If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. That was a bible adage right? It wasn’t? Oh…
Well anyway, that’s the maxim that developer Phoenix Interactive seems to be living by. They recently started a Kickstarter for a brand new game called Bible Chronicles: the Call of Abraham . Yes, it’s a modern day Bible game, a genre that we all thought died out back with the NES. You’d get to relive all your favorite Bible stories, like dying as Job, or fleeing from Sodom and Gomorrah as Lot. Feel guilty for your very existence in ways you never thought you could. Experience top of the line graphics that look like they were made in Second Life ’s character editor. Praise God through your controller, because that’s how religion works.
Yes, we are poking a little bit of fun at the Kickstarter campaign, not only because… come on, it’s for a Bible game, but also because it was very poorly designed. The artistic assets were sloppy, the mission statement was vague, and the reward tiers were strange. You actually were given a DLC code for an additional weapon in the game before you were actually given the real game itself. It was a bad idea all around.
It soon became clear that Phoenix Interactive weren’t going to come anywhere near their stated goal of $100,000. Heck, they didn’t even make half of it. Instead, they topped out at about $19,000, which internet trolls have theorized came from internal donations. Whether or not this is true, you don’t get your money on Kickstarter if you don’t reach your goal. This means that all that cash would go back to whatever benefactor decided to donate it, which means Phoenix Interactive is only losing money.
So Phoenix Interactive decided to try their luck again, this time with Indiegogo. Many of you may remember Indiegogo as the crowdfunding site that funded Skullgirls’ DLC. The key difference between Indiegogo and Kickstarter, aside from the fees required to set up a campaign, is that you keep your Indiegogo money even if you aren’t funded. Seeing as how not being funded was basically a given for this Bible fiasco, Phoenix Interactive decided to get as much money they could and switch funding platforms.
But this causes more than a few problems. First of all, they probably won’t be able to get people to donate to the same campaign twice. Second of all, they reduced their funding total to $50,000 from $100,000, so this casts doubt on whether or not they were actually planning to complete the project in the first place. Now the internet has exploded with accusations of money grabs and scams.
As of now, the Indiegogo campaign has raised 300 dollars. There are 28 days left. What do you think? Is this an honest attempt to spread the word of Chrsitianity, or will Phoenix Interactive just be pocketing the money. Let us know in the comments.