Ukrainian game developer Frogwares has announced Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened and has asked his fans to help fund the final stages of the game’s development in kickstarter.
Frogwares unveiled Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened on Thursday August 4, explaining that it takes place a few years after the events of Sherlock Holmes Chapter Onewhich came out last November. Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is a remake of Unreal Engine 4 from a 2007 game where Holmes and Watson take on their first case together involving the strange disappearances linked to the Cthulhu Mythos of Lovecraftian legend.
The developers have already locked in most of the content of the remake, new features and a reworked story that more closely relates to the events of the game with the adventures of the young Sherlock from Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One. All Frogwares needs now is funding for additional resources, including new English voice acting, extensive QA testing, and additional features and improvement ideas that it has.
Like any independent game developer, Frogwares would normally secure production funds from the sales of their previous games. But today, the kyiv-based company is asking fans for their help in donating funds to finish production of Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened in the midst of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. That’s why Frogwares turned to Kickstarter when a study of its pedigree normally wouldn’t.
“Under normal circumstances, we would secure funding for our next game ourselves from the sales of our previous titles and plan development accordingly,” Frogwares wrote in the Risks and Challenges section of their campaign. “But this war is continually throwing us new challenges that each time require us to stop, regroup and adapt. This requires time, effort and, in many cases, money that was normally set aside to finance the production of the game. That is why we have chosen to run a crowdfunding campaign.”
Frogwares comprises a team of more than 90 developers, but some of them are serving in the Ukrainian army to defend against Russian troops or went to work with humanitarian aid organizations, so it has been stretched. “This safety net will allow us to put the needs and safety of our team first as we further adapt without derailing all development and funding,” the developers write.
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is scheduled to release on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, PC, and the Epic Games Store in February 2023 if it meets its $71,000 Kickstarter goal. As of this writing, the campaign has raised over $56,000.
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