Cult County: Renegade Kid takes its survival horror FPS to Kickstarter
Cult County is a survival horror FPS from Mutant Mudds developer Renegade Kid has put up on Kickstarter.
The firm announced last week it had planned to launch the crowding initiative.
According to the page description, Cult County blends survival horror with episodic story-telling similar to The Walking Dead with "classic tension-filled exploration and action" reminiscent of of Silent Hill and Resident Evil.
Here's a preliminary list of features:
- Rebirth of the survival horror FPS genre, crafted with fan input.
- Story-driven gameplay, featuring memorable character interactions.
- Small West Texas town filled with tension, mystery, and scares.
- Vulnerable and personalized melee and firearm combat.
- Varied cast of creepy enemy encounters and devious boss battles.
"We have wanted to return to the survival horror genre for many years, and, our fans have told us the same thing, "said the developer. "Many players have contacted us asking for Dementium 3. Without going into any icky details, certain contractual ties from the past make that impossible, unfortunately. So, instead of letting that hold us back, we decided to take matters into our own hands and develop a new survival horror experience with the same spirit.
"Having the freedom and independence that a funded Kickstarter campaign provides means that creative freedom during development is maintained, presentation of the game via trailers, and screenshots is controlled directly by the team, and finally - perhaps most importantly - the team retains its rights to the game… and any future sequels and ports."
Here's the story synopsis:
You assume the role of Gavin Mellick, whose mother has fallen deathly ill. Unable to reach your older sister, Alissa, by phone you drive the 6 hours across Texas to visit her in person and share the sad news. You return to the small town where you spent your summers as a child with Alissa, at your late aunt's house. There is a particularly savage dust storm rolling in when you arrive.
Unable to locate your sister, you ask some of the locals for help. You quickly learn about their suspicions of a cultish group that recently moved into town, and the unexpected suicide of Father Pearce. The locals offer very little help finding your sister, and it isn't long before your search takes an unexpected dark turn, leading you down a road of no return.
You are alone. You are unarmed. You see strange "people" linger on the edge of the dust storm, who seem to be watching your every move. But, as soon as you turn your head to face them, they disappear. Who are they? Where do they go? What do they want?
As you explore deeper into the town, searching for any clues that might lead to your sister, you meet various town folk who offer their own anecdotes on what the "people" might be. Some claim they are just your imagination, and some say they are part of the new cultish group who recently moved into town. One person even goes as far to name them "Dust Devils".
Cult County is being built with the Unity Engine, and the minimum funded goal will see the game release on Steam for PC, Mac and Linux as well as a console version for PlayStation 3, PS4, PS Vit, Wii U and Xbox One.
The game has already been approved for Steam, so it will not be posted through Steam Greenlight.
"We want to also support Xbox 360, but it requires extra license fees for Unity and development hardware to test on," said Renegade Kid. "Also, indie developers are unable to self-publish their games on the Xbox 360. Therefore, a third-party publisher is required to release it.
"We can only support the Xbox 360 if we reach the stretch goal. If we reach the stretch goal, backers will be able to choose from any of the available platforms."
The title as it stands is "beyond the scope of the 3DS," but if enough fans want it on the handheld, a Nintendo 3DS" stretch goal "could be added," but it would need to cover the cost of developing a separate game as it would need rebuilt from scratch using the developer's proprietary 3DS engine.
Renegade Kid is asking $580,000 on Kickstarter, and with 29 days to go, 286 backers have pledged $7,156 towards the development goal.
Cult County will be released in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.