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Godus

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Godus
Developer(s)22Cans
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, OS X, iOS (iPad), Linux, Android
Release2014
Genre(s)God game

Godus is a god game style video game under development by the independent company 22Cans. The company launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds, and they met their funding goal of £450,000 ($732,510) on December 20, 2012.[2] Godus is designed by Peter Molyneux and is the spiritual successor to his earlier creation, Populous.

Development

Godus is the efforts of game designer Peter Molyneux and his development studio 22Cans.[3] The game is the spiritual successor to Molyneux's earlier creation, Populous,[4] and is inspired by his other titles: Dungeon Keeper and Black & White.[5] Molyneux left his position at Microsoft in March 2012 to found 22Cans.[6] With a staff of 20 people, the studio released its first game, Curiosity – What's Inside the Cube?, on November 6, and began working on Godus.[6]

The company launched a Kickstarter campaign to help crowdfund the costs of producing the game, and the campaign met its funding goal of £450,000 ($732,510) on December 20, 2012.[2] Although the game was only funded two days before the campaign ended, any remaining pledges would be put towards stretch goals which would add features to the game such as more single-player modes, a cooperative mode, and adding support for Linux and the Ouya platform.[2] 22cans planned to release a prototype of the game on December 13, 2012, in an effort to attract more backers to the campaign,[3] but as of December 20, the prototype had not been released.[2] At the close of the campaign, £526,563 was raised and five out of the six stretch goals were reached, failing to achieve the goal for Ouya support.[5] As of December 21, 2012, Molyneux had not set a release date for the game.[4]As of the 13th September 2013, Godus was released on Steam early access as a beta version.[7]

With the end of Moleneux's social experiment, Curiosity – What's Inside the Cube?, it was revealed that in Godus a single person will reign as the virtual god over all other players. It was also revealed that this same player will receive a portion of the revenue made by the game.[8]

Controversy

Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell expressed concern that successful game designers were funding their projects using Kickstarter, stating: "I'm looking at Kickstarter through the prism of Molyneux and Braben and Schafer and Fargo reaching out of their mansions and rattling their golden cups in my direction. They instantly put me in the mentality of a consumer [...] weighing up a pre-order against the potential fiction of their oft-broken pre-release promises. [...] It's not wrong because they are taking advantage of people – which may or may not be the case – but because this is absolutely not what Kickstarter is about."[9] PC Gamer expressed similar concern: "one wonders if Molyneux couldn't have handled his own funding".[10] Molyneux responded, saying, "I don't see why I, with my background, should be precluded from [Kickstarter]. I made the choice when I left Microsoft to become a small developer again and to define myself like a small developer defines itself, and that is someone who takes unbelievable risks – foolish risks like releasing Curiosity and doing Kickstarter."[6] Molyneux also said that he invested a lot of his own money into the development studio 22cans.[6]

References

  1. ^ Godus on Steam
  2. ^ a b c d Orland, Kyle (Dec. 20, 2012). "Project Godus reaches Kickstarter goal just under the wire". Ars Technica. Retrieved Dec. 26, 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  3. ^ a b Orland, Kyle (Dec. 13, 2012). "Molyneux: Project Godus to release playable prototype tommorow". Ars Technica. Retrieved Dec. 26, 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  4. ^ a b Sliwinski, Alexander (Dec. 21, 2012). "Godus Kickstarter concludes at £526K". Joystiq. Retrieved Dec. 26, 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  5. ^ a b Jackson, Mike (Dec. 21, 2012). "Godus Kickstarter closes at £526,563". Computer and Video Games. Retrieved Dec. 26, 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  6. ^ a b c d Yin-Poole, Wesley (Dec. 20, 2012). "With Project Godus funded, Peter Molyneux can finally get some sleep". Eurogamer. Retrieved Dec. 26, 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  7. ^ Jeffrey Grubb (September 13, 2013). "Peter Molyneux's Godus beta available now on Steam Early Access". GamesBeat. Retrieved 15 September 2013.
  8. ^ "Edinburgh Curiosity winner reigns in GODUS, takes percentage of earnings". incgamers.com. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
  9. ^ Bramwell, Tom (Dec. 15, 2012). "Are the rich old men ruining Kickstarter?". Eurogamer. Retrieved Dec. 26, 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  10. ^ "God Comes to Kickstarter: Peter Molyneux Pitches Populous Successor". PC Gamer (UK): 9. 2013. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
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