Consortium: The Tower has been funded on Fig

Consortium: The Tower did not fare very well when it took its act to Kickstarter earlier this year, but the crowdfunding campaign on Fig is an entirely different story. It only got underway a week ago, and yet it's already hit its $300,000 goal.

That's a little bit less than what it was aiming for on Kickstarter, but the difference isn't as great as it might appear. The original $450,000 target was in Canadian dollars, and that works out to a little over $350,000 US, while the Fig fig is in US funds right from the get-go. More interesting is the breakdown between Fig investors, who have provided the bulk of the support, and conventional backers, who account for only $79,000 in pledges, not much more than half what the Kickstarter finished with.

But there's still a lot of time left in the Fig, 28 days in all, and developer Interdimensional Games said it will sweeten the pot with stretch goals that will be revealed over the next few weeks. One such goal, at $350,000, was unveiled a few days ago, as the campaign neared its goal: Equipment Engineering, which will give players the ability to break down items into three types of materials—Elements, Compounds, and Exotics—and then use them to upgrade equipment.

Consortium: The Tower is a “first-person sci-fi immersive simulation” with echoes of Deus Ex, in which you play as an officer in an international peacekeeping force in the year 2042. Shooting is an option, and may even become necessary now and then, but too much gunplay is a no-no. In fact, if you prove too bloodthirsty during your missions, the Consortium may even declare you rogue and send another agent to take you down.

The original Consortium, which came out in early 2014, was set entirely within the team's massive C-3800D command plane, while The Tower, the second of a planned trilogy, takes place within the Churchill Tower during a hostage crisis. Interdimensional said that in many ways, it's working to realize the "One City Block" idea put forth a few years ago by Warren Spector, in which a relatively small area of play is simulated to a far greater depth and detail than what's normally seen.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.