Kickstarter for Diabotical has been started

The Kickstarter company for Diabotical finally has been started. The current goal is to collect £110,000 in 31 days. Diabotical is a fast-paced multiplayer Arena FPS set in a colourful robot universe developed by former Quake and E-sport professionals.

• The best bits of the genre, improved and fine-tuned by ex-pros
• Classic and new game modes for both solo and team play
• Plenty of cosmetic customization
• In-house engine, multi-user map editor and modding support
• Extensive community and esport features
• The game will be on Steam for Windows at around the $10-15 mark
• 10-12 months left in development, closed beta asap

If you want to know more (and see some pretty pictures), keep on reading (from here are notes from the developers):

Ah, Arena FPS... The speed and freedom, power and adrenaline. The triumph of a great frag. You truly are awesome.
Our intentions are simple: enhance the best bits of the genre, infuse it with fresh personality and offer it to you with a full range of well-needed supporting features.

We built the engine from scratch to get the free-flowing movement just right, offering a gratifying sense of control, speed and flow. As you might suspect, this is a dance of death performed with weapons in hand (if you can pick them up while dodging rockets, that is).


Since your opponents also have these babies at their disposal, you’ll need to outmaneuver and outwit them, not only to stock up on more weapons, but also to replenish health and armour while grabbing power-ups and more weapons scattered across the arena.


Just don't expect any “I win” buttons when shit hits the fan - this is an Arena Shooter, after all. What to expect on launch day from gameplay:

• Enhanced movement system
• Seven weapons
• Power-ups and gadgets (no loadouts)
• Armour and health pick-ups (no regeneration)
• Classic game modes like TDM, FFA, CTF, DUEL, CA, IG, Defrag, plus three new game modes including Wingbot (Co-op 2v2)
• Lots and lots of maps

Our thing is competitive gaming, but esports isn’t just about the champs; it’s about a fun game that’s truly balanced and skillful, fleshed out with great features and an active community. We’re doing all kinds of cool stuff to make that happen and elevate the experience.

Upon launching the game you’re offered public and private servers, matchmaking, solo and team queue, a modding workshop, profile pages, calendar, chat channels, and more, bringing everyone together in a community landscape where there's always something happening.


Adrenaline-fueled game modes are available for all kinds of players, whether it's head-to-head duelling, objective-based team-play, free-for-all carnage, or something completely different, like time-based racing, or even a custom mod by a community member. Diabotical lets you dive into an epic esports experience featuring matchmaking, ladder matches, tournaments and even world championships, all while sponsors and sponsored players get custom skins and in-game ad spaces. Be a superstar without having to put on pants!


What to expect on launch day from competitive features:

• Dedicated servers and LAN support
• Ladders
• Rank matchmaking (solo and team)
• Comprehensive stats and social features
• Automatic in-game tournament system with prizes
• Community-created tournaments

Skins, stickers, voice chips, animations, taunts and much more, lets you show off your personality and style. Maybe it's your esports persona, simply your aesthetic preferences, or you're humiliating opponents in the most ridiculous getup you can think of. There’s customization right off the bat, but it’s mainly something you earn and gain over time, or can pay to instantly unlock if you find something you like. With a game like this we're obviously avoiding "pay-to-win", and any in-game purchases are purely cosmetic.

Wardrobe and other flair are only the tip of the iceberg though, as you can also create and share maps, game modes, weapons, power-ups, mods and more. With map creation being a fan-favourite within the genre, it’s probably safe to say that the future “top 10 maps” will be community-created.

Key aspects of the engine like the map editor comes integrated into the game and are accessed from the main menu, letting you utilize chat channels for support and collaboration, and can even work with someone else on the same map at the same time.

What to expect on launch day from customization:

• Free and open modding support
• Multi-user map editor
• Plenty of eggbot and weapon skins (both free and premium)
• Team-skins and stickers
• Global announcer sound packs, eggbot voice chips and animations
• Customizable HUDS (html5)
• Pipeline for community-created maps and cosmetics

When you show your support as a backer or by spreading the word about this kickstarter, we feel the love. We do hope to entice you by offering anything and everything we could think of as backer rewards, overviewed below and detailed to your right. With fleshed out core features already in the pipeline we're not going crazy with stretch goals, but gameplay variety can help us keep you interested longer or bring in new players. Below are some of the key things we're doing for launch if we have the finances. A one-off show with the original GD Studio team. We even found Semmler this time. I wonder what stories the guys will have about esports this time around... We finish the game with all the stuff mentioned above. It’s been a hard road to get here and we’re ready to take on another year of development. Together, let's make Arena FPS great again!

We have a race mode set for solo play, but why not have team races? You and your team mates will be tasked to tackle difficult landscapes and terrain where you'll work together to finish the race. Take advantage of the ladders and in-game tournament system to compete against others - be the fastest eggbot known to eggbots! Sometimes you just wanna blow stuff up. Survival mode pits you and team mates against hordes of AI eggbots gone "diabotical". The enemy robots have set traits and abilities, some running at you in attempts to detonate themselves, others focused on destroying your base and others still raining rockets at you from far above. Your job is simple: survive.

Bonus Stretch Goal: $1,000,000 - I, James '2GD' Harding will get a tattoo of Gabe Newell dressed as a shitty wizard riding the donkey courier with an icey frog perched upon the donkey's head. Below the tagline 'bUrself'. Tattoo location, up for a vote. Left or right buttock.

Founded back in 2011, The GD Studio has been first and foremost an esport media house, although that may be an overstatement. The studio was actually a small group of tight-knit individuals with a shared love for competitive gaming. Over the years we were blessed to work on various esport products for companies like Twitch, Valve and Blizzard, while entertaining people around the globe, both on camera and behind the scenes. We’ve always wanted to push the bar in esports, which drove our motivation for getting into game development.

So, a few years ago we started to work on our own game. To be honest, this started off as a bit of a hobby, but just like Dota 2 MMR we got a bit obsessed. Since then, we’ve been pushing the game within the company with everything we had. This time last year we were three working on the game, today we are twelve, ranging from fresh-faced interns to industry veterans, and with additional help from Swedish based studios Talawa Games and Stunlock Studios. We should also mention we’ve also had a lot of community contributors offering their time to push the project. We're very grateful to everyone who has helped us get this far.

Why Kickstarter?
We've been at this for a couple years now and development so far has been internally funded. There's enough money left to cover basic expenses like rent and coffee, but with your help we can get through the next 10-12 months without problems while finishing the game, complete with all the bells and whistles.

A special backer reward includes early access to Battlerite, an awesome new competitive game from our friends at Stunlock Studios. Below is more information.

THE ULTIMATE SPECTATOR SPORT - From the creators of cult hit Bloodline Champions comes the next step in online action gaming. Battlerite is a team arena brawler focused on highly competitive PvP combat. An explosive combination of a top-down shooter and a fast paced fighting game, played in intense 2v2 and 3v3 matches. Fight side by side with friends and strangers to the sound of the roaring crowd in vibrant, colosseum-style surroundings.

INTENSE TOP-DOWN ACTION - Engage in action-packed 10-15 minute battles where you can select rites to unlock powers and strategically customize your play style. Take advantage of the thrilling bullet time system which slows down the server speed and let the players re-think their next decision. Dodge attacks and pull off massive ultimate attacks with the smooth w+a+s+d movement and cursor-based aiming. Battlerite is all about skill-shots, timing and quick reactions.

ROOKIE ON A RAMPAGE - Battlerite introduces a wide range of champions and epic arenas. Whether you are a pro slayer or a rookie on a rampage, there is a character for everyone. Get your hands on a lethal sniper rifle by choosing Jade. Pick Freya if you favor close combat with titanic hammers. Use the power of the stars to heal and teleport with Sirius. Learn to control the twitchy mobility of Croak, or unleash your destructive inner demon with Ashka. No two champions are the same in the steadily increasing roster of Battlerite.

Fight in style and win the crowd. Welcome to a world where champions dedicate their lives to the arena. Battlerite is developed and published by Stunlock Studios (Bloodline Champions / Dead Island Epidemic) in cooperation with co-investor Coffee Stain (Sanctum / Goat Simulator). Whoa.. look how far you've come! Ok, since the rewards are still endless it seems.

Risks and challenges
We are The GD Studio, everything we've done to get here is risky. Why stop now?

Source: Kickstarter