Heavy Gear Assault Devs Halt Kickstarter

[IanDavis]

Heavy Gear Assault Devs Halt Kickstarter

Stompy Bot Productions will continue crowdfunding on its website as it reevaluates its strategies.

[a href=http://heavygear.com/]Heavy Gear[/a] wasn't just that other mech game, for some it was the superior one. While Mechwarrior's bots were imposing walking tanks, Heavy Gear's nimble machines could skate, lay prone, or walk on the outside of space cruisers. It only had two PC games back in the 90's, and Stompy Bot Productions thought it was about time the franchise had another installment. Yet, after earning only $45k of its $800k Kickstarter goal with one week to go, it has decided to cut the crowdfunding campaign short.

Stompy Bot made the announcement via [a href=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stompybot/heavy-gear-assault-0/comments]an update[/a] on its project page: "Thank you for your dedicated support. We appreciate and highly value everyone's opinions here which is why we have decided to cancel this KS campaign and continue crowd funding on [a href=http://heavygear.com/]heavygear.com[/a]."

While the game isn't dead, its fate is less than certain. As the update continues, "we believe very strongly in resurrecting the Heavy Gear franchise and giving the fans what they want. We are currently evaluating other strategies to raise awareness regarding Heavy Gear and looking at multiple means to get the Heavy Gear name out there. Thank you for your support everyone and stay tuned."

Built in Unreal Engine 4, Heavy Gear Assault is aimed at PC, Mac, and Linux systems. It mostly focus on multiplayer battles, with an iOS app allowing players to spectate on matches from the stands and even earn cash on the side by sponsoring players. The Kickstarter was intended to fund the first episode of the single-player campaign, with additional episodes added as stretch goals. The developers also hoped to include Oculus Rift support, which would have simulated an entire mech cockpit.

Source: [a href=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stompybot/heavy-gear-assault-0/comments]Kickstarter[/a]

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[Karadalis]

After the dissapointment that Mechwarrior onlines arena style combat was i think people wanted a bit more out of a mecha game then having half the content ripped out and concentrated on the bare minimum mech vs mech.

Part of the fun in mech games is trashing stuff that is decidedly not a mech.. also playing missions instead of the same dreary arena combat style without rhyme or reason.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well this is how fan support works, when you don't deliver something they want then there will be no response.
Now is a great time to rethink how this thing should be made.

 

[Saulkar]

Trying not to post a cynical comment about this... all I can say is that it's a shame they didn't plan out more carefully what HG fans wanted from a new HG game (hint: not a multiplayer arena game).

Trying not to post a cynical comment about this... all I can say is that it's a shame they didn't plan out more carefully what HG fans wanted from a new HG game (hint: not a multiplayer arena game).

thats what lost my interest in it as well

This is what I wanted in a Heavy Gear game.


I cannot tell you how many hours I wasted trying to reenact that intro in the actual game to some success as a kid!

 

[Scars Unseen]

Yeah, my advice on a new strategy would be not to make it a multiplayer arena game. I loved Heavy Gear 2, and not once did I think to myself, "if only I could turn this into a team based sport." Change the focus and you may get more support.

Also, if anyone wants to make a Jovian Chronicles game, color me interested.

 

[sturryz]

Take my money!

Wonder why they decided against traditional crowd sourcing, maybe wasn't earning fast enough?

 

[Scars Unseen]

Take my money!

Wonder why they decided against traditional crowd sourcing, maybe wasn't earning fast enough?

They didn't decide against it; it's just that they only had gained 5% of their required funding with 6 days left to go.

 

[Slycne]

Yeah, it says something when their target audience just isn't that interested. I played the crap out of the original Heavy Gear and Heavy Gear 2 and had even commented a few weeks ago about someone needed to kickstart a new one. But we have Hawken and Mechwarrior Online already, we don't need another multiplayer mech game.

 

[irok]

Dam, I agree it was the superior mech game, well, except for armored core im not down with the clunky feel of MechWarrior's stuff and this might have been ok.