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Deadly Premonition Creator's Pet-Themed Mystery Hits Kickstarter Goal
Hidetaka Suehiro, better known among fans as Swery65, has been having a rough few months. When his cat-based murder mystery game, The Good Life, failed to meet its crowdfunding goal late last year, Swery vowed to get it funded somehow, and brought the game to Kickstarter with some changes last month.
Now, a few days from the time limit, The Good Life has finally passed its funding goal. The last few weeks of Swery's social media presence has been a whirlwind of the game designer retweeting everyone who backed the game and also reminding fans every waking hour that the campaign was closing soon. It seemed like a longshot, the game was about $200,000 from funding on the eve of the final week, so the team had to pull a number of ripcords to make the final push.
A few days ago, Swery teased the possibility of a Switch version, which now exists as a stretch goal to the campaign. The team put out a demo for the game and sent it to Youtubers in hopes of drumming up interest. Swery even started showing off the physical rewards, including hoodies in both dog and cat varieties.
The success of the campaign is probably a relief for Swery, who has had a recent spat of problems getting his games produced. His Xbox One/PC narrative adventure series, D4, was cut short after Microsoft pulled out and he cut ties with the publisher. In The Good Life demo, a gravestone even has the letters "D4 S2," likely referring to a second season of the game, etched on the front. Swery mentioned a number of months back that he also wished to make a game about a teenage girl detective who activates psychic powers through masturbation, though he confessed to me in March that he has not been able to find a publisher to get on board with that idea.
Regardless, The Good Life has now met its goal and the team at White Owls can actually move forward with the PlayStation 4 and Steam versions of the murder mystery. Fans of cats, dogs, and Swery himself can be happy that threshold has been crossed.
Our Take
Hopefully the game hits its stretch goal for Switch owners. I've been intrigued by the game since its announcement and the team seems really receptive to feedback.
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