Smedley Returns With Hero's Song, A Kickstarter Game With An $800,000 Goal

Following his leave from Sony Online Entertainment/Daybreak Games, former CEO John Smedley's new company, Pixelmage Studios, has been unveiled. Their first game is called Hero's Song, a "open world rogue-like fantasy game" that can be played either offline or online—via a server you can host and modify—with hundreds of others at once. The world will supposedly be "uniquely shaped by your choices." Name of the Wind author Patrick Rothfuss is helping to create the world. "Our goal with Pixelmage Games is to make extremely deep and hardcore games in a beautiful pixel art style with an incredibly deep multiplayer experience," Smedley says. They've already raised $1 million in funding "from private investors." Oh, and it's on Kickstarter with an $800,000 goal.

As Hero's Song is being developed by a team of industry veterans, the Kickstarter pitch is solid. They lay out their plans for the game and give a strictly planned development cycle. Combat will be in-game by March. Pre-Alpha will be available to Pre-Alpha backers by June. Alpha will be out by July. Beta 1 will be out by August, with a second Beta in September. The game will launch by October.

It sounds nice enough, but we all know that development—especially Early Access and Kickstarter-funded development—is fairly unpredictable. The project started in October of last year and the first prototype was/will be completed this month according to their schedule. The plan is to create the entire game within a one-year time frame, while also promising a deep, hardcore experience. But perhaps their team can manage it. Only time will tell.