“Crafted by a team of veteran PC and console developers (BioShock, BioShock Infinite, Dead Space), Perception offers a bold and fresh take on first person narrative games.”
The project has undergone huge advancements since a month ago when the Kickstarter campaign was announced. Back then, the hopeful developers wooed its potential audience and funders with an idea that puts a new, creepy twist on the horror genre: playing as a blind woman who must rely on echolocation to make her way around a manor that has long haunted her dreams and from which she seeks answers. (For more details on the game, see this announcement. Compare it to the Kickstarter page, and you’ll see just how much the game has evolved in the last month.)
Now the project is funded, the $150,000 goal met and surpassed. For Windows users, this is cause for intense celebration. For Mac/ Linux users, with less than 24 hours to go in the campaign, another $10,000 is required before a Mac/Linux version of the game is guaranteed.
But no matter what system you use, the developers are finding creative ways to make this home stretch their best, most productive lap yet. They’re encouraging further funding from everyone with new prizes, new “stretch goals” that will expand the content of the game itself beyond the developers’ initial plans for it, and even a new gameplay trailer:
I don’t know about you, but that trailer made me jump numerous times. I hid my face when she hid under the bed. And Cassie’s sassy narration? Definitely a pleasant touch. Humor is good, especially in a horror-filled world.
They clearly really want to make this game, and they really want to make it well. Here’s what they’re offering as the clock ticks down:
- A Mac/ Linux version
- A bonus chapter written by Josh Fialkov, the comic book writer with a knack for horror
- Silent Night mode, where players can choose to play as a Cassie who only speaks at critical plot points and reduces some of (as some might see it) extraneous sass.
- Mode 7, a “retro-style mode” that you have to see to believe and truly appreciate because I just can’t seem to articulate all its fantastic-looking, throwback qualities:
And even if the goals aren’t met, the team at The Deep End Games will make further donations available through Paypal on their website after the Kickstarter funding period ends.
Are you going to be one of the last-minute supporters? For $20, you can be guaranteed a copy of the game. So if you have any plans of playing this game at all, why not support now and help reach those stretch goals?
The expected release date is June 2016, though this might bend if its a matter of perfecting the game prior to release. I’m cool with that. Let us know how you feel about this exciting news in the comments!
T. Cooley is a scriptwriting/ production student at university. If there’s a story, visual or textual, you can bet she’ll want to talk about it. So pull up a chair, and let’s dig into those stories we love!
