Indie developer Pixelbionic renamed its upcoming car combat title from Autoduel to MotorGun and launched Kickstarter fundraising efforts today, according to a press release.
MotorGun is based off of real world car physics and allows players to customize their own vehicles in combat. The team-based multiplayer game is set in a post-apocalyptic future where drivers duke it out as one of three warring factions: Ratters, Scavengers or Techies. In May, Twisted Metal and God of War creator David Jaffe signed on as a creative advisor.
The developer is attempting to raise $650,000 through Kickstarter. Backer tiers extend from $5 to $10,000, with rewards such as pre-alpha access, a digital game manual and soundtrack. Funding efforts end Aug. 16.
MotorGun was announced earlier this year as Autoduel; a Pixelbionic rep previously told Polygon that its game had no relation to 1985's Autoduel, a title based off Steve Jackson Games' Car Wars. We have reached out to the developer to learn whether those similarities led to the name change and will update accordingly.
Unreal Tournament designer Lee Perry will also join the developer's lineup as a battlefield arena designer if the project's Kickstarter campaign surpasses its stretch goals.
Update: In regards to the name change, Pixelbionic told us the following:
"We came into this project with inspiration and enthusiasm from games of the past and applied for the lapsed Autoduel trademark as we always liked the name. However, in talking to the community players had more enthusiasm for a totally new IP — so that's where we came up with MotorGun. Now that we're using the name internally, we're even more excited about the game as MotorGun just feels right to us."