FOW Interactive’s Kickstarter for their hybrid shmup/turn-based strategy game, Subverse, has become an astounding success.
In March, the Source Filmmaker porn creators Studio FOW declared their desire to produce an erotic video game. Their plan was to collect £100,000 and turn it into a role-playing game divided into shoot ’em-up and turn-based tactics sections. It didn’t take them long to meet that goal, and now, with eight days still left in the campaign, Subverse has surpassed one million pounds in funding (roughly $1,300,000).
This success means that all of the developer's extended goals have been reached. The now-expanded promise of Subverse will include a fully voice-acted, 10 chapter-long story with animated cutscenes, seven waifus with loyalty quests, sex scenes, and cinematic vignettes. There is also the promise of customizable starship quarters, additional alien sex animations, and a set of side comics about the girl's past. The final stretch goal listed simply means that the team has garnered an extended budget of over £350,000 meant to account for potential, unexpected issues.
To celebrate the milestone, FOW Interactive has issued an update thanking their supporters and revealing new gameplay details. You can read it below:
YOU ABSOLUTE MADLADS. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?
Subverse is now a million-dollar project thanks to your support! What's even crazier is despite installing THE WAR CHEST stretch goal as something of an unattainable total, WE MIGHT ACTUALLY HIT £1,000,000.
The feels the team has experienced throughout the course of this campaign cannot be understated.
WE LOVE YOU. ALL OF YOU. SO MUCH. Your belief in this studio is what will fuel our desire to work ourselves to near-death under the stiletto heels and whip of Fow-chan in order to bring you the highest-quality hand holding game project in history.
For the glory of the waifus...we salute you!
And concerning the team, we have some wonderful news to share with everyone. For more than five years Studio FOW has operated with its members spread out across the globe, working remotely in basements and dungeon cells across several different time zones.
We decided even before the Kickstarter began that in order to get this thing production properly, we would all need to meet in person and spend an entire week working 16 to 20 hour days and get every single feature, detail and plot point locked in and ready to go...so that's exactly what we just did!
This was HUGE for us and very good news for the production of Subverse. The team's immediate chemistry kept morale high through the hectic schedule, and we managed to get the entire game planned from start to finish! This includes accounting for all of the stretch goals we achieved.
We're now ready to confirm several gameplay details, as well as compile a list of features here for those that haven't been following the comments section or our articles/interviews outside of Kickstarter.
First off, let's reveal some things that apply to both SHMUP and GRID combat!
- Subverse has four entirely unique factions of enemies. Each of them brings unique units and gameplay challenges to the table. The initial release of Subverse will include two with the other half entering the fray not long after. Having this many alien dickheads gives the gameplay more depth and allows us to have a more complex narrative surrounding the absolute insanity that is Subverse.
- Both combat types have several different gameplay modes that add a massive amount of variety to missions. While ANNIHILATION provides your typical "kill everything" quests, there's also DEFENDER. These sections will task you with protecting something like a cargo ship in space or a VIP NPC on the ground.
- If you're a casual gamer, don't worry! Chances are good that you'll be able to make it through to the main story of Subverse without sweating too much (from the difficulty, that is). However, if you're a hardcore gamer, efficient play will earn you more rewards after each mission.
- Rewards generally come in the form of three currencies - credits, bio, and tech, which serve to balance the economy of the game. Credits are a general use resource that lead to all upgrades in some way. Bio helps you unlock/upgrade MANTICORES and tech goes towards upgrades for the F3N1X. However, some purchases may require more than one type of currency.
- Finally, both modes will also deliver amazing boss fights throughout the game that tie directly into the plot!
SHMUPVERSE!!!!
- Your waifus will join you aboard the F3N1X (your fighter ship) and provide unique buffs and weapons that match their personalities! For example, Sova provides a strong burst of shields that can be detonated for AOE damage and Killision brings a dual-horned rail gun for taking down especially tough targets.
- Subverse's SHMUP has a unique and effective UI system that aligns with the ship throughout the action. It displays both ship hull integrity and shields and appears every time you take damage. It can also be toggled to be persistent if you wish. There's also a meter that displays how long your special attacks will take to recharge. This solves the genre-old problem of needing to look at the corners of your screen to receive vital information and take your eyes off your character during life or death moments.
- The SHMUP has side AND vertical scrolling sections. There are also free-roaming levels where asteroids and other space debris in the environment add an extra layer of strategy as you can use them for strafe-firing, ambushes or as cover when your shields need time to recharge.
- The F3N1X is the most feared fighter ship in the galaxy for a reason! On top of its endless weapon customization, it is hyper-mobile. You have access to both cruise mode and the charge attack. Cruise mode allows you huge bursts of speed but must be used strategically as it holsters your weapons while active. The charge attack gives you the chance to tear through enemies with the F3N1X itself serving as the weapon, and it's highly effective against large groups of smaller ships.
GRIDVERSE!!!!
- We've had a lot of questions about the MANTICORES and what role exactly they serve in combat. Think of it in terms of chess: your waifus are the queens and these guys serve as their knights. Compared to the waifus, they have a more limited range of actions but serve as efficient mutant bodyguards. Also, both waifus and mantics have adrenaline-fueled ultimate attacks that upgrade their basic abilities into something far more vicious!
- There will be a large roster of mantics available in the game. As soon as you have the materials required, Lily can create them for you in the lab aboard the Mary Celeste. However, their incubation may also require special key items that must be discovered somewhere in the Prodigium galaxy.
- Subverse's grid combat is capable of delivering waves of reinforcements. That means new units can spawn as you defeat the previous bad guys, adding another layer of strategy by forcing you to reposition and react on the fly.
- There are two types of damage and corresponding resistances in Subverse. Energy attacks bypass the resistances of enemies with armor, while physical attacks shred through shields. This gives the combat an extra layer of subtle depth and makes your choice of waifu and mantic pairings all the more important as each enemy faction's units require a different strategic approach.
We know you've all been asking for more video of the gameplay, so we are currently putting something together with never-before seen footage that shows off many of the gameplay details we've just confirmed as well as gives the first real tour of the Mary Celeste.
It will be available SOON™. Until then, thanks again and we can't wait to enter the Subverse with you!
If you’d like to join the hype train, there’s just over a week left until the Subverse Kickstarter ends. Any donation will grant you digital access to the doujinshis funded by the stretch goals. Donating £10 (about $13) will provide you a copy of the game once it becomes available in Steam Early Access this summer.
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