Richard Garriott's Shroud of the Avatar funded, new stretch goals announced

In inevitability news, Richard Garriot's Shroud of the Avatar has sauntered past its Kickstarter goal, perhaps twirling a cane and singing a jaunty tune as it danced over the line. It was accompanied by the announcement of a bunch of new reward tiers and stretch goals , with pets and weather being added to the game if it hits $1.1m and $1.2m respectively. The pets will come in "social" and "combat" varieties, while the weather will be "seasonal". As, I'm told, it is in real life.

In the previous update, Tech Director Chris Spears also talked about Shroud's " selective multiplayer ", which certain publishers could probably learn a thing or two from. Essentially, you'll be able to play the game entirely offline and without DRM, or you can play it 'Single Player Online' which allows, er, content updates and the ability to see how other players are affecting the world. You can also play the game in 'Friends Play Online' and 'Open Play Online' modes, which sound fairly self-explanatory. You'll be able to switch between any of the latter three modes at any time when you're in a city or the overland map. Which is nice.

Now that it's funded, Shroud of the Avatar can focus on getting made - with or without pets and weather - in time for its estimated October 2014 release date. But probably with pets and weather, as they're currently not too far out of its grasp.

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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.