Ukrainian game developer Frogwares announced Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened and asked his fans to help fund the final stages of the game’s development by Starter.
Frogware unveiled Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened on Thursday, August 4, explaining that it takes place a few years after the events of Sherlock Holmes chapter onereleased last November. Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is a remake of Unreal Engine 4 from a 2007 game where Holmes and Watson tackle their first case together involving the strange disappearances linked to the Cthulhu mythos of Lovecraftian legend.
The developers have already locked down most of the remake’s content, new features and a reworked story that relates more closely to the events of the game with the adventures of young Sherlock from Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One. All Frogwares needs now is funding for additional resources, including new English dubbing, extensive QA testing, additional features and improvement ideas it has.
Like any independent game developer, Frogwares would normally obtain production funds from the sales of its previous games. But today, the Kyiv-based company is asking its fans to help donate funds to complete production of Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened amid 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 self-fund our next game through 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 new challenges at us that force us each time to stop, regroup and adapt. It takes time, effort and, in many cases, money that was normally set aside to fund the production of the game. That’s why we chose to launch a crowdfunding campaign.
Frogwares includes a team of over 90 developers, but some of them serve in the Ukrainian army to defend against Russian troops or have gone to work with humanitarian aid organizations, so it has been stretched. “This safety net will allow us to prioritize the needs and safety of our team as we further adapt without derailing any development and funding,” the developers write.
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is set to release on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, PC, and the Epic Games Store in February 2023 if it hits its Kickstarter goal of $71,000. As of this writing, the campaign has raised over $56,000.
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