Dead State Kickstarter Campaign Begins

Some great non-E3-related news comes our way this evening, ZRPG fans! DoubleBear Productions' Dead State Kickstarter campaign has launched, with a goal of $150,000 in funding and pledge tiers ranging from $15 to $5000. Our regular readers should understand what they're getting themselves into here, but here's a recap if you plan on putting down any cash during the next 29 days:
Dead State is a compelling, high-tension RPG set at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. As society is beginning to fall apart, the player must organize allies, fortify a shelter, scout for food and supplies, and make uncertain alliances, attempting to hold together a group as humanity teeters on the brink of extinction. And although the zombies lurk as an ever present threat, the biggest obstacle to the player may just be other humans with the same goal: survival at any cost.

Interact with dozens of characters in over 10,000 lines of branching dialogue that affect gameplay, story outcomes, and multiple endings. Explore multiple surrounding towns and areas to find supplies and recruit allies. Fight the living and the dead in strategic turn-based combat. Upgrade your shelter to provide new ways of keeping morale high, creating new weapons and armor, and keeping the dead out. Your leadership will mean life or undeath for the survivors of the zombie apocalypse.

We are so sick of most zombie games. Yes, we get it, killing zombies is fun. But that's not what the zombie genre is about. It's about survival, first and foremost the struggle of the survivors faced with adapting to a world that has succumbed to an unfathomable event.

This is your story you're the leader and it's up to you to force the lucky, the traumatized, and the selfish to work together for weeks and months after society has collapsed. Zombies are the least of your problems you need to keep morale high, mouths fed, and your shelter safe. You will lose people. You will make enemies. You will have to make tough decisions. And you might not make it.

-A PC RPG with stats, skills, and perks that make a huge difference on your character's abilities.

-Dozens of characters with branching, reactive dialogue, and randomized events that unfold over months of in-game time player decisions and the death of loved ones can change relationships drastically.

-Turn-based combat where line-of-sight and noise affect whether you are spotted or not, making for extremely tense encounters.

-Base-building mechanics featuring multiple upgrades, NPC jobs, and item manufacturing.

-Scavenging mechanics that require players to find supplies, weapons, armor, and other items to keep their allies fed and alive.

-A morale system that factors in player success/failure, allies' faith in the player, and the overall strength of the shelter.

-Crisis Event dialogues that factor in political maneuvering and making difficult choices that affect your whole shelter.

-Reactive AI that responds realistically to combat situations, player commands, and the state of panic from the presence of zombies.

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Most of the staff of DoubleBear has been working on Dead State in their spare time (which is why you may have heard of it), and while we've managed to finish a bit of work, there's still a ways to go. RPGs are big games with lots of content, writing, and systems you don't see a lot of companies making them because they can take years, even with large teams and major funding. We need your funding to help us keep our staff on full-time and hire additional staff to speed up production of the game. We're not just trying to build one great RPG with the tools and assets we create we want to keep delivering new and exciting indie RPGs to you. But first we need to get Dead State finished, and that's going to take the support of fans like you.

Where does the money go? It pays salaries, goes to licenses for software and equipment, and gives us flexibility to bring on additional people at certain stages of the project (like sound, for instance). We're asking for enough to get the project done, but we've also got stretch goals that will allow us to add more content to the game. Once we get funded, we will be showing off our progress here and on our forums and website regularly. We've been very open with our fans about the project, and we'll continue to be throughout the production process.