Fundraising deadlines approach for Detective Grimoire, OURFIRG, and Reversion

Written by Jack Allin — July 29, 2012 at 15:47

A trio of new adventure games currently seeking crowd-funding are quickly approaching their deadlines, each with less than $5,000 to raise.

Detective Grimoire

The name Detective Grimoire may ring a bell, as it was first released as a free online flash game back in 2007.  Now the title character is back in a commercial sequel (though sharing the same name as the original) by SFB Games.  The mystery adventure revolves around the death of Richard Remington, founder of tourist attraction "Boggy's Bog".  The exact cause of death is unknown, but the evidence all points to Boggy, the legendary swamp creature itself.   

As detective, players will need to collect clues, solve puzzles, and interrogate suspects to determine the truth.  SFG describes the gameplay as "a little like Phoenix Wright, a little like Professor Layton, but with a focus on solving a mystery!"  You don't have to wait to find out how accurate that assessment is, as there's a playable browser-based demo already available.

Detective Grimoire has been in development since 2010, and is approximately 90% complete at this point.  Regardless of meeting the fundraising goal of $25,000 by August 2nd, the game will be released for iOS and Android, but successful funding will result in additional DRM-free download versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux as well, and a much earlier August/September release date than would otherwise be possible. Check out the Kickstarter page for a campaign video and full details on the various pledge tiers and their rewards.

OURFIRG

One of the rare open-world, real-time 3D adventures in production, OURFIRG stars an "enigmatic figure" from a mystic monk society, who "becomes a witness to the eternal battle between good and evil". Called by the Master of the Order for a meeting in the Great Tower, you are assigned a mission to travel to the Oracle and to talk to someone about "the Ourfirg".

Guiding this robed hero "to the fulfillment of his divine destiny" involves plenty of third-person exploration though a fictional fantasy world.  Day and night, you will journey through both residential and rural areas, visiting such places as "caves, villages, forests, castles, house interiors, docks, prisons, islands, and towers". OURFIRG will also include a degree of combat, but the game's indie Greek developers A and B and S and A cite LucasArts's Loom as its primary inspiration and stress that traditional adventure elements will be far more prevalent.

OURFIRG has been in development for four months now, but will need an additional $6,000 raised through Kickstarter by August 4th in order to be completed before the end of the year. An unsuccessful campaign would result in a longer development time with fewer resources available for its PC, Mac, and iOS releases.  The OURFIRG Kickstarter page has additional videos and full pledge details. 

Reversion: Chapter 2 - The Meeting

The planned six-part series from indie Argentinian developers 3f Interactivo got off to a promising start with a free first episode. A young man wakes up in a Buenos Aires hospital believing it to be 2015, only to shockingly discover that twenty years have actually passed. The city is now cut off from the rest of the country, and the hospital serves as headquarters to a paramilitary group that has a special interest in his revival.

With that premise established, the developers are now seeking funding to complete the second installment, which they claim will be "considerably longer" and more substantial than their freeware debut, introducing much more diverse locales, some of which will be recognizable places in Buenos Aires.

With production already well underway, the second episode is about 70% completed, but additional funds are needed to finish the game by October or November.  Failure to meet their target fundraising goal of $4,000 by August 9th won't mean the cancelation of the project, but will result in a notable delay.  Like the other campaigns, Reversion's fundraising appeal through Indiegogo includes a variety of pledge tiers and rewards, including a purchase of the game for PC or iOS, but unlike Kickstarter, all funds contributed to this game will go to the developers, regardless of whether the campaign meets its ultimate target.