and other memorable props and items from the game, and to create a common thread between the remake and the original game. Robb concepted the original game, he should be the one to revisit the remake.
“A few more team members were brought on to take our prototype and develop it into the pre-alpha demo we would eventually release with Kickstarter. Our campaign began with a tremendous surge of support and in less than two weeks we’ve been completely funded…
“There’s no possible way I could convey how grateful the Nightdive team is to the 14,000+ backers who put their trust in us – we’re having a lot of fun remaking System Shock and we owe it all to you!
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!”
You can still donate to the Kickstarter project here, to help the developers reach their stetch goals:
$1.1 Million – Mac & Linux Versions and Razer Chroma Support.
$1.2 Million – Localization: Multi-language support for French, Italian, German and Spanish.
$1.3 Million – Additional Locations & Expanded Narrative: We’ll introduce new crew members and record new audio logs to be discovered in never before seen areas of Citadel Station.
$1.4 Million – Updates to the Core Design: This will include Vending Machines, Weapon crafting/upgrading, New Mini Games and Puzzles as well as true RPG character levelling system.
$1.5 Million – Full Orchestral Score: We will work with an orchestra to perform and record the score giving the terrifying atmosphere of Citadel Station a serious upgrade.
$1.7 Million – Additional Scenario & Death Cinematics: We want more detailed death cinematics to show your gruesome fate should you fail your mission!
$1.9 Million – Remix: The original System Shock soundtrack remixed and included as a downloadable bonus to every reward tier of $30 or higher.
Don’t forget as well, when System Shock is fully released Real Game Media will be giving away 2 copies, 1 on PC and 1 on Xbox One. More details will be released much nearer the time however!
Did you donate? Will you donate? Are you psyched that this is now officially happening? Tell us what you think in the comments below or in the RGM Forums.
