On Friday, we reported Obsidian's hope to crowd fund their new game, Project Eternity. Well, that's now a reality, as according to their kickstarter page, they've already reached their quota of $1,100,000 and then some.
As described on the page, "Project Eternity will take the central hero, memorable companions and the epic exploration of Baldur's Gate, add in the fun, intense combat and dungeon diving of Icewind Dale, and tie it all together with the emotional writing and mature thematic exploration of Planescape: Torment.
Combat uses a tactical real-time with pause system - positioning your party and coordinating attacks and abilities is one of the keys to success. The world map is dotted with unique locations and wilderness ripe for exploration and questing. You'll create your own character and collect companions along the way - taking him or her not just through this story, but, with your continued support, through future adventures. You will engage in dialogues that are deep, and offer many choices to determine the fate of you and your party. ...and you'll experience a story that explores mature themes and presents you with complex, difficult choices to shape how your story plays out."
To date, almost 36,000 people pledged to the campaign, proving that there's a serious fanbase for Project Eternity's planned gameplay style, something that Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart is well aware of. Speaking with gamebanshee.com, Urquhart reports, "It's not as if people stopped wanting games like Icewind Dale or Baldur's Gate, it was more that BioWare moved on as a studio and Black Isle went away. I hear from people all the time that they run out of the newer games to play and go back and play Baldur's Gate 2 or Torment for the fifth or sixth time. What Kickstarter does is let us make a game that is absolutely reminiscent of those great games, since trying to get that funded through a traditional publisher would be next to impossible."
While Obsidian had released a small trailer showing some concept art and staff interviews for the kickstarter campaign, now that they've reached their goal, a gameplay trailer shouldn't be far off.
We'll report more as it develops.
