Death Inc. prototype goes live, play the first ten minutes now

Death Inc. developer Ambient Studios has released the first ten minutes of its Kickstarter title into the wild, letting PC, Mac and Linux gamers sample its mad brand of Pikmin-style herding and grim reaper antics. Coming from ex-Media Molecule, Lionhead and Criterion devs, it has quite the pedigree backing it up.

In a statement sent to VG247, Ambient's ‘try before you pledge before you buy’ scheme lets players access a prototype of the game now. Just follow the link to grab it.

Explaining the move, director and co-Founder of Ambient Studios Jonny Hopper said, .“It requires a huge leap of faith to decide to back a game based on its concept art or launch video, particularly when that project is from a smaller, independent developer.

"But we believe Death Inc. is a title that Kickstarter was built for. We’re so confident in our idea that we’ve taken the unusual step of issuing a fully playable demo before the campaign has finished.”

It's a game that blends the herding of Pikmin with business management as you run the offices of freelance grim reaper Grim T. Livingstone during the middle ages, spreading the black death across the human population. It's bonkers, but the concept is brilliant. Here's my initial write-up.

Let us know if you check the prototype out, and stay tuned for my full interview with Ambient Studios next week.