Last week, Overload, a ”six-degree-of-freedom shooter” from the makers of the original Descent, went to Kickstarter. This week, they’ve announced a major new feature for the final game!
“We always wanted to have multiplayer and believed we would eventually, but we did not feel comfortable making a public commitment to it. It's too easy for something like multiplayer to blow up the schedule and adversely affect the single player game,” the developers said in a community update.
All Kickstarter backers who receive the game will also get the multiplayer expansion for free when it launches (“likely 6-8 months”) after the main game. The note that the expansion will be free for backers might indicate the intent to charge for it, but it’s entirely too early to make solid guesses at the pricing structure.
In addition to that, the developers hosted an ”Ask Me Anything” on Reddit where they fielded questions from the community, which provided a few interesting tidbits. No microtransactions are planned for the multiplayer, and Overload will be based most closely on the first Descent. The devs also reiterated that rocky relations with Interplay are still keeping the original Descent games from services like Gog.com. Descent purists should absolutely check out that length for some more in-depth details on the development of the original game and the focus of this spiritual successor.
Overload’s Kickstarter currently sits just shy of $77,000 of a $300,000 goal, with 24 days to go. The developers expect the final game (minus multiplayer) to be available in March 2017.