Despite Kickstarter failure, Beneath A Steel Sky 2 will enter development

Revolution Games didn't quite hit their proposed funding goal, but has decided to put Beneath A Steel Sky 2 into production anyway.

On August 23rd, adventure game developer Revolution Games opened a new Kickstarter project in the hopes of funding a “new, original, Broken Sword game by Charles Cecil,” dubbed Broken Sword – The Serpent’s Curse. The project’s stated goal was to raise $400,000 to be put toward the development of that game, and fans turned out in force to support the cause. When the dust settled, the project had pulled in $771,561, nearly twice its goal.

Great news, right? Not so fast. See, Revolution Games had also included an extra bit of incentive for adventure gaming fans by promising that if it was able to raise over $1 million the company would also greenlight Beneath A Steel Sky 2. As that goal was not reached, one would expect Revolution to drop plans for the game, but seeing the massive groundswell of support the Kickstarter project draw, the company has decided to reward fans regardless, and Beneath A Steel Sky 2 will enter development.

“We’re delighted by the recent level of interest in a sequel to Beneath a Steel Sky and are currently discussing design ideas for this project which we plan to go into development following the release of Broken Sword – The Serpent’s Curse,” Revolution co-founder Tony Warriner told Develop. “We’re deeply touched that our Steel Sky fans are as enthusiastic today as they were when the original game released in 1994.”

If you’re scratching your head, wondering vainly why you should care, you should know that Revolution is one of the finest developers of traditional adventure games in the history of the genre. Though it’s never earned the major mainstream accolades of LucasArts, the company’s list of titles reads like a “best of” roster for adventure games. The original Beneath A Steel Sky is widely regarded as one of the finest adventure titles to emerge from the latter years of the genre, which is all the more impressive given that by 1994 most developers had moved on to create more immediately profitable titles, like fighting games or DOOM clones.

As the Kickstarter only came to a close two days ago, both Beneath A Steel Sky 2 and Broken Sword – The Serpent’s Curse are likely a ways away from release. The former won’t even enter true development until after the latter is finished, so adventure gaming fans are going to have to be patient for a bit longer. That said, this should be great news for anyone who enjoys more cerebral adventures, and it’s heartening to see a developer recognize and reward its relatively small, but fiercely devoted fanbase in this way.