Hope from the new game Republique

A few weeks ago, we told you about Ryan Payton’s effort to get his new game, Republique, bankrolled on Kickstarter.

Well, here’s the update. This past weekend, the company surpassed its $500,000 funding goal, bringing in $555,662 from more than 11,000 backers on the crowdfunding platform. The milestone is even more significant, since as we previously reported, the company was expected to receive additional investment from undisclosed angels in the Seattle area if they reached the Kickstarter goal.

Total cost of the game is expected to top $1 million.

“We did it! We reached our goal! Thank you everyone! This has been surreal. (Trying not to cry like a big baby right now),” wrote Payton in a Tweet.

Payton is a former game designer at Microsoft where he worked as a narrative designer on Halo 4.

Republique is an action game being developed for the desktop, as well as the iPhone and iPad. It centers around a young woman by the name of Hope who is “trapped within a shadowy totalitarian state” inspired by the novel 1984.

“From the very beginning, we set out to design a game and write a story specifically for mobile devices because last year I decided I was going to stop complaining about the lack of real games on mobile, and start making one,” explained Payton in his Kickstarter pitch.

Other Seattle area gamers also have met with success on Kickstarter, including Jordan Weisman who brought in more than $1.8 million for Shadowrun Returns.

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