Jagged Alliance: Flashback Kickstarter Updates #26-28, $343,010 and Counting

It looks like the Jagged Alliance: Flashback Kickstarter is going to make it, with $343,010 raised out of the $350,000 funding goal and 10 hours to go, and when we weren’t looking three new updates have gone live.

Update 26 offers a recap of the Kickstarter campaign developmens and adds some new tiers, while update 27 includes some interviews to ex-JA developers including the series’ father Ian Currie. Finally, update 28 just came out and brings us a new addition to them from the modding community, a new sector and a revived Reddit IAmA.

I’m going to quote from the Ian Currie interview:

BP: Every publisher in the world seems to know “what is JA” if you ask them. Most who tried so far got it wrong. For you which is THAT feature that makes JA a unique title and defines it as a highlight of the TBS genre?

Ian: For me I think the most important feature is the strategy layer. I say this because it’s the glue that ties everything together and we have plenty of evidence that without it, the game just isn’t the same. Sure, JA is about good turn based tactics, vibrant & memorable characters and to some extent the weapons, but what it is really about is giving players autonomy. The strategy layer allows players to make their own agenda and play the way they want to.

If I had to pick a second feature, I would say ‘look and feel’. For me, if the look, UI and feel of the game isn’t evident in the first few minutes, you’re gong to lose me. If it doesn’t feel good to move a character around (and this would be a combo of animation & UI) – something I’m going to do A LOT in the game, then I’m gone. Getting the game to the point where it just feels good to ‘be there’ – without any combat – is essential.

BP: Have you ever before felt as confident about a successor of JA2 being made as much as you are about JA:Flashback? And did you try to offer advice to any of the previous developers?

Ian: No, until now I never felt that someone ‘got’ the game. I was once asked to consult on a game and the game needed a lot of work. They didn’t really respond to any advice so I gave up pretty quickly. (editor’s note: the underline was made by us)

…

BP: Going back to JA:Flashback, considering nowdays you’re just a fan (with golden wings, but still) like the rest of us, what feature from the past games you’d like to see in it? You can pick from anywhere in the series, from the features that were scrapped for JA2 or from v1.13 (or any other mods). And you can only pick one.

Ian: Hmmm. I’d probably have to say some form of quest system similar to (or evolved from) JA2 with variable plots and outcomes.