Industrial Annihilation is a mix of Planetary Annihilation (massive armies of robots battle it out on a planet) combined with factory management like Factorio (conveyor belts, conveyor belts, conveyor belts). When we last checked in January, it was being funded through StartEngine and had ambitious eyes on a spring Early Access release.
It's now September and we've successfully funded on Kickstarter, aiming to release it into Early Access before the end of 2024.
The Kickstarter has successfully reached its funding target of £152,299 ($200,000), raising a total of £233,597. This unlocks the first three of several possible goals, including an original soundtrack release and the addition of some extra skins and an extra unit. The funding comes on top of the $820,284.30 (around £624,000) raised through the StartEngine campaign earlier this year.
It’s not uncommon for video games to raise capital through multiple platforms in their path to release. StartEngine also differs from Kickstarter in that it’s an investment platform, not a crowdfunding vehicle.
I never got around to Planetary Annihilation, but I loved Supreme Commander, which is part of the same complex family of psychic robot strategy games. Much of that love stemmed from the difficulty of efficiently building a base that would produce units within Supreme Commander's easily collapsible economy. A similar game that focused more specifically on the joys of factory efficiency sounds like it could be great.
While the Kickstarter campaign has ended, late pledges are still possible, and you can find more information about the game on its Steam page.