Studio Thunderhorse debut title Flynn: Son of Crimson recently took the steps from Kickstarter darling to a full release onto PC and all major consoles. While the Kickstarter campaign for Flynn: Son of Crimson was a boon to development, Studio Thunderhorse has suggested that running the campaign was a somewhat stressful process, though not specifically at the fault of the crowdsourcing website.

In a recent interview with Game Rant, the developer commented on the nature of the Kickstarter campaign that boosted the community and eventually led to the title being fully released. This isn't too uncommon for creators and developers finding funding through Kickstarter, as focus during the campaign's intial runtime becomes consumed by getting more attention and preparing to deliver rewards to backers.

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Flynn: Son of Crimson's Kickstarter Campaign

flynn son of crimson looking into distance

The Kickstarter campaign for Flynn: Son of Crimson was successful overall, as it reached its original milestone and succeeded at funding several stretch goals as well. It didn't make it all the way to the final stretch goals, though, which could have seen the game expanded to explore the protagonist Flynn's rival, Rozia. However, while Studio Thunderhorse has mentioned that there aren't plans for DLC at the moment, the topic of continued content from the world of Flynn: Son of Crimson did bring a promising answer. Studio Thunderhorse stated that it "would love to involve Dex a lot more too, as well as dive into Flynn’s rival, Rozia’s background some more."

The campaign was a great way as well to get Flynn in front of publishers, leading us to put the game in the hands of Humble Games, which has been a great experience.

In addition to this, the campaign itself also came with a short demo at the time, which is no longer available due to it being from an older build of the game that isn't entirely reflective of the final product. However, this demo managed to garner some attention, both from the fan base and from some early previews shared about Flynn: Son of Crimson's combat. This also extended to the moderate amount of exploration that was available in the short demo, landing the game firmly between the Action Platformer and Metroidvania genres.

The combat itself has a snappy feel to it, thanks in part to the way that it focuses on simple movement and powerful melee attacks. According to developer Studio Thunderhorse, the combat has been seen "lending itself more towards the fighting game genre." This essentially drew in crowds from several genres to enjoy the fighting genre-style combat that is scattered across the explorable world.

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Studio Thunderhorse's Experience With Kickstarter

flynn son of crimson screenshot

According to Studio Thunderhorse, the major problem with running a Kickstarter campaign for an indie title like Flynn: Son of Crimson was apparently that "a lot of work is taken away from development." took time away from development. Considering that Studio Thunderhorse is a developer with a small team, essentially a duo with additional help from friends in the industry, losing time that could be spent making the game can be a death sentence for the project if it goes on for too long. However, while development may have slowed during this time, Studio Thunderhorse claims that this wasn't entirely a con, as it did help build up the community and bring a publisher to the game.

Though we can’t consider it much of a con as we would of course say that all of that time was worth it in the end, since the campaign really kicked off our community and gave us a huge boost needed to get to the finish line!

According to Studio Thunderhorse, the increased attention given to Flynn: Son of Crimson during the Kickstarter really helped build up the player community. Howeverm the most important benefit of the Kickstarter appears to have been that the success of the campaign eventually led to publisher Humble Games picking up the indie title. This has apparently been a great experience for the new developer as well, eventually leading to Flynn: Son of Crimson making it to release.

Many developers have mentioned in the past that this is often the case for even the most successful Kickstarter campaigns, with the extra network traffic often being one of the main advantages. In the case of Flynn: Son of Crimson, Studio Thunderhourse being able to quickly find a publisher to help finish the development of its debut title could be one reason that fans are seeing a full release as early as 2021. This goes to show that one of the best things fans can do when seeing an interesting Kickstarter campaign is to share it and help build the community.

Flynn: Son of Crimson is available now for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.

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