Very awesome to see the project funded.
Observing this project from a distance for awhile, it is both interesting and frustrating to watch the massive headwinds that are buffeting this project.
My thoughts in response to the number of people asking why this project wasn't funded earlier:
-- In honestly, I think much of the situation boils down to a conflict between nostalgia purists on PC and potential console players who have never played SS1. Nostalgia purists want to see SS1 remade in its original form, simplified as minimally as absolutely necessary, running in an reimagined form at 1080/1440/4k resolution. To that extent, the demo caters well to the purist demographic about the potential for purity to the original game in the final product.
However, many of the stretch goals are generating fear instead of excitement, as many of the goals are about introducing modernized mechanics into the game that were not originally present.
For example, the $1.4m goal would add many of the RPG-like mechanics that were present in SS2 into the game. For the purists, this changes the concept of the game entirely. SS1 is akin to RE1 in that it is a survival horror game more than an RPG. In SS1, ammo was very scarce, and once wasted/consumed that was it (outside of melee weapons and energy weapons if the player had access to a nearby energy station). The vending machines in SS2 removed this constraint on the player, as all the player needed to do if low on ammo was to farm the respawning grunts for credits and then replenish ammo at a vending machine.
The existence of vending machines changes the player's assessment of how a level has to be played. In SS1, the primary player mindset when reaching a new floor was "Where is the conversion control override for the floor?" In SS2, the mindset changed to "Where is the nearest restocking point and what is the best way to farm credits to buy ammo and med stims if things go bad?" That change in mindset is what the purists are fearing.
-- The "PS4" issue. Regardless of the reality of the matter, the perception out there is rather harsh. This is big in catering towards the console side of the pledging table. Many are leveling their pledges off the table as the dominant console at the moment is mysteriously missing from the list of supported platforms. This "hole" in support is creating the perception that something is very wrong with the project. While this is not actually the case, the perception of the issue by the Internet hivemind is vastly different. That's bad. Resolution of this issue before the end of the campaign would soothe a lot of potential backers out there.
To that extent...
-- Where is the campaign promotion on this project? From searching on each of the major search engines, I'm not seeing a lot of actual promotion at the moment on the project. There was a ton of pre-launch hype, which generated excitement. But once the project launched.... what happened? For a project that should be high profile, there is minimal coverage of it on most sites (note: there are some hits today about the project being funded, but that is likely originated by the sites themselves as news and not really a promotional endeavor). As such, my fear is that the project is simply coasting on inertia from the initial backers and the strength of the brand name alone. That was good enough to get the project funded, but very likely not enough to carry the project much further. Something needs to happen to drive fresh excitement into the campaign if any of the stretch goals are to be achieved.
Personally, I hope this project does continue to succeed and grow in scope. I personally believe that the PS4 crowd is the lowest hanging fruit out there at the moment (I am a PC player, personally). With some promotion towards the end of the project, I believe it can hit a number of those stretch goals.
