Areal developers post "early prototype" footage, sceptics still not satisfied

Previously on the Areal saga, all this happened . To summarise: Areal turns up on Kickstarter, claiming to be a game "from the developers of the cult hit STALKER". People—including the ex-Stalker devs of Vostock Games—were unhappy that, in their pitch video, West Games used footage taken from Stalker and various off-the-shelf Unity assets, without clearly mentioning that neither are reflective of the product they're creating. The scepticism surrounding Areal hasn't dissipated—culminating most recently with a Reddit AMA in which many users accused West Games of avoiding their questions. Now, still short of their $50,000 goal, the team are instead trying the one thing that might help their PR problem: releasing game footage. It hasn't worked.

As Eurogamer note , people are now pointing out —in the Kickstarter post's own comments —how similar the assets are to environment packages available on the Unity store. If true, it's significant because West Games have previously claimed that Areal will use its own engine. It's just another step in a tale that started out bizarre and has, at times, become downright ugly .

Areal has six days left to secure its remaining funding.

Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.