3D Realms is back, and it's tackling yet another FPS after having to relinquish control of Duke Nukem Forever over to Take 2 Games and Gearbox Software in 2010. The news may be surprising to some given that the studio seemingly closed its doors after the Duke Nukem Forever fiasco. But the company lived on, and CEO Scott Miller even said in 2011 that the company had moved on to several smaller projects.
"Once DNF comes out we'll be definitely looking to invest into other projects, and maybe other up-n-coming teams who are blazing new trails on smaller platforms, like smart phones and XBLA," he said in an interview. "We have a long history of investing in young, unproven teams, going way back to Id Software, and including other notables like Parallax Software (we were the first studio to invest in Descent), and Remedy Entertainment (Death Rally and Max Payne). So, we like that model and will keep doing it in the future. We seem to have a good eye for unproven talent waiting for some experienced guidance and hard-to-find funding."
One of its projects has surfaced on a new crowd-funding site called Gambitious which officially launched on Tuesday. As the name implies, this site is entirely dedicated to financing video game development, taking some of the burden off Kickstarter. The 3D Realms project is a first-person shooter called Earth No More – the studio serves as co-producer alongside an unknown developer, similar to what it did with Prey (Human Head) and Max Payne (Remedy).
"Mankind's relentless destruction of Earth awakens a biological response from deep within the planet's crust that threatens an environmental apocalypse," reads the shooter's description on Radar Group's site. Radar Group is a brand creation and portfolio management company co-founded by Scot Miller who serves as its Chief Creative Officer. He's also one of the five members of the Gambitious advisory board.
Earth No More was originally slated to hit the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 back in 2009, but disappeared once the development duties shifted between various studios and 3D Realms' financial issues took over. Currently it's unknown when the project will hit the new crowd funding site, but investors will not only be able to donate to its development, but purchase an actual equity investment in the project as well.
"Developers set their own funding goal (€20,000 up to €2.5 million), project terms, and decide if they (partly) go for funding through equity raise or through pledge/donations," the site states. "Developers determine the rewards or how much equity they are willing to offer investors in return. Developers always retain intellectual property rights and creative control of the project. Gambitious offers access to a global audience of investors and fans and enables them to directly contribute to game projects and allowing the to share in their success. Gambitious uses a secure and dedicated trust account for all."
Currently Gambitious has seven projects on the table: Tink, Cosmic OJ, Candy Kids, Train Fever, Mushroom Men: Pax's Truffle Trouble, Super Micro Heroes and Piratoons F2P. In addition to the 3D Realms shooter, another upcoming project will be from Firefly Studios called Stonghold Crusader 2.
For more information about Gambitious, head here.
