From the Press Release
Fans of castle building and medieval warfare can now join Firefly Studios’ crusade to create the ultimate castle sim, with the next entry in their legendary Stronghold series now live at www.Gambitious.com. For 30 days fans will be able to pledge and help fund Crusader 2 in exchange for a variety of tier rewards. These include receiving Crusader 2 at a discounted price, gaining access to the game’s closed multiplayer beta and other rewards such as Stronghold HD.
Laying siege to the real-time strategy genre in early 2014, Stronghold Crusader 2 will take Stronghold fans back to the ancient deserts of the Middle East for strategic mayhem between brutal knights and fiery Caliphs. Building on the highly praised gameplay of the original Stronghold Crusader, Crusader 2 will define hardcore real-time strategy with fiendish AI opponents and fast-paced skirmish gameplay. New units, buildings and castle designs will appear alongside an innovative co-op mode, which allows two players to control the same castle, troops and resources. A sleek new battle interface will also be introduced to make Crusader 2 the ultimate skirmish game, with a variety of engine enhancements to improve the game’s visuals, performance and real-time physics.
“Stronghold Crusader is our favourite game, it’s our fans’ favourite game and it’s the game we have been waiting to put into production for several long years now. Firefly Studios finally has that chance and we will not disappoint,” said Simon Bradbury, CEO of Firefly Studios and Designer of Stronghold Crusader 2.
Over the past decade, the Stronghold series has sold more than six million games under the Stronghold, Stronghold Crusader and Stronghold Kingdom banners.
“The original Stronghold Crusader has been a huge success since its launch ten years ago, selling more than 2.5 million units and still going strong. We get constant requests for more,” said Eric Ouellette, president of Firefly Studios.
“Crowd funding is a revolution for small, independent developers like ourselves and through Gambitious we hope to supplement the development of Stronghold Crusader 2,” said Ouellette. “With the support of our fans we can release Stronghold Crusader 2 when it’s absolutely perfect and push the game to new heights.”
With the help of funding secured through the Gambitious platform, Firefly Studios plans to digitally self-publish Stronghold Crusader 2 on PC in early 2014. All funding will go towards game polish, a closed beta, additional game content to be announced during the crowd funding campaign.
More news and information on Stronghold Crusader 2 can be found at StrongholdCrusader2.com and fans can help fund the latest crusade at Gambitious.com.