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Vendetta Online launches a Kickstarter crowdfunding effort!

After some feedback from our userbase, we've launched a crowdfunding campaign with Kickstarter to help support the development of Vendetta Online 1.9, along with bringing the game to the iPad!

If there has ever been a time when you've wanted to see the game make a huge leap in development, and wished you could help make it happen, then now is the moment for action!

For complete details, check out the Kickstarter link above, particularly the video! If the Kickstarter video doesn't work for you, it's also available in HD on Youtube:

In exchange for individual crowdfunding pledges, we're offering massively discounted subscription time (as low as $2.50/month), along with a number of cool exclusive offers, like specialized ships (the new EC-108KS), unique achievement badges, signed posters and more.

We'll ONLY receive funds and be able to give out all this cool stuff if the Kickstarter successfully reaches our $100k goal over the coming weeks, so please consider jumping in. There are a lot of different options for pledging, from just a single dollar up to thousands, with different rewards for different pledge amounts.

Beyond that, we can also really use your help to try and get the word out about the Kickstarter, so if you think it's worth recommending, please feel free to post it on Facebook, Twitter or your favorite forum.

Vendetta Online 1.9

One of the two goals of this fundraising process will be the expansion of the game in a series of milestones we're grouping under the heading of "1.9". If we can pull off this Kickstarter funding, we intend to ship ALL of this content before the end of 2013:

• Updated graphics, sounds, and rendering technology.
• Major improvements to player-owned capital ships, like custom ship names, shields, shared ownership, and improved hangar access for captains.
• A significant re-working of the game galaxy to make for larger and denser asteroid fields, with updated graphical assets.
• An increase in the number of mineral and ore types, re-distributed throughout this updated galaxy.
• More complex space stations, along with capship stations located at all Capitol sectors.
• More persistent NPC types and "named" NPCs, offering specialized missions and gameplay (disabled freighters, lost colonists, wandering smugglers, wanted assassins, etc).
• Expansion of the dynamic economy to support more supply-side variability in cases where territory is conquered during Dynamic Warfare.
• Expansion of the current Dynamic Warfare implementation to include the outbreak of small wars (lasting weeks to months) between minor factions in unaligned space, creating gameplay situations for Letters of Marque (privateering), smuggling and espionage.
• More tools for player created content, related to creating events and persistent NPCs.

Beyond these, the Kickstarter also includes "stretch goals" that go out as far as "running around on stations" and "landing on procedural planets", so if you'd like to see that come to pass, help us get the word out!

Aside from VO 1.9, we're also looking to fund some additional polish to an upcoming release of the game for the second-generation iPad and newer! If you'd like to play VO on the iPad, with the benefits of retinal display support and other enhancements, please consider supporting the Kickstarter!

Why Crowdfunding?

Some might ask why an established game with a supportive community would do a Kickstarter, or need to gather these funds to help build this expansion. The simplest answer is in the size of our team. With only four people, there is not a lot of time to go around, and a lot of focus goes to things like ongoing marketing and business development, as opposed to pure forward gameplay development. We've made a number of unplanned sideways jaunts onto projects that pay in the short-term, like last year's externally-subsidized port of the game to WinRT. These projects are good for the stability of the company and the game, but they detract from development progress on gameplay.

If we can build up a block of funds in advance, it'll give us the time to just focus exclusively on gameplay development (yes, a little on the iPad, but the vast majority on gameplay), and Kickstarter is one way to try and go about that. The goal we've set, after taxes and the fees taken by Kickstarter and Amazon, is just enough to close the gap when added to our own funds. So please consider helping us push the game to another level!

I just sent out a newsletter in late December, but a few cool things have been added since then:

• Manufacturing/Crafting fix: Delivery missions will now take directly from your inventory, without needing to launch and re-dock.

• Much more convoy traffic around stations. There's now a pretty continual stream of vessels flying in and out of station sectors, and docking. We intend to improve on this a lot more, with more types of NPC ships and pilots to tell different stories, and allowing interaction in Station Bars, etc.

• Local Faction Standing now shows up in the default Targeted Player Info area, without the need for a plugin.

• Robustness enhancements to Android, plus crash reporting and support for Mali GPUs (including the Nexus 10 tablet, Galaxy Note II, and others).

• NPC capships no longer twist on jump-out, capship jump effects also re-scaled.

• We've also had a few new player-built capships join the galaxy, and would like to express congratulations to their captains!

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