Review Fix chats with “Revelation†Developer Don Goddard, who discusses the interesting UFO-simulation and the Kickstarter behind it. With a slew of wacky videos on the Internet and his charismatic approach, Goddard is hoping Kickstarter and gamers across the world help him make the game a reality.
For more information on the game, click here.
Review Fix: What was the inspiration for the game?
Don Goddard: First, Robert Goddard – Although we aren’t directly related, as he has no children, he’s an influence to most Goddards and I always wanted to do one better than him. Ultimately, create a flying disc shaped craft using a new form of propulsion. The first step in doing this would be to create a UFO simulation to know how it could behave and how to control it.
Second, Close Encounters of the Third Kind – they did for aliens in movies what Revelation will do for aliens in games. Almost every movie before CEIII was comical, strange, or very unrealistic. CEIII brought in the real wonder, fear and potential of being introduced to another intelligent life form and their technology.
Third, an obsession with UFOs and aliens to the point where I’ve had dreams about them. I’ve dreamed of glorious ones displaying themselves in full view in my back yard as a kid, and I’ve even been offered a ride and taken by hand into a UFO to fly it around. Just for the record, I have no idea or recall about being an abductee or contactee in any way, and these were just dreams, as far as I can remember.
Review Fix: What games do you think this title draws its influences from?
Goddard: Because it’s aerial dogfighting and stealth it draws from the legends in both flight simulations and stealth games. Specifically, flight games like Red Baron, Battle of Britain, Gunship 2000 and the Falcon and F-15 Strike Eagle series. For stealth it has traits of the series for Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid and Thief. If you really want to go back their are very strong influences from old or rare games like Choplifter, Typhoon Thompson in Search of the Sea Child, Star Wars (vector arcade game), Starglider, Star Raiders, Mercenary, and probably a dozen other games that will make me sound really old!
Review Fix: Who do you think this game will appeal to the most?
Goddard: Future space pilots of course! Actually, it will almost certainly be teen to adult males who are looking for a deep experience. I’ve played so many games myself that most games are very shallow and empty. What will be surprising and admirable to both female and male players is the extremely emotional connection and moments in the game. Moments such as meeting with other alien life forms and having very intellectual, political and great power struggles will really keep you guessing and motivated; you’ll even see this play out in the AI that follows plot devices designed to make you think and react on the fly. Even more interesting will be discovering whom you really are and what decisions you’ll make after knowing your origin story.
Review Fix: What kind of benefits or awards will people that contributes via Kickstarter be eligible for?
Goddard: I’ll give you a few lead-ins to rewards we haven’t posted yet as well as ones available now. We are giving out typical digital rewards such as the game, manuals, maps, making of videos / blogs. The physical rewards will be of greater and higher quality that most Kickstarters such as all-over-print design T-shirts, custom T-shirts, Bronze busts of aliens, a 16-month Revelation calendar with custom art, unique stickers, and very likely some electric or magnetic items. We’re even considering giving out a custom arcade size UFO crane game based on a prototype by an arcade designer.
But, the best rewards of all are the custom in game content rewards! We want to have gaming clans be able to be in the game for all to see as an actual group of alien or human entities with some special symbols and imagery and even include them in the lore. We are even offering probably the coolest customization in a game ever; the ability to create your own hidden ‘Easter Egg’. By that we mean a hidden feature, image, or text triggered in a special way that only you will be privy to! We are interactively talking with our backers to find out what they’d really like to add in to the game as well.
Review Fix: What’s the reception to the Kickstarter been like so far?
Goddard: Intense but not a lot of people have seen it… kind of like witnessing a real UFO. I had never contemplated this until now, but maybe aliens have had trouble being seen in the real world because they couldn’t get enough people to witness them and believe what they saw. We do have a pretty high conversion rate though as we have been getting at least 8% of viewers buying into the game! We are relying on word of mouth.
We will do everything we can to tell the world so we have been promoting the game in every possible way including preaching on the street at the Game Developers Conference as a Prophet and Men In Black, which made quite a stir (see our Kickstarter Updates). Write to UFO Studios ([email protected]) and tell us what you would like to see from us and we’ll bring it right to you!
Review Fix: What’s the next step if the Kickstarter is unsuccessful?
Goddard: Our plan was to reveal the Kickstarter slowly because the game is called Revelation and you are continually having things revealed in the game. As backers for Kickstarter we didn’t want to have to spoil everything up front by showing all of the spoilers and surprises. If we fail by April 30th, then we will then dissect and probe any flaws and come back significantly stronger and will a playable game prototype.
Normally, in a simulation, it takes months to deliver a prototype with realistic physics and targets to manipulate which costs a lot of money to create. Fortunately, we’re prepared to some degree for this and we will show some gameplay in the coming days. I’ve a strong feeling that this will be a highly abnormal project to back as most people will need to get their hands on a UFO and really give it a spin to commit financial support.
If we have to come back a second time we will purely focus on the demo, making it strong and intense, and putting it and all of our best stuff up front. Ultimately though, if the world doesn’t want UFOs then it will not be for a lack of our trying, but purely for a lack of interest from a world not interested in other intelligent life potentially superior to human beings.
Review Fix: What are your ultimate goals for the game?
Goddard: What a great question and something we have yet to tell anyone on Kickstarter. Revelation is actually the start of a major franchise. With everyone we’ve talked to in a publishing context they all say this is more than a game, that it’s a fantastic franchise that would be great as a TV series, book series, sequel games and a huge line of toys. It’s also a natural evolution for boys who like cars, or trains, or planes, to love UFOs. We were even at a recent coin-op expo for a very specific reason related to Revelation we can’t talk about.
What we can tell you right now is that this is the start of an amazing franchise that will blossom from what several people have told us is the greatest ending to a game of all time. The Bible gives great hints of how Revelation begins, but unless we get funding through Kickstarter no one will see how it ends or what is to follow. It’s up to us to get people to know what we’re developing. It’s really up others to spread the word, and the backers to determine if the world is truly ready for a real alien story and actual alien technology.
Check out Goddard’s Kickstarter Pitch Below:
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