Something Nerdy Studios has announced the studio's Kickstarter for its groundbreaking NES (and PC) title Former Dawn has managed to hit its funding target of $160,000.
Former Dawn, in case you've never heard of it, is an upcoming sci-fi RPG inspired by SNES and PlayStation titles like Final Fantasy IV-VI, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy Tactics. It follows the story of "a former" — a survivor of a failed terraforming mission on the exoplanet Astraea — who embarks on a mission with a motley crew of fellow heroes to discover the truth of their origins while being pursued by a shadowy organization.
One of the game's key selling points — besides being a retro RPG with a ton of amazing influences and an interesting premise — is that it will take advantage of a newly designed memory mapper called the MXM-1, to try and create a more technologically advanced NES experience than has ever been seen before. This will allow the game to take advantage of superior memory mapping over the NES's MMC-5, as well as use expansion audio, and introduce CD-ROM emulation for features like FMV cutscenes.
When we interviewed the team last week, the game was only at $115,000 of its total target, but since then, it has managed to raise the additional amount necessary to help cover the remainder of the costs for development and manufacturing. As Something Nerdy points out on social media, the campaign is still not over either, with there still being 28 hours to back the project and secure a digital or physical copy.
As for those who have already backed the project, Something Nerdy Studios has also announced a Former Dawn-branded special edition of the open-source TinyNES console — which backers of any of the physical tiers can add to their pledge for an additional fee.
As Something Nerdy Studios writes, this is "a 100% NES-compatible console, guaranteed to run Former Dawn", and might also make for a great collector's item.
As of writing, the studio seems undecided whether this will be available after the campaign ends, so the Kickstarter is probably your best bet to get one (for the time being) if you're tempted.