Dreadbit Games and Ripstone join forces for Ironcast.
Indie developer Dreadbit Games and Publisher Ripstone have announced their new partnership today; joining forces to take turn-based steampunk mech combat game; Ironcast to the next level. The game will be coming to PC, Mac and Linux in early 2015.
Inspired by Victorian era science fiction writers such as H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, Ironcast is set in an exciting alternative history; a time when refined men and women in top hats and bonnets commanded gigantic walking war machines, laying waste to the enemies of the British Empire! Players take control of a 7 metre tall walking vehicle called an Ironcast. They must face off against an invading force of enemy Ironcast in order to defend 1880’s Victorian England.
Battles are fought by generating resource nodes which in turn drive the Ironcast’s various weapons and systems. Players must choose how to spend these nodes wisely, either offensively in order to cripple and destroy their opponents, or defensively, if they suspect a barrage of incoming weapons fire is due.
Dreadbit launched Ironcast’s Kickstarter campaign in September and with support from pledgers the game reached its £10,000 base funding goal on Kickstarter earlier this month. Dreadbit will be managing Kickstarter funds and game development in-house and Ripstone will be acting as an additional funding partner on the project; covering production, marketing, distribution and further development costs to ensure that stretch goals are met.
“After the completion of the Kickstarter campaign we were approached by Ripstone who offered to provide the funding for our stretch goals“ says Daniel Leaver; Designer at Dreadbit Games. “We saw this as too good an opportunity to pass up. While we always had complete confidence that we’d deliver the game we wanted to make and our Kickstarter backers believed in this additional funding is helping us to go much further with the original vision, secure in the knowledge that we can cope with anything unforeseen that may arise.”
Due for release early next year, Ironcast’s stretch goals boast an extra Commander, an additional Ironcast design, more locations and missions and added buffs and abilities, as well as a few extra surprises. All of which Ripstone hope to aid the lords and ladies of Dreadbit in making a reality.
“Having worked extensively with Daniel on the LittleBigPlanet series I was always curious as to what he’d do next” says Leo Cubbin; Managing Director at Ripstone.“When we discovered his Ironcast Kickstarter campaign we immediately loved the concept and tried to find a way to get involved in such a way that would reward people who had backed the game. The obvious approach from our perspective was to ensure that all the stretch goals were fulfilled and provided to the existing backers with no extra charge. We think Ironcast has the potential to be a really great game, and hope that our help can ensure it fulfils Dreadbit’s and their backers’ expectations.”
As a thank you for guaranteeing Ironcast’s stretch goals, Dreadbit have donated a steampunk jetpack to the team at Ripstone, which was an unclaimed reward from Ironcast’s Kickstarter campaign. The jetpack is a faithful replica of the escape method utilized by many Ironcast Commanders once their mechanized steed has been crippled beyond repair. It has been meticulously hand-crafted by Kruki99 using reclaimed materials such as brass, leather and glass. There’s no resin or “metal effect” components; it is a solid, quality work of art. Ripstone will be organizing a test flight as soon as possible and look forward to the benefits of having a jetpack in the office. More will be revealed on the plans for the jetpack in due course.
Information about the game can be found here.
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