Amplitude reaches Kickstarter funding goal

Developer of the Rock Band and Dance Central series Harmonix successfully reached the crowdfunding goal for its game Amplitude today with 21 hours to go.

The Kickstarter campaign was launched to raise funds for a remake of the 2003 rhythm-action music game of the same name. The original Amplitude, also developed by Harmonix, was released on the PlayStation 2, itself a sequel to the studio's 2001 music game Frequency."

"Going into this Kickstarter campaign, we understood the number of challenges we faced, and at no point did we believe we had a 'sure thing,'" a Harmonix spokesperson said in a statement issued to Polygon.

"The outpouring of support has been incredible, and we are absolutely humbled by the response. From our fans to our friends in the industry — including the incredible contributions from Insomniac Games and the Skullgirls team — we could not have done this without their support and passion.

"As we've said in the past, creating a new Amplitude experience has been a studio dream for years. We're incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support that will make it possible, and can't wait to make this dream a reality."

The remake will bring Amplitude to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, and it will be more than a visual update, according to the game's creative lead, Ryan Lesser.

"It's not an HD version in that it's going to look exactly like the original and sound exactly like the original," he told Polygon. "It's going to have all new, brand new music, which of course means all new, brand new gameplay. All the graphics are totally different, revamped, modernized, and actually have a different narrative style behind it.

"I'm also hoping to do really fun stuff with the other bells and whistles of the DualShock," he said. "On the [DualShock] 4, especially. I've always been a huge fan of controller manipulation, like Metal Gear Solid style, so I've been loving what Tomb Raider does with it and Mercenary Kings — playing with the lights and playing with the speakers and stuff — so I'm hoping to do really cool stuff in Amplitude, utilizing those bells and whistles."

Studios like Insomniac Games and Mojang's Markus "Notch" Persson are some of the more high-profile backers of the project and, until their involvement, it seemed unlikely the project would come close to meeting its funding goal. The crowdfunding campaign got off to a slow start, with factors like platform exclusivity making it hard for the studio to ask money from fans.

Amplitude will feature single-player and local multiplayer modes, as well as online leaderboards. The player's Beat Blaster (ship), music notes, tracks and special effects will be modernized, and the studio's proprietary engine will allow the game to run at 60 frames per second.