Koji Igarashi's Kickstarter campaign for the upcoming game Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has closed, amassing over $5.5 million, which easily sets a record for the most funded video game software project in Kickstarter history.
Igarashi, famous for his brand of Castlevania games, initiated the Kickstarter project this May with a goal of $500,000 to fund the development of the side-scrolling adventure game. With 64,867 backers pledging money for Igarashi's spiritual successor to the much-loved Castlevania series, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is set to be developed by the Japanese company Inti Creates and published by Deep Silver with an estimated release for the PC, Mac and Linux through Steam and GOG.com as well as for the PlayStation 4, PS Vita, Wii U and Xbox One consoles by March 2017.
Inspired by the success of the Kickstarter campaign of Keiji Inafune's Mighty No.9, Igarashi teamed up with Inti Creates, which also developed the Mighty No.9 game and is responsible for the popular Mega Man Zero video game series.
The Kickstarter project passed the $1 million mark on its first 24 hours, immediately achieving a number of stretch goals, which included cheat codes being available and the hiring of voice actor David Hayter from Metal Gear Solid, who would portray Gebel in the game. In addition to the original goals of Igarashi, the Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night now includes multiple playable characters, a prequel mini-game for all gaming platforms and completely orchestrated soundtracks.
One of the larger stretch goals was the Nintendo Wii U release version. This console game would reportedly be developed by Armature Games, which has game titles such as Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and Injustice: Gods Among Us under its belt.
The total pledged amount also opened up a handful of exciting modes, such as speed run, boss rush, retro level, classic, online challenge and boss revenge mode, which only unlocked after the game hit $5.5 million in the final hours of the campaign.
The Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Kickstarter campaign closed with a total of $5,545,992, which should bring the Castlevania-style game to life. The second most funded video game is Torment: Tides of Numenera from inXile Entertainment, which collected $4.18 million, followed by Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity, which ended its Kickstarter campaign at $3.98 million.
Congratulations to Igarashi and his team! Now, the only hard part for us, fans and gamers, is to wait for the game for two years.
