Superhot team receives another $250K in funding

The Polish indie team behind Superhot, the time-bending puzzle shooter, has received another $250,000 in funding, reports Gazeta Wyborcza. After their Kickstarter was successfully funded in June, that puts their total development budget at $500,000.

Tomasz Kaczmarczyk, one of the co-creators of Superhot, can't quite say where the money is coming from yet because of non-disclosure agreements. He assures Polygon that the increased budget has not given his small team delusions of grandeur.

"I really can't say much more [about the funding]," Kaczmarczyk told Polygon via email. "We've seen a lot of support from fans, even after our Kickstarter wrapped up. To be super honest though — it's not all that big of a deal. We simply raised enough funds from additional sources (both fan support and business arrangements) that we don't have to be even one bit worried about our production budget.

"Our primary Kickstarter financing was more than enough to fund creating Superhot the way we initially planned, and we used the campaign surplus to expand the game and stretchgoal more features. All of the additional financing simply makes it even more certain that at no point during the development will we get distracted by our treasure chest running low on gold coins, and see our diet going back from healthy salads to ramen noodles."

The original prototype of the game is currently playable. It features a unique mechanic where the world moves only when you do, allowing you to dodge bullets at will. The team plans to include support for the Oculus Rift, and has had several versions available to play in the past.

The concept was so enticing for one famous designer, Cliff Bleszinski, that he backed the game at a level that will allow him to design his own level in the game.

"Is it any shock that the most innovative FPS feature in years has come out of a place where devs are willing to take the risks that those in the West aren't able to?" Bleszinski told Polygon in July. "I'm not surprised. Even the name has some of that weirdness and edge that an American studio wouldn't use."

You can read more about the game development scene in Lodz, Poland's third largest city, in Polygon's feature.

Full disclosure: Cliff Bleszinski's brother, Tyler Bleszinski, is the founder of Polygon sister site and Vox Media progenitor SB Nation.