Industrial Annihilation is a mix of Planetary Annihilation (huge robot armies battling it out on a planet) and the factory management of Factorio (conveyors, conveyors, conveyors). When we last checked in in January, it was being funded by StartEngine with an ambitious early access release in the spring.
It’s now September and the project has just been successfully funded via Kickstarterwith a likely still ambitious target of an Early Access release before the end of 2024.
The Kickstarter managed to reach its funding goal of £152,299 ($200k) and raised a total of £233,597. This unlocked the first three of several possible additional goals, including the release of the original soundtrack and the addition of several additional skins and an additional unit. The funding amount is on top of the $820,284.30 (around £624k) raised via the StartEngine campaign from earlier this year.
It’s not uncommon for video games to raise capital through multiple platforms on the way to release. StartEngine also differs from Kickstarter in that it’s an investment platform rather than a crowdfunding tool.
I never really liked Planetary Annihilation, but I loved Supreme Commander, which is part of the same messy family of robot strategy games that are spiritually connected. Much of that love came from the challenge of efficiently building a base from which to produce units within Supreme Commander’s easily broken economy. A similar game, more focused on the joy of factory efficiency, sounds like something that could be great.
Although the Kickstarter campaign has ended, tardy pledges are still open. You can also find more information about the game here on his Steam page.
