We don’t tend to write about Kickstarters too often, here on IncGamers. There are lots of reasons why: for one, there are so many of the bleedin’ things that we don’t have time unless it’s a really slow news day. For another, lots of them aren’t all that interesting or exciting. For a third reason, we want to inform you about things, but not necessarily encourage you to plonk down money sight unseen – and bearing in mind the first two, even writing a news post can be seen as encouragement of a sort. There are exceptions, of course, when it comes to major or interesting titles like La-Mulana 2 or Star Citizen or Elite: Dangerous or… well, Blackmore.
Blackmore is a Japanese steampunk adventure being developed by the unpronouncable iQiOi, and it sounds a bit Snatcher: you play Emma Blackmore, a pioneering medical doctor in London with a robotic assistant named Descartes. Then poor Emma gets embroiled in a series of brutal murders, because this is 1888 – the year in which Jack the Ripper was active in Whitechapel.
A steampunk Ripper story seems promising enough, but the talent working on this helps a lot. The story and script are being written by Jeremy Blaustein, noted game translator and voiceover director (Snatcher, Metal Gear Solid, Shadow Hearts: Covenant, Suikoden 2, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations, etc.). The soundtrack will be written and performed by Motoaki Fuwukawa (Suikoden, Snatcher, Super Smash Bros., etc.) and the character design will be led by Satoshi Yoshioka (Snatcher, Policenauts, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters, etc.). In short, a whole lot of people associated with a whole lot of highly-praised games. A whole lot of people who were involved in Snatcher, for that matter, although there’s no Hideo Kojima.
Oh. And did I mention that the two confirmed voice actors so far are David Hayter and Jeff Lupetin, probably better known as “Snake from Metal Gear Solid“, and “Gillian Seed from Snatcher“? Well, I have now, anyway.
iQiOi are asking for $200,000 USD to fund development. If you want to throw a bit of cash their way – and the mention of Snatcher is pretty much enough that I want to see this completed, but then, that’s me – you can do so over here.