interstellar-marines posts

More and more, small indie game developers are asking for gamers to donate money or pre-order the game the team is developing well in advance in order to continue development. Gamesindustry.biz (free registration required) is reporting in a new feature article that one of the teams that has used this approach has generated quite a lot of money.

Zero Point Software, the developers of the upcoming first person shooter Interstellar Marines, claim to have raised over $125,000 from fans even before the game is completed. People who do donate money get the final version before release along with extra privileges on the game's web site. The article also looks at other developers who have used similar means to fund their games such as Hazardous Software, who offer a beta of its upcoming time travel themed RTS game Achron to people who pre-order the game.

Interstellar Marines has been kicking around for a while now as the development team at Zero Point Software contiunue to make progress on its upcoming sci-fi first person shooter. It's also been allowing fans to purchase "support medals" at $5 per "medal" to help support the development of the game.

Now the game's official web site has posted word that one of the co-founders and majority sharehold of Zero Point Software, Gert Haar-Jørgensen, has announced that he will trade some of his shares in the developer to people who currently own a large number of support medals for Interstellar Marines. The deal (which he stresses is his own personal activity and is not directly connected to the company or the game) is that if a fan owns over 20 support medals, "I will personally transfer 10 of my ZPH shares for every 10 additional Support Medals owned."

Why is he doing this? Haar-Jorgensen states, "In the end I would rather share the potential upside, with the ones that truly matter; You - the IM community - than selling big chunks to "suits" that do not share our passion for games!." This particular deal will end on May 31. Obviously this kind of a deal is going into unknown territory for some so make sure you read the details before making a decision.

[Via Blue's News]

It's been a while since we have heard anything about the status of Interstellar Marines but the upcoming sci-fi shooter from developer Zero Point Software has just issued a new video via YouTube that gives an overview of their indie funded game and a little glimpse into its future.

The game is being funded via pre-orders on the game's official web site and Zero Point Software has offered some browser-based interactive previews of the game itself. It shows off the ambitions of the game via concept artwork, early game footage and narration. As some of you may know the web site already includes some browser-based "interactive previews" of the game. That includes a shooting gallery and a mini-game where you are actually shooting some non-armed but moving crash test dummies. The next phase of the interactive previous will apparently be multiplayer in nature but details are sketchy at this point.

It's clear that the development team is looking to its fans to pre-purchase the game in order to gain the funds to complete it. The video, which you can check out after the jump, even tries to hint that this game's indie efforts are similar to the million selling Minecraft.

The indie dev team at Zero Point Software have tried some innovative ways to promote their upcoming sci-fi shooter Interstellar Marines. That includes offering some browser-based Unity Engine powered interactive elements on their web site including a playable shooting gallery called Bullseye. Now the team has released their latest browser-based interactive teaser but unlike the shooting gallery this game isn't free to play.

The Running Man game is a variation of Bullseye. Instead of a stationary shooting gallery your running around in levels and shooting animated placeholder characters. However it's only available for folks who put down some money to pre-order the final version of the game. Since this is an indie game there's non guarantee that the title will actually come out. On the other hand, the web browser teasers so far have been pretty cool. You can check out a trailer of Running Man after the jump:

A few months ago, the folks at Zero Point Software launched their "interactive" portion of their Interstellar Marines web site. However the "interactive" part was limited to walking around static visuals of the upcoming first person shooters playable characters and the "land shark" enemy. Now the developers.have truly come up with an interactive way to promote their game.

Using the Unity engine, the developers have created a browser-based shooting gallery and it looks and plays very well. It even includes features like achievements to unlock and leaderboards to compare your progress with others. The developers are already taking pre-orders for the full game although it looks like they are looking to the game community to help fund the majority of the game's development.

When Zero Point Software announced that they would be bringing a unique look to showing off their long-in-development first person shooter Interstellar Marines on the game's official web site we were intrigued. Promising that "The Vault" would be a true interactive preview rather than the same old screenshots and movies, the developer finally opened "The Vault" up this past weekend (you have to register to see it but it's free).

The result? A little disappointing, to be honest. Yes you see and walk through a room via a web browser and see static 3D images of the Marines in the title fighting off cool looking mutated sharks that can walk and live above water. But there's nothing really "interactive" about the experience. It's still a static screenshot but it's in 3D and you can walk around in it. Um, Yay? Hopefully more parts of the Vault will be opened soon that will be a little more interesting.

This trailer teaser trailer for Interstellar Marines, an independently developed first-person shooter, uses in-game graphics to give viewers a taste of what to expect when the game releases. Continue reading after the jump to see a behind-the-scenes video detailing the making of the teaser trailer, which reveals more details about the upcoming game.

"Interstellar Marines is an AAA, FPS, Sci-fi, action and adventure game with an original and unpredictable storyline featuring single and cooperative gameplay, with heavy focus on realism. Set in a believable future, the player is a newly enlisted Special Forces soldier, equipped with the latest in weaponry, armour and gadgets that will embark on a breathtaking adventure. A world filled with challenging scenarios and heart pounding situations that in time draws you deeper into an ongoing plot."

Download HD Interstellar Marines 'Photo Session' Teaser Trailer (96 MB)
Download HD Interstellar Marines 'Photo Session' Behind-the-Scenes Video (104 MB)