Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night(-vania) kickstarter funded

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night

• An exploration-focused, side-scrolling platformer featuring RPG and crafting elements.
• Koji Igarashi, the namesake of "Igavania"-style games, is leading the project, with Michiru Yamane composing the music and Inti Creates leading the development.
• If funded, the game will be developed for XBOX One, Playstation 4, and PC. For the first time on Kickstarter, backers will have the option to receive actual PS4 / XB1 / PC retail discs.

-$500,000 base goal

*UPDATE

The campaign went live at 10 AM PDT / 1 PM EDT and reached its $500,000 target at 1:34 PM PDT / 4:34 PM EDT.

Read the rest of the article by Gamepot's news editor, Eddie Makuchhere

Meh, I dig Symphony of the Night, but I prefer OG Castlevania, Castlevania 4, and Rondo of Blood to the rpg ones that Iga made.

I can't say that I've ever heard of "Igavania" games. Is this a new term?

Cool stuff I hope it turns out good

Will keep my eye on this.

Currently: $287,224/$500,000

More than half way there with over a month left. This is awesome.

Probably just a new term to avoid copyright violations.

Oh god yes.

Konami is so so fucked.

Don't like the artstyle for the main heroine one bit.

Wow it's being funded at speed of light. Reaching its goal in the first 24 hours. Nice.

hit the Goal

Backing.

David Hayter voice acting as a stretch goal though? lulz.

this thing will easily hit the $1 million mark.

Iga is a beast.

Don't be a hater of Hayter.

I'm hoping they maintain the pixelated art style SOTN had, Just much higher resolution.

Wait those stretch goals are pretty funny. Is putting an artbook in hard cover cost 100kUSD ? Lol.

And funded!

I wonder how much this will end up with. Mighty No. 9 made it to 4 million.

As long as he's not struggling to pull off the Snake voice, it's all good.

....yeah, that's the worst news of it so far. It's 3d graphics. They're not even sure how the game is going to look yet because they're still doing look-dev with their shaders. If this shit were 2d, there wouldn't be any question.

I get it though. 3D graphics save time and money.

****.... is this confirmed?

My hype levels just plummeted.

No Vita version? odd

Anyways fully funded already, this has my interest

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/05/11/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night-is-coming-to-ps4/

Not feeling the Animu gfx.

@ReadingRainbow4:

Yep. I'm still hopeful, maybe the can nail an awesome look. I'd definitely prefer sprites though.

"WHY 2.5D?

IGA decided to go with 2.5D for this project for both financial and artistic reasons. All decisions in game development involve trade-offs, and for Bloodstained a 2.5D world built on Unreal Engine 4 was the right choice to balance development time, graphical fidelity, budget, and scope.

At the same time, IGA is very excited about exploring the paths a 2.5D style opens up within the classic Igavania formula. As he begins a new chapter of his career as a developer, he's looking forward to trying things that will enhance, rather than detract from, that core gameplay.

Still, though, we would never discount the fans' love for that classic style. The development team is looking forward to working with backers every step of the way to decide on custom shaders that will give the game a distinctive, hand-crafted look. Games like Guilty Gear and Strider are proof that 2.5D can be handled in a way that honors a classic aesthetic while allowing for new possibilities; that’s what IGA hopes to achieve with this project.

And of course, since it's an Igavania game, the 2D gameplay and feel are nonnegotiable."

They're not even making a WiiU version. Reason being is that they want to make the best looking game they can on UE4. They don't want to compromise, so they're making the Xbone the lowest common denominator here.

The game would suffer big time if there was a Vita version.

Well being in UE4 could be cool I guess, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now as this is fucking Iga.

Konami and Rare are being shown how to do things properly. Thank you kickstarter.

Amen.

I guess Kojima is up next.

2.5D for 'artistic' reasons? Sorry guys, massive lolz here.

That promo video was amazing. He just threw his wine glass on the floor LMAO

That was one of the best promo videos for a kickstarter I've seen in a while. This is like the best news ever. A new metroidvania game.. finally.

This game might be fucking amazing

Okay, now this is awesome news. I'm definitely supporting this. Grabbing my copy on Pee Cee. ;-)

Yep. It's strictly budgetary. It takes longer to build a 3d model up front than to create an initial sprite, but once that model is rigged the animators can go to town, unlike with sprites where every frame has to be redrawn to fill out a sheet.

And then of course you have other cash savers like being able to light the scene and have the shaders do the work rather than having to draw up new backgrounds to convey the same effect. 3D particle systems and effects are also far more automated and easily tweaked than their pixel based counterparts.

I'm not doubting they can make one hell of an awesome looking game, but keeping the cash flow in check is obviously the main reasoning behind this.

If this is a 2.5d game how graphically intensive is it going to be where it can't run on wii u?

I suppose it comes down to how much they're willing to throw on screen in terms of poly counts, texture resolution, and shaders... that said, I'm sure the biggest culprit here is that they're using UE4 which (correct me if I'm wrong) still doesn't support WiiU.

It's nice to see more and more Japanese developers test Kickstarter. I know for the longest time they've been iffy about ANY type of crowdfunding. I don't know if it's a sign of things to come, but a lot of developers of classic games seem to be breaking away from publishers (for various reasons - creative differences, etc) and seeking Kickstarter support instead. I understand that a lot of people look at Kickstarter and despise it. I'm sure in some cases the better known developers going to Kickstarter could probably fund their games, but at what cost? Most of the projects I've given money to our small 1-5 people teams trying to kickstart (har har) their professional careers. In a case like this, however, I don't mind "pre-ordering" the game as some people look at it (because in some cases it's hard to say if "x" game would get finished without KS).

I like the style they've presented and how colourful it appears (even though it says concept art).

Clearly there is no stopping this beast. Even though it was at $870,000 when I started writing this and watching the announcement video it's already jumped to $890,000 within 10 minutes. Crazy. Could easily pass the 2-3 million mark until things slow down.

I wasn't aware of this game until today. Good job Kickstarter for helping people make games.

Pretty sure it has more to do with Unreal Engine 4 not supporting WiiU.

Im not the biggest fan of the character design,but I still threw 100 bucks at it. Also I would love him to do a more classic castlevania next.