Back on 16 July a Kickstarter launched for a new adventure based on the classic Police Quest series called Precinct. The new title from original Police Quest creator Jim Wallis was being Kickstarter with a target goal of $500,000, but sadly it was falling desperately short reaching $85,756 with around ten days to go.
Instead of watching the Kickstarter fail miserably, the team has now decided to privately crowdfund the game through their own website. While it would have been great to see the game make the Kickstarter goal, the development team has decided to take a different approach on selling the game idea by developing a prototype version of the game for backers to help convey their vision for the investigative cop adventure.
“Like other recent high-profile Kickstarters, we quickly saw that Precinct wasn’t gaining the traction it needed,” said Robert Lindsley, President of Jim Walls Reloaded, Inc. and Executive Producer of Precinct. “While fans are interested in backing new ideas, they’re becoming increasingly aware of the risks inherent in crowdfunding. We’re hoping that this new model will give backers more confidence in the projects they’re funding.”
The update on the website also reads: “The new approach is Instead of reaching a single funding goal and then asking our backers to simply wait and see what they get, our staged funding approach allows our Backers to weigh in heavily during the entire development cycle. Precinct Backers are NOT charged for a pledge unless the next funding goal is reached (currently $25,000).”
Fans of the original game will be disappointed with the results on Kickstarter but at least the game now has a chance by implementing a staged funding model with backers only being charged when certain goals are reached.
The first goal is the proof of concept which is set at 25k, then comes the “vertical slice” at 90K, a game demo at 250k and the full game at 400K. The full game cost at 300K is 100K cheaper than it was on Kickstarter as they’ve now removed “costly reward tiers” and are channeling all the funds into the game development.
Set in the fictional streets of Fraser Canyon, players will take on the role of Officer Maxwell Jones who’s aim is to move up the ranks of the police department by solving crimes, some of which are based on real police scenarios.
