KickTraq

Death Inc., which failed to reach its Kickstarter funding target earlier this year, has returned as a pay for beta game, developer Ambient Studios has announced. Stump up $10 now and you'll be given immediate access to the beta version, updating over the coming months until the final game launches November. Those who wait until November for the finished game will have to pay $19.99/£14.99. (Read More)

What happens when a Kickstarter campaign for a new game fails? After Chris Taylor unceremoniously cancelled Gas-Powered Games’ “Wildman” fundraising effort, for example, his crippled, employee-less company was bought by Wargaming. Last week, two more promising Kickstarters failed to meet their goals: Ambient Studios’ “Death, Inc.” fell well short of its £300,000 goal, and Phosphor Games’ “Project Awakened” came a bit closer to raising the $500,000 it needed but still just missed out. (Read More)

The winners’ podium is crowded this week, and by those that have been funded rather than the crowds wot have funded them. Hopefully, when the games are actually released, we’ll all be winners though. There are so many success stories this week that I didn’t even make room for the most ridiculous victory of all time. The spiritual successor to Torment took a mere seven hours to reach its total. Lord British, with over half a million in a few days, dreams of success like that. (Read More)

It’s been a very Kickstartery week at RPS central command land banana stand (with more to come, if you can believe it), but not all of it’s been good news. While Torment surged past its lofty $900,000 goal with such ferocity that we had to invent new numbers both to describe the amount it made and how quickly it did it, Project Awakened and now the equally promising Death Inc have fallen soberingly short. The RTS-ish 1660s freelance grim reaper simulator closed out its drive for blooooooood (or, I guess, money) at £122,711 – aka, not quite half of its £300,000 goal. So then, what is its hodgepodge of ambitious types from Media Molecule, Criterion, and Lionhead going to do now? The future’s not entirely clear, but one thing’s for sure: Death Inc hasn’t bitten the big one just yet. (Read More)

It’s a famous computer RPG extravaganza this week! First, we have a spiritual sequel to Planescape: Torment with Torment: Tides of Numenera. It’s not an actual sequel to Planescape: Torment since they couldn’t get the rights, but it has many of the same staff members and takes place in a similar but original setting (intersection between various planes). The kickstarter set a new record for fastest kickstarter to reach $1 million in around 8 hours. It’s currently at $2.1 million so it has a good shot at breaking the all-time record for most money raised in a game software kickstarter (currently held by Project Eternity with just under $4 million). (Read More)

Last night the Kickstarter for Death Inc., the strategy game from Ambient Studios, failed having made £122,711 of its £300,000 goal. But today the developer released a different game: iPad puzzle title Monster Meltdown. (Read More)

Dear friends, backers, supporters and well-wishers, There are a handful of hours left on the clock but I think we can all see the outcome. What a ride it has been. But it's OK! Together we've taken an exciting, gruelling, and enlightening journey... (Read More)

Hi all, I thought I would share a couple of cool things we've been working on the last couple of days. First up is a REAL 3D paper version of Grim and the villager. Jon has worked out how to make these guys in paper craft and this shows how they come... (Read More)

There haven’t been any ‘losers’ in the Katchup for a while, partly because projects that are moving very slowly tend to be removed before they run out of time, and partly because there haven’t been quite as many small projects to cover. The list of ‘players’ is increasing rapidly though and even though the first comment will undoubtedly be from somebody reminded me of a game that I’ve missed, there are plenty of things to see. However, the influx of new entrants is balanced somewhat by this week’s losers. One is a small, surreal project, the other is a grander and more direct proposition. The creators of both have vowed to continue their work in some form. (Read More)

Hi folks, As the weekend rapidly approaches, we’re close to the end of our 5th day remaining. Yikes! There’s still everything to play for as we try to reach our target, but we still have a long way to go. Thank you so much to those of you who... (Read More)

Ok, its a model house, but it belongs to none other than Grim T Livingstone! That's right, one lucky person has a chance to own a really special thing: Jon Eckersley's hand built wonder. This is the model house of Kotaku fame. Jon worked tirelessly... (Read More)

Hi folks, Another nice chunky video update for you to sink your teeth into today, this time I sat down with Joss Moore, coder genius extraordinaire, to see what he and the rest of the programmers have been working on. The video shows off some of the... (Read More)

Good afternoon everyone In today’s update we’re going to look at unit types. But before we get started, a quick reminder about T-shirts! We've designed a set of t-shirts for you to add-on to your reward tier! If you see one you like below, just... (Read More)

Dear friends, As we all know, Death Inc. (the business) is an Outsourced Soul Collection Agency. And now, we need to outsource that collection to you! We need humans souls (i.e. people) to know about Death Inc. and we need those souls to pledge to... (Read More)

Hi folks, It’s been a busy week for us at Ambient! We’re very pleased to show two important and often requested features of Death Inc:- iPad support!- Cooperative multiplayer! Watch the video below and weep salty tears of happiness: For those of... (Read More)

Plucky Kickstarter project Death Inc. is still fighting towards its £300,000 target with a little over a week to spare. Yesterday, mighty man of games Peter Molyneux joined with other industry chums to pledge his support to the promising plague-bearing RTS, and today the devs have added another two major bullet-points to the game’s list of features: co-op multiplayer and iPad support. You can see both the multiplayer and Molyneux in action after the jump. (Read More)

Several projects are either on the brink of the precipice of funding failure, or in a prolonged mid-term slump. It’s enough to make a man pre-emptively proclaim the Kickstarter craze dead and buried, but if that same man then casts an eye over the promising new projects and remembers successes and shortfalls of the past, he may well decide to cancel the obituaries, at least for now, and simply play some prototypes instead. (Read More)

It’s KickPicks time… again, so don’t forget your booties, ’cause it’s old out there… very old. In fact, it hasn’t gone unnoticed from many sage corners of the internet that Kickstarter seems to have become a hive of nostalgia and reanimated, long-lost franchises. (Read More)

Raising the stakes for Kickstarter credibility, British studio Ambient has made a brief, proof-of-concept demo available for their Death, Inc campaign. (Read More)

"This may be the earliest you have ever got your hands on a game," the developer wrote in a page update. "Death Inc. has existed for just 10 weeks and we're so excited to be able to let you play it! Obviously the game is not finished, there are many missing features, and the quality is not representative of the final game." (Read More)

A prototype of strategy game Death Inc., currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, has been released. It's available to download now from the Death Inc. website. (Read More)

If you're on the fence or unfamiliar with AMbient's Death Inc, this new alpha demo for Windows, Mac, and Linux offers a peek at gameplay. (Read More)

Death Inc: Ambient's Jonny Hopper on bringing colour to the plague at PC Gamer. PCGamer.com is the official web counterpart to the PC Gamer print magazine. Exclusive reviews, demos, and updates and news on all your favourite PC gaming franchises. (Read More)

It's the seventeenth century. The bubonic plague has spread across Europe and the last survivors huddle together in fear for their lives and for the future of the human race. But who cares about those losers – in Death Inc, you play as the Grim Reaper. Your aim: extermination. (Read More)

Welcome back to another Kickstarter Conversation! Today I am very pleased to be talking with the fine folks at Ambient Studios who are launching their first Kickstarter project today with Death Inc. Thank you for joining us today! (Read More)

The GamesBeat tip box is overflowing with notices regarding Kickstarter campaigns. It takes a lot to stick out of the crowd, but we think this new project from Ambient Studios is worth mentioning. The developer unveiled its crowdfunding campaign for Death Inc. earlier today, and it has a lot of the hallmarks of a quality Kickstarter project: It’s beautiful, it combines genres into something new and interesting, and it comes from a group of respected developers. (Read More)

11 developers from Media Molecule, Lionhead, and Criterion have formed the indie outfit Ambient Studios in Guildford, where it's debuted its maiden project Death, Inc. on Kickstarter. (Read More)