Kickstarter Spotlight - Hive Jump, And Why It Might Come To Xbox One First

Shooting aliens is surely the cornerstone of a healthy gaming diet; so widespread because it often separates violence from reality just enough to appease worry-wort parents, but not so much as to impact negatively on the fun of, well, killing stuff. While cruising my usual haunts for new extraterrestrial wasting opportunities I stumbled across Hive Jump, an awesome looking, cooperative MetroidVania (read: multi-directional shooter on a 2D plane) offering, complete with procedurally generated environments and a low-fi 16-bit aesthetic, slated initially for Mac, PC, Linux and Wii U.

Developers, Graphite Lab, are asking for $50,000 in funding on Kickstarter, after falling short of a $75,000 target back in February. A select few industry pundits have been sent preview builds and so far the response has been very positive. I'd very much like to see this project reach fruition, but alas, (cue violin) as a responsible father, I can't really justify any outlay to make it happen. If anyone reading this would like to sling them over a tenner on my behalf, though, that's totally cool.

As is often the case with Kickstarter projects nowadays, there's a ton of stretch goals, including the obligatory next gen console ports. Interestingly, an Xbox One version of Hive Jump is further up the pecking order than a PS4 one, which Graphite Labs state in their FAQ as owing to the fact that it'll be cheaper for them to put the game out on Microsoft's console. This struck me as odd, given that most indie developers seem to be expressing a preference for Playstation platforms as of late. Of course, a lot of that probably has to do with contract terms, such as Microsoft's notorious release parity clause, rather than financial worries, but nevertheless, I decided to do some digging on potential development costs for the next-gen consoles.

I found this post on an Xbox One developer's blog in which he itemises his project's expenditure. It seems that the lion's share of the outlay is on errors and omissions insurance, which apparently covers developers for any unforeseen legal wranglings related to intellectual property, plus the cost of getting the game assessed by ratings boards such as Europe's PEGI. Microsoft's website is keen to stress that applying to be part of the ID@Xbox program is free and you'll receive two development kits and all sorts of other benefits if you're successful, but there's a catch; priority is given to developers with a proven track record. This means that at present, industry newcomers may struggle to get a foot in the door, somewhat undermining the spirit of the whole program. On the Playstation side of things, I couldn't find a single instance of a developer going on recording and laying out the cost in figures, but was able to confirm that a PS4 development kit will set you back $2500. Although some reports indicate that Sony were leasing them for one year completely gratis back in 2013 before the PS4 launched, that is seemingly no longer the case.

So, in closing, Hive Jump has my backing in spirit at least, and it turns out cash-strapped indies may actually be better off hopping into bed with Microsoft after all. That is, of course, assuming their CVs' tick all the right boxes.