Phosphor Games explains its decision to end Project Awakened funding
By Megan Farokhmanesh on May 06, 2013 05.06.13
Project Awakened's end to its private funding endeavor was a combination of insufficient contributors and the need to begin new projects, Phosphor Games CEO Justin Corcoran told Polygon via email. The company recently announced that it would put its funding for the open-world superhero action title on hold immediately and that all backers would receive full refunds. The post added that "alternative funding options" had been presented and that the game would eventually be completed. Corcoran told Polygon that that after the project's ill-fated Kickstarter, the private campaign was a "response to a lot of requests to try a plan B." "But, we said at the start that we only had until the beginning of May to decide to either put a team on Project Awakened if it was funded, or something...
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1 CommentProject Awakened funding put on hold, backers to receive full refunds
By Megan Farokhmanesh on May 04, 2013 05.04.13
Funding for Phosphor Games' open-world action title Project Awakened has been put on hold effective immediately, according to a post on the game's official site. According to the post, "alternative funding options" have been recently brought before the team and updates will be forthcoming on the game's Facebook page. "Phosphor Games would like to thank you for your continued support of Project Awakened, but at this time we need to put our funding endeavor on hold effective immediately," the update reads. "Everyone who pledged money will be receiving a full refund. Rest assured, our goal is to one day complete this game that we are all very passionate about." Phosphor Games initially launched a Kickstarter, which ran Feb. 4 through March 6, in an effort to obtain $500,000 in funding....
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3 CommentsPhosphor Games is raising money directly for Project Awakened
By Jenna Pitcher on Mar 26, 2013 03.26.13
Phosphor Games has launched its own funding drive to develop its open-world superhero action game Project Awakened. Polygon reported earlier this month that the developer had plans to host its own fundraiser after the project fell short of its $500,000 Kickstarter goal. At the time of writing, the Phosphor Games campaign boasts 652 backers pledging a total of $39,566. The campaign has 38 days left to reach the $210,434 goal. There are eight funding goals in the campaign's lifespan. The first is $250,000 and consists of create-a-player feature where players can tweak characters abilities, clothes and AI. It will also have different environment set-ups to test out characters. The $400,000 and $450,000 goals will bring Project Awakened to Linux and Mac, respectively. The $500,000 mark...
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1 CommentPhosphor games will raise money directly for Project Awakened if there's enough demand
By Tracey Lien on Mar 08, 2013 03.08.13
Phosphor Games fell short of its $500,000 Kickstarter goal for Project Awakened yesterday, but the studio plans to push on and look into the possibility of running a fundraiser on its own site. Speaking in an interview with Eurogamer, the studio said it wants to put the power into the peoples' hands to have them determine whether or not Phosphor Games should keep trying to fund Project Awakened. "Let's let them have power now," the studio said. "We're going to do a survey on our website and ask people: you've all said that you want us to keep going — but we can only get a minimum amount of money to do that, or we feel that we're taking people's money and can't fulfill on a decent promise. "So we're going to trust you to be honest with us. If you say you want us to continue with...
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10 CommentsProject Awakened falls short of its $500K Kickstarter goal
By Griffin McElroy on Mar 07, 2013 03.07.13
Project Awakened, the open-world action game from Chicago-based dev Phosphor Games, did not meet its $500,000 Kickstarter goal during its 30-day campaign on the popular crowdfunding site. During the campaign, which ran Feb. 4 through March 6, the ambitious title only raised $338,498, a little over two-thirds of its target, despite receiving a significant amount of media attention and announcing its partnership with Journey composer Austin Wintory in its final days. The game, which would be developed in Unreal Engine 4 and allow players to customize characters, powers and environments with a suite of open-ended modding tools, may not be dead in the water. In a recent Joystiq interview, game director Chip Sineni said Phosphor would "keep making the game very slowly in our spare time, if...
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6 CommentsPhosphor Games will 'keep looking' for ways to complete Project Awakened if Kickstarter fails
By Megan Farokhmanesh on Mar 04, 2013 03.04.13
If Phosphor Games' Kickstarter Project Awakened doesn't reach its funding goal, the company will "keep looking" for ways to complete the project, director Chip Sineni told Joystiq. The superhero simulation Kickstarter currently has less than 38 hours to go and just over half its $500,000 goal. Despite its dwindling time, Sineni remains optimistic about the game's fate. "We are feeling stressed, but we still feel there is time for the community to help us make this happen," Sineni told Joystiq. "We got the Unreal Engine 4 tech demo out, we announced Austin Wintory joining as the composer and a lot of Kickstarters have last-minute surges."Phosphor revealed the Unreal Engine 4 tech demo on Feb. 28, just before Wintory joined the equation on March 1. Wintory credited the game as having...
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4 CommentsJourney composer signs on as Project Awakened Kickstarter nears end date
By Megan Farokhmanesh on Mar 02, 2013 03.02.13
Grammy-nominated composer Austin Wintory, best known for his work on thatgamecompany's Journey and Flow, will compose the soundtrack to Phosphor Games' Kickstarter, Project Awakened. Wintory's involvement was announced via a new update on the Kickstarter and features a few words from the composer. "Following an incredibly wonderful collaboration with Phosphor on Horn last year, it was a no-brainer for me when I first got the call about working on Project Awakened," Wintory wrote. "Once I got a rundown of all the plans for the game, especially the details beyond what's been presented so far in the Kickstarter campaign, I got even more excited. I think the potential behind this game, both as a customizable player-driven game, and as a narrative experience, is very high. And our...
Project Awakened beta will include unsupported multiplayer
By Megan Farokhmanesh on Feb 16, 2013 02.16.13
Project Awakened, Phosphor Games' current superhero simulation Kickstarter, will feature "unsupported" multiplayer when the day one beta is launched, according to a recent AMA on Reddit. With unsupported multiplayer, players will not be able to engage in leaderboards or matchmaking, though Phosphor said Project Awakened is "very much something that you can open up and mess around with. " "We really want to always make sure the game is open to people wanting to try stuff out and mess around," Phosphor wrote. "We view Project Awakened as not just a game but a kit to have fun." Limitless multiplayer is currently a stretch goal of the project. If reached, the game will include customizable multiplayer scenarios and more. Even if the goal isn't achieved, however, the game, and beta, will...
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12 CommentsAwakened superhero sim reborn for Unreal Engine 4, seeking Kickstarter funding
By Griffin McElroy on Feb 04, 2013 02.04.13
Awakened, a superhero simulation game from Chicago-based developer Phosphor Games, has broken an extended period of silence to reappear on Kickstarter, where the studio is seeking $500,000 to fund development on the Windows PC title. The game was first revealed in early 2011 as a canceled Midway project formerly titled Hero. Developer Phosphor Games, which was largely composed of former Midway developers, was formed with the sole purpose to keep the game's development going. After nearly two years without any major updates on the title — during which time Phosphor created Horn and Dark Meadow, two critically acclaimed mobile games — the company has reemerged with a Kickstarter campaign and plans to finish the title in Unreal Engine 4. Awakened features a deep character editor...
