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I-Novae explains Infinity: Battlescape Kickstarter rationale
Last month I-Novae Studios posted an update that summarized 2012 and laid out future development plans for its long-running Infinity project. Among those plans were a focus on a multiplayer combat version of the original sandbox concept called Infinity: Battlescape. This caused a bit of an uproar in the game's community due to a desire to see the devs move forward with the larger sandbox instead of what some fans see as a combat prototype. This week I-Novae's Keith Newton published another post to make the case for Battlescape and illustrate why it's important for the larger project. He draws several comparisons to EVE Online and says that "we would have to have one of the most successful campaigns in the history of Kickstarter for us to be able to build a minimally viable Infinity." Newton points out that CCP raised $2.6 million in the year 2000 for initial EVE development, which equals about $3.4 million today. Infinity is "a bit more ambitious than EVE was at that time," Newton explains, which means that I-Novae would require more than $3.4 million to make it a reality. Infinity: Battlescape is the best compromise, he says, and the team is optimistic that such a first step will provide the needed foundation "to properly pursue a project as large and ambitious as Infinity."
Infinity update talks 2012 progress, Battlescape Kickstarter
The Infinity website has updated with a lengthy blog post detailing the state of the project. It also fleshes out some details on its upcoming crowdfunding drive. What's Infinity? It's a vast sci-fi sandbox with seamless planetary-to-space transitions and a persistent, procedurally generated universe, among other things. The indie dev team has been working on the project for a number of years now, and it has managed to release a well-received tech demo and a rather spectacular atmospheric flight test. The lack of news updates throughout most of 2012 was apparently due to a substantial amount of work being done on under-the-hood quality and performance issues. As for an Infinity Kickstarter, it's coming (but not before mid-2013). The preliminary details include a standalone called Infinity: Battlescape which is basically a successor to Infinity's 2007 combat prototype. The game will focus on multiplayer combat, it will feature the seamless planetary engine, and it will likely take place in a single solar system. While some in the Infinity community have expressed indifference with crowdfunding a game that isn't the full Infinity project, I-Novae Studios says that Battlescape is more like "a first step to the whole MMO that will be marketed independently even though it shares a lot of content and code."
