The Square Enix Collective has announced the completion of its first game, called Goetia. Goetia is a point-and-click mystery game by French development team Sushee. It tells the story of Abigail, a young girl who has been brought back from the dead as a ghost and left to haunt the house where she lived and died.
The Square Enix Collective is an organization that helps indie game devs get access to some of the resources of AAA game developers. Prospective developers submit their idea for a game to the Collective, which then submits the idea to their community. If the fan feedback is positive, and if the Collective judges agree that the team is reliable, then the Collective helps the devs organize and promote a crowdfunding campaign. Of course game developers don’t need anyone’s help to use Kickstarter or Indiegogo, but having a panel of professional judges declare that your team is trustworthy goes a long way toward hitting your goal. Plus, if your crowdfunding is successful, the Collective may also help you with distribution and marketing leading up to your game’s release.
So far, the Square Enix Collective has helped five games successfully complete their crowdfunding campaigns: Moon Hunters, Black the Fall, Goetia, Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander, and Tokyo Dark. Goetia will be the first of these to launch, and is currently set for an early 2016 Steam release. If you’re curious about Goetia, there’s a free demo available on the game’s official website.
“It’s a great opportunity for Sushee and for Goetia, to be able to access such fantastic resources and expertise while still retaining complete control over our own destiny,” said Sushee producer Benjamin Anseaume.
The next crowdfunding campaign to be launched by the Square Enix Collective is for a colorful side-scroller called Pankapu. That campaign will launch on October 27 on Kickstarter.
