Dead Drop Studios have been pretty busy over the years, mostly building out their long-running Outbreak series of games. They are looking to continue in that vein too, yet with the next instalment in the franchise, Shades of Horror, they’ll be looking to utilise the power of Kickstarter.
Kicking off in Kickstarter today is Dead Drop’s fundraiser for Outbreak: Shade of Horror; the next game in their series of Outbreak titles.
This one promises to drag the old-school survival horror scene kicking and screaming, quote literally, into the next-gen, exploring the lives of the most ordinary people as they work together to escape the clutches of the undead.
With seven Outbreak titles behind them since 2017, Contagious Memories the latest of those, this Dead Drop two-person team have previously worked on limited budgets, but their hope is that the power of Kickstarter will help them push things on like never before. The duo come to Kickstarter to create the next game in their series that celebrates what fans love about the franchise while investing in providing huge upgrades and quality of life improvements to the series.
There’s an initial funding goal of USD$62,500 (approx. £52,000/€60,500), with stretch goals that the developers aim to reveal with each new milestone that is reached, teasing expansion packs, Board Games, CGI Movies, and even dinosaurs. Everyone loves dinos, yeah!?
With funding sorted, the hope is that Outbreak: Shades of Horror will be able to build on the games which have gone before it, focusing on online cooperative play, fresh new stories and the usual horror scares. See, the game focuses on regular civilians working together to escape and players must cooperate using the unique abilities of each character in order to maximize their chances of survival and escape. If a player succumbs to the infection, they’ll return as another member of the undead. With their former friend now working against them, the remaining human players will have to decide whether to do the humane thing and put them down, or abandon them to join the throngs of undead flooding the city.
If you like the sound of that, there’s a demo kicking around, playable on PC through Steam, Xbox Series X|S from the Xbox Store, PS5 and Google Stadia. Nicely, this is the first time anyone will be able to play through on Stadia, taking in sixty minutes of the action even if you don’t have an account. If you are signed up to Stadia, unlimited demo access will be yours.
Evan Wolbach, co-founder of Dead Drop Studios, said: “Outbreak: Shades of Horror being live on Kickstarter is the realization of nearly a 10 year dream and mission. Alongside our amazing community, we’re going to fully fund a next-generation spiritual successor to great survival horror experiences like Resident Evil: Outbreak! Thank you to our fans, and our amazing partners like Limited Run Games for supporting our project, and offering such amazing rewards for our backers!”
Julia Wolbach, co-founder of Dead Drop Studios, added: “Fan involvement has always been a huge part of the Outbreak experience, and we are excited to work through Kickstarter to give them the next Gen Outbreak game they deserve.”
If you want to help Dead Drop ensure that Shades of Horror becomes a reality, then get over to Kickstarter from today and drop some cash into the kitty.
