Interstellar Marines takes its sci-fi shooting, and walking sharks, to Kickstarter

I'm shocked - shocked, I tells ya. There are at least three upcoming indie games that haven't moved their projects to Kickstarter or Greenlight, and many more that haven't taken the next logical step and robbed a bank. As of a few days ago, Interstellar Marines can count itself a member of the first two clubs, though the third is surely only a matter of time. Zero Point are asking for $600,000 to finish development of their long-awaited sci-fi shooter , with $81,000 of that already achieved.

A graphically impressive co-op sci-fi FPS is one of the more expensive genres of game to be making, which is probably why Zero Point are moving to Kickstarter after their alpha funding-style ' support medals ' and pre-order programs. Rewards range from the obvious copy of the game to a chance to design a weapon and meet the development team ("travel and lodging not included"). If you're tempted, it's worth playing the four browser-based prototypes first, which are included on the main Kickstarter page .

Interstellar Marines is now Interstellar Marines: Prologue - it's the first part of a trilogy - so we hope this first episode is fairly meaty. (The word 'prologue' doesn't exactly fill you with hope.) There are loads of videos on the page, but the fun ten minute pitch video is below.

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.