A few months ago, we spoke with Arcen Games' founder, Chris Park, about them having to cancel their early access title In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor. Needless to say, this was quite the blow for the company, but instead of folding, they soldiered on and started work on a sequel to their seminal grand strategy RTS, AI War. Long story short: it's up on Kickstarter now and the campaign seems to do just fine, already approaching its funding goal after less than 24 hours. But then, things are a little more complicated than that, because of course they are...

You see, this is actually the second campaign for AI War II. The first one, which asked for $299.400 to ensure hassle-free, comfortable development, didn't manage to raise the needed amount. Instead of conceding defeat, Arcen completely restructured their approach, turning more than a few features into stretch goals and severely reducing Chris Park's contributions to development. This means that most of the weight of development rests on the shoulders of lead programmer Keith LaMothe, who already created the last three expansions for AI War on his own. Considering that the initial pitch included a lot of things that were added via DLC to the first game, it seems likely that Arcen will pursue a similar strategy for the sequel - which is more than fair. After all, AI War received full support for seven years that way.
If you're curious about the new game, there's a wealth of information over at its Kickstar...