Unfortunately two days after launch, this Kickstarter campaign was cancelled, but will re-relaunch sometime in the coming months. Ted Carefoot, CEO of Queen Digital Games as well as Keith Blume, Executive Director at Queen Games USA, have made it clear that the decision to cancel the campaign in no way implies that there are any issue with the digital version of the game and that it is moving forward on schedule and coming along very nicely.
The sole reason for rescheduling the campaign was that they didn’t feel it was getting the amount of attention they expected, given their previous successful campaigns in the tabletop space, and are re-evaluating their launch strategy to make the digital campaign as successful as possible.
This is the message Queen Games sent to backers:
Good afternoon everyone,
Thank you for the support of our Escape Digital campaign.
As we mentioned in the risks and challenges section, this is our first digital campaign so there is a learning curve involved in the development and presentation of a digital game.
Based on the response level and feedback we have received, we are going to stop the digital campaign at this time. We believe that a different launch strategy and presentation will attract the attention and support that the game and campaign should get.
We will continue forward with production of the Escape digital game and evaluate a Kickstarter re-relaunch in the coming months. We will keep you posted as to the progress of the game and whether a future Kickstarter campaign will occur via updates.
Thank you again for your support!
Keith and the Queen Games team
Last week Queen Games finished up a super successful Kickstarter campaign for the expanded ‘Big Box’ version of their popular real-time coop adventure tabletop game ESCAPE, which reached 1,232% of its funding goal!
Now they’ve just launched a new campaign to bring Escape: The Curse of the Temple to digital platforms as well, starting with the PC and iPad.
If you are unfamiliar with the game, in ESCAPE, players “assume the role of an adventurer part of an expedition that has found a temple full of precious gems & artifacts”. However, if movies like Indiana Jones and the Mummy have taught us anything, it’s that taking artifacts and gems from ancient temples is a very, very bad idea. Your greed has triggered the wrath of an ancient idol curse that wants to seal you in the temple forever, now you must avoid deadly traps and discover a path out of the temple while there is still enough oxygen and provisions.
The digital version of Escape: The Curse of the Temple will offer single player and multiplayer options for up to 6 players and will feature both a Classic game mode which very closely recreates the tabletop experience as well as an all-new Adventure mode.
Key features of ‘Classic’ Mode:
- Each game instance lasts no longer than 10 minutes in total.
- There are 2 rounds @ 3 minutes each, separated by a 20 second intermissions, followed by a final 3 minute round.
- Players must unlock random room tiles & place as many gems as possible to minimize exit room requirements.
- Players must make their way back to the ‘start’ room before the end of each 3 minute round.
- Reveal & escape via the exit room before the final round clock expires!
Key features of ‘Adventure’ Mode:
- Multiple levels: Each level procedurally generates elaborate rooms & content that includes:
- Checkpoints/safe room to save progress
- Cursed gem pedestal rooms: where players can place cursed gems required to exit
- Various trap rooms (see Traps)
- Visible &/or hidden scroll locations used for power-ups or stackable to ‘DLC’ items
- Mysterious Traps: Varying in length & difficulty, room traps may include several ancient tricks for unwanted explorers. Some of these include obstacles such as sealed rooms, spears, arrows, grates & spikes, concealed blades, quicksand, boulders, and confusing labyrinth rooms just to name a few surprises awaiting players.
Players will also be able to customize/vary their experience by adjusting both the difficulty & complexity of a ‘Classic’ mode game by enabling whatever combination of core rules and expansion features that they’d like. And for those familiar with the physical version of the game, “the Curses that are solely physical in the original game have been adapted or replaced in this new digital version of the game”.
Additional stretch goals include the addition of cool looking ‘Temple Guardian’ and ‘Expedition Team’ game modes and the elimination of the customization DLC system in favor of an entirely ‘discover & unlock’ mechanic for all items.
If the $20k funding goal is reached, then all backers will receive a Kickstarter exclusive, digitized versions of the Narrow Passage, Chaos and Gear rooms which were unlocked for the physical game during Queen’s recent Escape: Big Box Campaign.
In the development seat for this title is Canadian studio, Lemonade Labs, who previously released their own space-themed digital board game app Trapped!, which borrowed a number of game concepts from Queen’s ESCAPE!, though that game is not currently available on the US App Store.
At launch, Queen plans to release the game for Windows & iPad releases, but stretch goals will unlock additional earlier ports for Mac, Android, and HTML5. There is no mention of what the game will cost at launch, but you can back the game for as little as $15 or $20 for two copies, with higher pledge levels adding additional incentives.
If you’d like more details on this campaign, as well as videos, or to make a pledge, be sure to visit the official Kickstarter campaign page.
I’ve heared a lot of great things about ESCAPE over the last year or so, but still haven’t had an opportunity to try it out. So I’m really excited to see this digital version coming, as it will be a much easier way for me to finally see what the fuss is all about.
