REHOBOTH, MASSACHUSETTS – IronZog LLC announced that the Kickstarter campaign to finish development of the open world real-time strategy game War of Conquest reached its $7,000 goal a few days ago, only 12 days into its 30 day run.
War of Conquest is based on the 2002 game of the same name, also developed by IronZog. Creator Michael Ferrier credits the campaign’s success to fans of the original.
“I’m enormously grateful to fans of the first game, who came out in force to support the Kickstarter. The average pledge has been around $85, a lot higher than the typical video game crowdfunder. The War of Conquest community is very passionate about their game, and they’ve been working tremendously hard to make sure the new version gets funded!”
To help increase awareness of War of Conquest beyond the fanbase of the original game, Ferrier will be hosting an AMA (“ask me anything”) on Reddit. “Being an MMO that’s not yet open for public testing, potential backers can’t see a lot of actual gameplay in action yet,” says Ferrier, “I think this leaves a lot of people with questions. I hope to give people a better idea of what War of Conquest’s gameplay is all about with this AMA. I’ll address questions about the game, the Kickstarter, and anything else that might come up.” The AMA is scheduled for Tuesday September 26th at 2pm EST, in Reddit’s IAmA subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/).
Additional funds raised beyond the initial Kickstarter goal will be used to step up the quality of the game, rather than triggering the development of new features. “I considered adding stretch goals,” explains Ferrier, “but realistically any additional money would be better spent increasing the quality and quantity of artwork and expanding the promotional push at release, which will be needed to build a critical mass of players. I want to avoid adding extras that would split the focus away from making the game great and giving it the launch it needs.”
War of Conquest puts the player in control of one nation in a vast sci-fi and fantasy world occupied by thousands of other players’ nations. The player’s goal is to build up their nation’s abilities, as well as their own strategic skills, in order to compete to capture the mysterious Orbs of Power scattered throughout the landscape. The journey will entail battling over land and resources, developing advances, forging alliances, and constructing and upgrading a wide variety of defensive structures. What sets War of Conquest apart from other massively multiplayer nation building strategy games is that all players co-exist on a single game map.
2002’s original War of Conquest was among the first massively multiplayer strategy games. It ran through 2011, had over 200,000 players and, despite its rudimentary graphics, developed a cult following that continues to be a presence on social media years after the game went offline. Ferrier names Sid Meier’s Civilization series and the board game Risk as two major influences on War of Conquest’s design. IronZog was founded in 2001 by Michael Ferrier and artist Zach Shukan. Both had recently left Turbine Games where they worked on one of the first massively multiplayer RPGs, Asheron’s Call. The new War of Conquest is being developed for PC, iOS and Android using the Unity game engine, and will feature up-to-date 3D graphics and many new gameplay options. “The mission of the new War of Conquest is to fulfill the promise of the original,” says Ferrier, “by keeping its strengths intact, addressing its weaknesses, introducing several new elements (that weren’t practical the first time around) to make gameplay more interesting and engaging, and taking the visuals, sound, and overall experience to a much higher level.”
Here is the War of Conquest Teaser Trailer:
There are nine days left to help support War of Conquest on Kickstarter.
Related: WAR OF CONQUEST Needs Your Support on Kickstarter, Already 25% Funded in First Few Hours
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