Now, with the advent of crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter and Patreon, developers can make the games for passion, not just profit. And that’s exactly what the team at Alersteam did with Exoplanet: First Contact.

Exoplanet is an action RPG space western. When you’re not shooting guys, you’re shooting aliens. Instead of riding horses, you can ride a creature twice that size.

Exoplanet: First Contact puts players in the shoes of Jack Sharp, a space cowboy who’s unfortunately stranded on a deadly planet named K’Tharsis. This planet isn’t known for its rich generosity, and everything Jack is surrounded by may want him dead. Players can shoot a vast array of guns, craft new loot, and struggle to survive in the harsh environment of K’Tharsis.  

Alex Pischenko, the lead developer on Exoplanet was kind enough to answer a few questions about the game.

GameSkinny: How did Exoplanet come about? Was it sort of a light bulb moment or a brainstorm of ideas? If you had a completely different idea at first, I’d love to hear it.

GameSkinny: Did you have any doubts about it? You’ve surpassed your Kickstarter goal by a large number, so was that a surprise?

Then we watched Firefly and fell in love with the idea of transporting the western character and situations in the future where people will colonize distant worlds. We were so fascinated by this idea that we did a research of this genre and found out that there were probably no proper (in our understanding) RPGs in it, released at least in the last 5 years. The decision was made: Exoplanet (exoplanets are any planets in star systems other than our Solar) will be more RPG-oriented and will feature a mix of fictional technologies and races with realistic and understandable motives for the character. So it was a long process of thinking ignited by a spark brought by Firefly (and probably other classic Sci-Fi movies like Dune, Star Wars, Alien, etc).

GameSkinny: Along the lines of pre-production, did any inspiration from any movies or TV shows come into play? Personally, Exoplanet reminds me of an awesome cross between Star Wars and Firefly.

And yes, reaching our goals was a surprise. We know that not everything in our campaign went as planned and we also did some mistakes. We were just trying to post the best updates we can produce, to tell the players more about Exoplanet’s world and its inhabitants. We did not hide behind the carefully crafted marketing materials, directed videos, and talking heads with 20 years of cult game developer reputation. Show real gameplay and share your vision of the game - that’s what we did, and the results were surprisingly good. Our backyard are just amazing people who give us not only the funds for the development - but what is more important - the appreciation for our efforts, their faith in us is a huge boost to morale and motivation for our team.

GameSkinny:  If this really takes off, do you see a franchise in mind?

GameSkinny: Lastly, any words of inspiration for up-and-coming game developers?

Since Exoplanet’s Kickstarter campaign launched, they’ve surpassed their goal but a large amount. All rewards were met and some even sold out. Alex and the rest of the team at Alersteam are more the happy to share their product.

Interested? Check it out.