Double Fine Kickstarts Massive Chalice

Designed to be an epic on PC, Mac and LInux, Double Fine is using Kickstarter to fund their latest game – Massive Chalice.  A combination between turn-based tactics, feudal fantasy and century spanning dynasty, they hope to create a unique game with great replay value.

You play as an immortal King or Queen who must defeat the demonic threat and reforge the Massive Chalice.  Interestingly, your heroes will grow, age and die (aka Permadeath).  This means that part of your tactics will involve letting your favourite heroes retire so that you can groom new warriors.  While your personal knowledge and skill will improve across playthroughs, each new game will begin with heroes comprised of a random assortment of genders and bloodlines. 

They site the following features of the game:

• Your story emerges as you defend against attacks, complete quests, and respond to randomized events in your attempt to preserve the kingdom.
• Line of sight and fog of war mechanics come into play as your squad explores beautiful dynamic 3D battlefields where danger may lurk behind any corner.
• Distinct, customizable heroes learn new melee, ranged, and arcane abilities as they age and gain combat experience.
• Arrange marriage alliances to ensure your heroic bloodlines can handle any future combat situation.
• Battle alongside your ancestors by equipping your heroes with uniquely powerful Bloodline Relics.
• Invest your resources in forging new weapons and armor—and gamble on polluting a bloodline by researching dangerous demonic artifacts.

Double Fine acknowledges their recent use of Kickstarter to fund Broken Age, but says that it is only using one third of their studio.  As such, they have the capacity to develop another game without slowing down release times on the projects.  Playing on gamer concerns and interests, they explain

Double Fine’s goal is for all our teams to remain independent and responsible directly to their players. Kickstarting MASSIVE CHALICE allows us to maintain a pure creative vision, put out updates on our own schedule, respond to feedback without roadblocks, and release it all DRM-free.

Considering that the Kickstarter has only been live for a day and is already almost 50% of the way to goal, I think it’s pretty safe to say that they will be successful, and probably exceed their goal.  There are definitely some interesting aspects to the game – sounds like a strange mix of genres.  We know Double Fine can put out fabulous games, so do you have faith in this one?  What do you think of the reliance on crowd funding?

Last Updated: May 31, 2013