Fear Effect Sedna launches on Kickstarter

The Kickstarter campaign for Fear Effect Sedna isn't your average Kickstarter. First of all, Fear Effect is an established if dormant IP, second developers Sushee Games have support from a publisher (and IP owner) in Square Enix and their Collective initiative. So why take the Kickstarter route?

This was adressed in a prepared FAQ that came with the press release:

"Q: If Square Enix believes in the game, why don't you just fund it yourselves, instead of letting the developer take all the risk?

A: If we didn't believe in the game, we wouldn't have agreed to license the IP to Sushee. The aim of this process is to open up dormant IP to act as a stepping stone for developers; not because we don't want to commit our own funds. But - if the developer is raising funds for production, they will get more benefit. On the other hand, if Square Enix funded the game, then the developer benefits much less...which misses the point of the initiative."

So French studio Sushee Games, who are launching their latest game supernatural point and click adventure Goetia on Steam today, pitched a concept for Fear Effect to Square Enix and got approval to go ahead with it. The Kickstarter funds go towards its development, and even if the €100,000 aren't enough to fund the whole development, Sushee are also contributing their own funds. The more the campaign achieves, the more fleshed out the game stands to be.

Currently the campaign has amassed €39.000 from just over 1,200 backers - an encouraging start with 29 days to go.

Square Enix Collective opened themselves up to pitches for dormant IPs last year, Gex, Anachronox being the others in addition to Fear Effect and they're open to the idea of using more old IPs this way.

Fear Effect Sedna differs a lot from the previous Fear Effect titles as it uses an isometric view for more tactical gameplay. Players will have to manage not only their health, but also their stress level and the cast you may recall from old PlayStation games make a return.

We recently talked to Square Enix Collective's project lead Phil Elliott in an interview where he talked about the strategy for the intiative and he also mentioned the Fear Effect campaign and how it came to be that they allowed Sushee to use the IP.