The 13th Doll has been successfully funded on Kickstarter. Developed by Attic Door Productions and based on the classic horror adventure The 7th Guest, the game hit its goal of $40,000 halfway through the campaign. The 13th Doll Kickstarter will continue until August 27, with the game’s full release estimated to be in late 2015 or early 2016.
“I’m humbled. When we started this game, it was never about money; never about funding. It was about opportunity, and even after our license agreement, that has never changed. Today, you’ve all given us just that – the opportunity for us to make this game the way we want to make it – with all the bells and whistles we want to add, better equipment and the chance to cast higher quality acting talent for the game.” — Ryan HoltKamp, Project Lead, Attic Door Productions
The 7th Guest was a horror/puzzle game released in 1992 by Trilobyte, Inc. It was a groundbreaking PC game that was critically and commercially successful due to, in part, storytelling that used live actors in full motion video – a first for video games at that time. A sequel, The 11th Hour was released in 1995. Unfortunately, Trilobyte went out of business soon afterward. Several attempts have been made to create a subsequent sequel since Trilobyte’s closure but none have been successful.
Frustrated by this, a group of fans have decided to take matters into their own hands. They banded together to create their own game, titled The 13th Doll: A Fan Game of The 7th Guest, and created a company called Attic Door Productions to produce it. The team’s passion for this project garnered the attention of a reformed Trilobyte.
As the owners of the rights to The 7th Guest franchise, Trilobyte offered Attic Door Productions a licensing deal that allows The 13th Doll to be sold as a retail game. This is an unprecedented, historic deal – many fan made games have been created, but never before has one been granted the rights to be sold commercially. If there were ever a Cinderella story in game development history, this is it.
With the opportunity to make a commercial game, Attic Door wants to create a game that honors its legacy but is up to the standards of today’s gamers. In short, the licensing agreement not only allows a group of lifelong gamers the chance to pay respect one of their favorite games, it allows them the chance to become professional game developers.
Having reached the initial goal of $40,000, the startup developers’ dreams are about to become a reality. A number of stretch goals have been introduced to secure an even better gaming experience as well as ports to various platforms and consoles, including the Oculus Rift.
You can still help by contributing to their Kickstarter –https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/64161490/the-13th-doll-a-fan-game-of-the-7th-guest
