Carmageddon: Reincarnation, Stainless Games' follow up to the retro racing classic Carmageddon is coming to Steam Early Access on March 27, roughly 17 years after the release of its predecessor, the studio announced today.
The developer is inviting those who backed the Kickstarter-funded release the opportunity to play the game two weeks prior to its launch on Early Access. Users who didn't previously back the game, which is currently still in pre-alpha, can purchase it on Steam for $30.
"It's brilliant to see our demonic baby rise screaming from the grave,"said studio co-founder Patrick Buckland. "This time we could finally do the stuff that we wanted to do 17 years ago. More blood was the main thing. Rivers of livers - that's what we wanted. Being publisher as well as developer means we get to be stupid. Properly, professionally stupid."
Stainless raised more than $625,000 for the development of Reincarnation, a modern re-imagining of the studio's original Carmageddon from 1997, on Kickstarter last spring. The company initially planned to launch the game on an iterative basis, releasing parts as the developers finished them. But Stainless announced last December that it was securing additional funding for development and would be "extending the project further, both in timescale and scope" as a result.
The studio reached its goal of £3.5 million of additional funding for the game last year with the help of an investment by Bullfrog Productions co-founder Les Edgar. The additional funding will allow Stainless to bring Carmageddon: Reincarnation to next-generation platforms, as well as its originally announced platform of Windows PC and the stretch goal platforms of Mac and Linux. Last October, Stainless ported the original Carmageddon to iOS.
