Update: As of afternoon time on 4/25/19, Firmament has reached its Kickstarter goal and will be funded. The campaign ends at 3PM PT on 4/26/19. In the most recent update, Cyan Worlds confirmed that they have “decided to commit to find a way to make up any shortfall, so we can guarantee Firmament for Mac, PS4, and EFIGS” and they’ve also scheduled an assortment of streams and Q&As for tomorrow to celebrate.
Original: The company behind genre-defining atmospheric puzzle adventure games Myst and Riven, as well as the VR-optional spiritual successor Obduction, have until Friday to clear their Kickstarter goal.
Spokane-based Cyan Worlds, Inc. launched its Kickstarter crowdfunding project last month for Firmament — a new VR puzzler that also works on traditional PC screens. The project so far raised support from more than 12,000 people and, as of this writing, those backers promised more than $975,000 to the cause.
That’s still quite a bit less than the all-or-nothing funding goal of $1,285,000. Firmament ends its fundraising on Kickstarter Friday, April 26 at 3 pm Pacific time.
$30 is the minimum pledge to receive a digital version of the game. More than 4,000 people are backing at that level while another 4,000+ people are opting for exclusive content promised with a $49 pledge. Thousands more are supporting above those levels with $120 or $250 pledges promising physical collectibles and a “proof-of-concept” build of the game. Firmament is slated to arrive in July of next year, though we should note crowdfunding projects often miss delivery targets.
We reviewed Obduction highly [8/10] when it debuted in 2016 before the Oculus Rift supported Touch controllers. Though hand control support was added later, Obduction also suffered from some cumbersome controls and performance issues. We first tried an early prototype of Firmament last year and the game was built from the start with VR support in mind although it’s fully playable outside of VR too.
A lot is on the line with Firmament. Cyan explains that if this project isn’t funded then the company may run “out of money” in the page’s FAQ section:
Blah, blah, blah… here’s the bottom line. Cyan spent the majority of the Myst 25th funds to fulfill the obligations – happy to do it. The leftover funding continued to fuel Cyan, allowing us to optimize Obduction, design Firmament, create a video and proof-of-concept for Firmament, and basically stay in business for a number of months. No private island, no Tesla, no huge bonuses, no shopping sprees – but we get to keep working!
So that’s why we are turning back to Kickstarter. We either need to fund Firmament or run ourselves out of money, because (as much as we’d love to) we just don’t have those proverbial buckets of cash.
The company added PSVR support as a stretch goal earlier this month if the project clears $1.4 million in funding. Separate from Firmament, Cyan is also publishing VR adventure ZED from developer Eagre Games.
Here’s the link again to the Kickstarter page for Firmament.
