Obsidian Entertainment’s Kickstarter campaign for isometric, party-based PC role-playing game Project Eternity has finished with a total of $3,986,929, becoming the highest-funded video game on the crowd-funding platform behind Double Fine’s point-and-click PC adventure game Double Fine Adventure, which ended its Kickstarter with a total of $3.3 million.
Project Eternity’s final goal will most likely stretch to over $4 million once Kickstarter counts the campaign’s PayPal donations.
The Obsidian team live-streamed the final Kickstarter countdown, and celebrated by thanking everyone for their donations and joking that they’d start work on Project Eternity “tomorrow morning”.
The project started on September 14 and had exceeded its pledged goal of $1,100,000 within 24 hours. According to Obsidian–the studio behind Fallout: New Vegas and the upcoming South Park: The Stick of Truth–the extra funding could be used to help the development team to put more resources behind new playable races, factions, crafting systems, and a personal stronghold for players to store gear and weapons in.
“Additional money we raise will go straight into the game to add new levels, companions, NPCs, features, and even entirely new parts of the world which will add hours and hours to the adventure,” the developers said.
Obsidian also plans to attempt to enlist the aid of Neverwinter Nights 2’s creative lead George Ziets and, since the campaign reached beyond $3.5 million, will add a final goal to the game called “Big Big City”, where the game will feature a giant city hub, reminiscent of Athkatla from Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn.
Project Eternity will combine elements of past Infinity Engine role-playing projects like Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment. Players will create their own character in Project Eternity, and will gather companions along their journey, which will be replete with “complex, difficult choices,” according to Obsidian.
Obsidian turned to Kickstarter for Project Eternity because the company said it was “almost impossible” to secure the necessary funding through traditional publishing means. Additionally, the studio said it is asking for more than most Kickstarter projects because it is “creating a whole new world.”
