OutWard - Kickstarter Canceled

The Kickstarter for Outward has been canceled after reaching about a third of its goal and most likely not reaching that goal.

It is a rather painful thing to do, but we had to cancel the campaign and redirect our efforts. From the start, it was obvious that without the involvement from the press to help spread the word around, we wouldn't be able to reach enough backers to meet our goal.

Running a kickstarter campaign is a very time-consuming effort, and time is a resource we have less and less of. Given that we were obviously not going to meet our goal, we decided that we should focus the rest of our resources on alternative ways to get funding.

First, we have submitted an application for something called the Canada Media Fund. If we get approved, then the project is fully funded. It's the best case scenario, but once again we'll need a bit of luck. We should hear back from them in June or July.

Secondly, we will try and find either investors or publishers. It is very hard to evaluate our chances of getting one, and it largely depends on how flexible we are with the terms of the contract. The thing is, we aren't. So we'll see if we can find a publisher that has a vision in tune with our own, or find an investor who has a high level of trust in our ability to deliver a high quality game that gamers want. Since looking for a publisher is about as intense as running a Kickstarter, this is where we will be directing our efforts for the time being.

Third, we'll try and find ways to generate more revenue from GoD Factory: Wingmen, our previous title. I don't expect that this could fund the next project entirely, but it could definitely buy us more time, increasing our chances of securing a larger investment. "Live long enough to get lucky", as they say.

Believe me when I say that no one is more saddened than me that I had to cancel the Kickstarter. Outward is our dream project, something we all want to make at Nine Dots. It's not over yet though.

We will keep you posted on updates about the game. We have a new forum where people can stay in close contact with us. If there's enough activity there, we might also send out a playable demo of our game to forum members to gather feedback. Maybe once we have something playable, it will be easier to get the attention from the press and thus build a larger community.

Here's the link to the forum: http://ninedotsforums.com/

Thank you 1029 times for your incredible support. We'll do everything we can to make Outward a reality. Those who have known Nine Dots for a long time know that we don't give up easily.