Aquanox Deep Descent Kickstarter Goes Live

Aquanox Deep Descent, the spiritual successor to the AquaNox series of games from the early 2000s, is being jointly developed by Nordic Games and Digital Arrow and itsKickstarter campaign is now live, the developers announced today.

Building on the mechanics of AquaNox and AquaNox: Revelation, released in 2001 and 2003, respectively, Aquanox Deep Descent is an underwater exploration and ship combat game played from the first-person perspective. Players will be able to customize their ships in a modular format, choosing small, individual parts from a wide selection and build their ship in whatever way they desire.

The game will include a narrative-driven single-player mode in which friends can jump in and out of co-operative play, not affecting the story in any way. In fact, the story supports up to four players, making each player a part of the narrative, even during co-op. There will also be multiplayer modes like deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag.

Initially, Aquanox Deep Descent was being developed using Unreal Engine 3, but Nordic Games and Digital Arrow are currently in the processes of transitioning to Unreal Engine 4 (the most current version of Epic Games’ development tool).

During the piecemeal auction of THQ’s assets after the company declared bankruptcy and went out of business, Nordic Games acquired the assets to an unreleased THQ game calledDeep Six, assets which are being used in the pre-production phase of development onAquanox Deep Descent.

Those who back the game on Kickstarter will have the opportunity to vote on which stretch goals the developers will focus on after they reach their initial funding goal of $75,000. For every $45,000 raised after the initial funding goal, a new stretch goal will be implemented. Proposed stretch goals currently include new units, modding support on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions, and more.

Interestingly, the PS4 and Xbox One versions will cost double the stretch goal funding amount, $90,000, and need to be met separately of one another. This means that if the Kickstarter campaign reaches $120,000 ($45,000 more than the initial funding goal), backers can vote on which stretch goal the developers should implement first, but if backers vote on, say, the PlayStation 4 version, for example, the Kickstater campaign will need to raise another $45,000 in order to hit the funding level required for the addition of a PlayStation 4 version.

It isn’t quite clear how this will play out if a stretch goal is voted on and the campaign ultimately doesn’t meet the required amount necessary for that goal. Presumably, the developers will simply move down the list of stretch goals and prioritize development of the most-voted-for $45,000 tier stretch goal, but if most backers are demanding a PlayStation 4 version (to use the same example), and the developers have been prioritizing that in their development cycle, how will they ensure that the actual stretch goal, for whose funding goal was met, is completed on time?

It’s an interesting way to ensure that backers have a say in the development of the game they are helping to fund, but how it plays out in practice will determine how future games on Kickstarter approach this method of integrating backers into the development process.