Following the failure of their Kickstarter campaign, the developers of the sequel to 2006's The Ship: Murder Party are taking on a new approach. The fundraising effort sadly only earned £18,247 of the requested £128,000, a failure that Blazing Griffin attributes to poor timing, conversion rate issues, and the community's unfamiliarity with the game's concept. In a blog post over at the official blog, these details and more are discussed, including the future for the project, now on Steam Greenlight:
"..The gamer reaction [to The Ship: Full Steam Ahead on Steam Greenlight] not only delighted us but gave creedance to our belief in this project. People like the idea, love the concept art, have a forum where they can talk to us about our plans and pushed us into the top three Steam Greenlight Concepts of all time in under a week.
If it’s proven anything to us it’s that enough people are interested in a sequel, so we would be foolish to give up now. Its time to regroup, learn from the feedback across a variety of sources and make sure that the next funding strategy has the substance people require to back this kind of project but also harness the public excitement and imagination we know exists from the Steam Greenlight Concept."
The post goes on to say they will be focusing their efforts on funded projects for now so as to better establish their studio, leaving open the possibility of another Kickstarter campaign at another date. If you haven't checked out The Ship or its sequel, I would watch the above video they made for Kickstarter. It's a refreshing little mix of The Sims, first person shooter, and murder mystery. The lack of funds sadly means The Ship: Full Steam Ahead won't be coming for some time, but I look forward to its eventual arrival.
