Portland, OR: August 4, 2015: Despite many projects struggling on Kickstarter as of late, Jumpdrive Studios managed to reach their funding goal in just 12 days. The team behind XO was attending Galacticon, a sci-fi convention in Seattle run by Battlestar Galactica enthusiasts, when they surpassed their $40,000 ask.
“I was hanging out in a bar called ‘The Grizzled Wizard’ on Friday night rallying our backers on Twitter and Facebook,” said Corey Warning of Jumpdrive Studios. “I think I may have made a bit of a scene when I got that e-mail from Kickstarter…”
XO is a sci-fi strategy game which was announced on Square Enix Collective back in April of this year, and the Portland based group behind the title has been working on the project full-time ever since. A week before their Kickstarter launch, Jumpdrive confirmed they had been approved by the Collective, and would receive their support during the campaign. “There was a lot of confusion in the beginning” reflects Corey. “Some people thought Square Enix was giving us money, or publishing XO, which isn’t the case. At this time, they are supporting our team with production advice and a boost in our marketing efforts.
On top of their Kickstarter success, XO was greenlit on Steam after just 8 days on Greenlight. Jumpdrive also stated they would be working with Humble Bundle to fulfill digital rewards (including Steam keys) to their backers.
A recent update on their Kickstarter page revealed that Jim Guthrie (Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Below, Indie Game: The Movie) has begun working on an original soundtrack for XO. Jumpdrive has also released music stems for fans and backers to create remixes and reimagined versions of Guthrie’s theme song heard in XO’s Kickstarter trailer.
The request comes as part of XO’s stretch goals, which look somewhat different than most projects on Kickstarter. Instead of reaching for a higher funding number, Jumpdrive is asking the community to contribute to their social marketing efforts by sharing posts on Facebook and Twitter, and creating fan art, fan fiction, or dressing up in XO cosplay.
About Jim Guthrie:
Jim Guthrie is a composer/musician from Toronto, Canada who’s released several albums and has been nominated for two Juno awards. He’s composed for award-winning films and video games including Indie Game: The Movie, Sword & Sworcery, Sound Shapes and the soon-to-be-released ‘Below’ (Capy Games) for Xbox One.
XO will be releasing for PC, Mac, Linux in 2016 and is also headed to Steam Early Access. You can still support the game on Kickstarter for the next 13 days.
Related: XO Warps into Kickstarter
Source: Press Release
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