Who knew death could be so delightful? A group of ex-LittleBigPlanet devs, that's who. Ambient Studios, comprised of Media Molecule's former LBP lead coder Jonny Hopper and senior designer Daniel Leaver, as well as former members of the Criterion Games and Lionhead Studios teams, has announced a new project entitled Death Inc. Soon to be supported by a Kickstarter campaign next month, this game stars Grim T. Livingstone, a lowly underworld employee who seeks to make a name for himself in the reaping business. With his trailer of pestilence he ravages the 1660s English countryside, infecting and pillaging the souls of villagers (who naturally have their own defenses against your sickly horde). Souls can then be used to purchase new abilities, like plague rats and exploding livestock, bonuses and office decor, thus expanding Grim's influence. Combining military based maneuvering and simulation, this death for profit title will be coming to PC and Mac (funding-permitted) this upcoming September or October.
Ambient Studios is asking for £300,000, which will allow for a full single player campaign built with the Unity engine. Asked about why they chose Kickstarter, Hopper references an issue with funding that lead to a Vita project being cancelled, saying that while there was interest in Death Inc. following the cancellation, they figured Kickstarter would be a better fit:
“We'd been working on the [Vita] game for about a year. Eventually it came to a mismatch of expectations of what we wanted to deliver and what we could deliver and what they wanted. So near the end of last year they pulled the funding plug unfortunately."
The Kickstarter campaign launches on February 4. For more on Death Inc visit the official site.
