![\"xenonauts_kickstarter\"](\"https:\/\/www.spacesector.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/xenonauts_kickstarter.jpg\" "\\"xenonauts_kickstarter\\"")
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I was quite surprised, and frankly had to re-check again to see Xenonauts also on Kickstarter<\/a>\u00a0a few hours ago. I mean, yes, why not? But, with a talked release date for this fall and with pre-orders open a long time ago I was not expecting to see Xenonauts asking for funds at this stage.<\/p>\n But, Goldhawk Interactive is an indie studio, one where most of the employees work far apart in different countries. The main reason for this kickstarter campaign seems to be related with the need to get key staff\u00a0together\u00a0for the final integration tests. As the devs put it:<\/p>\n “Working remotely with part-time team members\u00a0didn’t pose too many difficulties when everyone was working on separate elements of the game, but as we’ve started tying things together bugs and features frequently overlap across several different areas. This makes it essentially impossible to work to any meaningful deadlines.” ~Goldhawk Interactive<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, news are that everyone can now try Xenonauts for free, as a demo. Before only people who pre-ordered would be able to try Xenonauts\u00a0through\u00a0its alpha builds. There are download links in the kickstarter page<\/a>. The game is PC-only but the devs don’t make any promises that it will run flawlessly on Linux, but say to run “relatively well” on WINE.<\/p>\n A month ago I took Xenonauts for a spin , and I really, really<\/em>\u00a0enjoyed what I experienced. You have my impressions of the alpha build in my Xenonauts preview<\/a> article. The graphics are great, the original X-COM’s environment was really well captured but clearly there were still many things left to be done, at least when I played the game. For instance, the maps were still dummy, only 1 or 2 were available at the time. But what’s important is that Xenonauts does feel like an X-COM game, and that’s the most important part since the game doesn’t hide to be its\u00a0spiritual\u00a0successor, basically a remake so to speak.<\/p>\n