A DUNDEE computer games designer faces a “terrifying and exciting” 2013 after more than doubling a £5,000 funding target for his new title in under three months.
Nicoll Hunt’s Fist of Awesome game proved such a hit with investors on the Kickstarter funding website that the 33-year-old will now use the £11,800 investment to bring the title to a wider audience than he initially hoped.
Former Dundee University student Nicoll said: “I had no idea how it was going to go and I didn’t think I was going to even get the £5,000.
“I didn’t know how much to ask for either, so when I clicked the launch button on the site in September I wasn’t sure whether I had made a massive mistake or not.
“I got a £40 pledge in the first 10 minutes and it wasn’t from one of my friends.
“After that, it just kept going. It finished with 951 backers, so these people thought it seemed interesting enough to put money towards it.”
Nicoll, a former employee of Dundee games designer Realtime Worlds, which folded in 2010, moved to London to work in film post-production.
“But I really missed making games,” he said, “So I decided to take it a bit more seriously and make them in my spare time.
“Fist of Awesome has a needlessly complex plot, where the past has been manipulated. This has resulted in bears becoming the dominant species on Earth.
“Originally it was for iPhone, iPad and Android tablets but the success of the Kickstarter makes it possible for me to go further than that on to other platforms.”
Nicoll’s game received a boost when Kickstarter made Fist of Awesome its project of the day.
He said: “All that exposure helped a lot. I’m very happy and very excited. It’s slightly terrifying because there are a lot of people waiting for me to finish the game so they can play it. I’m hoping the game will be initially be released in March and the PC and Mac version in July.”
gogston@thecourier.co.uk.