14 DAY TRIAL // World War Machine, one of the titles featured in the pilot of Square Enix's Collective initiative, has started its crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.
In case the Square Enix Collective sounds like a Final Fantasy music tribute band, do know that it's in fact an effort that the Japanese developer and publisher debuted in order to support indie game makers to realize their projects by assisting them in first gauging the gaming community's interest in their initial pitch, and then in creating a professional crowdfunding campaign.
The initiative is a collaboration between Square Enix and Indiegogo, and its first edition had three game concepts for the community to judge whether they should turn into reality or whether they should be locked in a closet.
World War Machine, a post-human action role-playing game, was one of the three projects, garnering an enthusiastic response from gamers, with over 90 percent of voters manifesting their interest in the game, and indicating that they would back the game through crowdfuding.
That time has come, and World War Machine's pitch is up on Indiegogo, with a 40-day window to raise the necessary funds to create the game.
The developers have also released a prototype gameplay trailer to showcase how their creation plays and to get people excited for the prospect of taking robots with a wide arsenal of destructive weaponry into fast-paced battles.
The premise is quite simple, humans are a long-extinct life form, and as such you assume control of a very customizable and highly advanced anthropomorphic robot, and then start shooting stuff in a decrepit city environment, uncovering the mysteries behind our disappearance.
Along the way, you have to make sure you gather the necessary materials to craft new weapons and upgrades, as well as making critical tactical choices depending on your current loadout.
Developers Tuque Games inform that players can engage in the conflict either in solo mode or with their friends, in a seamless drop-in / drop-out cooperative multiplayer mode.
The war machines can earn various powerful offensive and defensive Functions, which work pretty much the way spells do in fantasy action role-playing games, and you can loot dozens of weapons and components from fallen enemies in order to enhance your combat prowess.
In addition to this, by defeating enemies, completing missions and exploring the world, players can earn Power Points that they can use to configure and reconfigure the machine's Power Systems on the fly in order to drastically alter their play style and take on enemies in a variety of ways.
In addition to a regular crowdfunding campaign pitch, World War Machine's also comes with a full assessment report from Square Enix, noting that the development team has the expertise needed to deliver the product they show in the pitch.