Camouflaj "asked for what was needed" with $500K République Kickstarter

With just 65 hours and over $200,000 to go, former Halo designer Ryan Payton maintains Camouflaj did the right thing in asking for half a million bucks to Kickstart République.

Speaking to PocketGamer, Payton said he knew right ffrom the first day that the project faced a "rabid dog cage match" to reach its funding goal.

"But with that said, I don't think that asking for $500,000 was too much. We asked for what we needed," he said.

"If we had set the bar lower, I'm not sure how I would have messaged it. I would have had to come up with some fabricated excuse as to why we would only need $200,000, and I don't think that's what Kickstarter should be about. I think we need to be honest and transparent with the community."

Payton argued that République is a high quality game and requires a six figure budget.

"The truth of the matter is that, in terms of game budgets, République is an absolute bargain," he said.

"I know that people in the community have really struggled with the notion that this game will cost over a million dollars to make, but the reality is that it would cost at least five times that to produce this at established companies like EA, Sega, Activision."

Originally announced for mobile devices only, République has since extended its reach to Mac and PC. The team is still significantly short of its $500,000 goal. Camouflaj fears it will lose creative control of the IP if forced to follow more traditional funding routes.