Former Ubisoft devs take to Kickstarter with new studio

A number of Ubisoft developers have broken away from the publishing giant and taken to Kickstarter with their new studio.

Based in Montreal, Tribute Games is looking for $75,000 to fund its co-op focused 2D action title Mercenary Kings for PC.

The project has so far garnered nearly $18,000 with 29 days still to go.

The game is designed to combine traditional platforming with a crafting system, as players are tasked with creating weapons from various materials to defeat their enemies.

Despite only asking for $75,000, the developer has said it needs $200k to reach the title’s full potential. For each milestone reached beyond its target, more levels and features will be added such as new weapons, enemies and a four-player online co-op.

“We need a budget that will allow us more resources and a slightly longer production cycle,” read a statement on the team’s Kickstarter page.

“A solution could be to obtain funding from a publisher, but these kind of deals are hard to find and can be restrictive on the creative side. This is why Kickstarter seems like the ideal option for us. It would allow us to fully realise our vision while being able to get feedback from people who support us."

The developers behind Tribute Games have previously worked on titles such as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game at Ubisoft, whilst they have also developed action adventure Wizorb for PC and XBLA.

The team includes Paul Robertson and Jonathan Kim as animators, Jonathan Lavigne as game designer and Stephane Boutin as illustrator.