I noticed that the game contains a model of a Bombardier Traxx locomotive (see GOG gameplay trailer 1:02).
Is there a particular game/story related reason for this, or is one of your artists just a die-hard rail-fan? ;)

Oh yes we enjoyed torturing old John. The poor chap really had a rough time on the Groomlake. We really wanted to tell a simple story about family - as that is something we know about pretty well - we are brothers, Kristal (Nic's wife) works with us and has for 10 years - we are a close family team. We did try do the horror in a more stylish way than just GORE and GIBBS - I think horror is about the unknown rather than grotesque viscera - although some blood and guts does enhance the areas that only have blood and then the areas that have nothing but a flickering light.

Hi,

After KS this project, I can say that I enjoy this 'terrific' adventure :)

1) To be honest 10 sounds about right - Ive been up for 20 hours so I can't think about the exact number. We were upfront about the main ways that he could die and then the suicides were more easter eggs than part of the main game.

2) Chris wrote the outlines for all of the characters and then created a spider diagram of how each should know each other. We then wrote an outline about what the gist of each diary set should be about and the dates involved. Each writer got a lore book with back story etc I think Chris did bring some personal names and people into it - he wont ever admit it though :)

3) We were going to do this, but it almost felt like it would cheapen the game - Stasis is a serious story, and many of the tropes are easter eggs themselves. Beyond the suicides we didnt add anything like that.
I think that is Chris and his love of trains and all things mechanical - messed up and rusted of course.
I hope so. We put blood and tears into it - I hope you can experience it for yourself.

I haven't played STASIS yet but it looks good.
So I would like to know what makes it different from other games in it's genre?
Also are you planning to make it modable or add feature or some dlcs?
Will you continue making drm-free games?

Thank you for supporting DRM-Free revolution.

No question, just wanted to add my praise. I only got to play about an hour last night before I had to hit the sack, but everything seemed really atmospheric and the game itself seemed so polished and also smooth on my integrated graphics. Kudos. And congratulations on the critical reception so far.

I look forward to resuming the game after social obligations this evening DESPITE THE FACT that the first screenshot from today's GOG release shows Soviet paratroopers about to land on the balcony right outside my office where I smoke cigarettes at work in Pioneer Square, Seattle. :)

Hi, I've been following the development of Stasis for a long time. I remember when Kickstarter first got popular for games you were somewhat apprehensive about using Kickstater and other crowdfunding platforms for games and didn't plan to do one for Stasis. Over time that changed and you did launch a Kickstarter for Stasis that raised over $130k (US) and allowed you to work on the game full-time.

How well do you feel your Kickstarter campaign worked out for you? Would you have done anything differently if you could do it again? Do you have any advice you'd give to other game developers considering doing a Kickstarter campaign?

Thanks!

Were you guys worried that your isometric camera would ruin the immersion necessary for a horror game? That it would work to distance people to a point of safety too much and ruin the tension and the atmosphere? Was there a trick to getting it right or any rules that you learned you had to follow along the way of developing the game this way?

I think Kickstarter was important for us to gauge interest in STASIS. For Chris to commit 2 years to a project (full time) it would have to have a modicum of possible success. I think we ran a good campaign - if I was to redo it again, I would have submitted it for review sooner - we left it a bit late and KS was at that time very non-communicative on the status of the application. It took a week to approve.

I think it is imperative to have a demo / a vertical slice of your game. Without our Alpha demo we would have failed. We showed people that we could make a game and we could make more of what we had showed them. Without a track record I don't see any other way to convince backers. Things have gotten even worse these days - and backers are jaded so devs will have to work even harder to convince people to part with their money.
It is a harder sell - but we used sound and music and imagination to try and scare the player - or at least make them feel something. We cannot compete with Amnesia for immersion but we can certainly try push other areas of games, logical puzzles - story and emotive design.

We learnt by trial and error and watching lots of movies :)
LOL - thanks for the kind words.
We set out to make a game that we would enjoy and we hope that others do as well - 'ya sick bastards' :)

I was a KS backer - what does the future hold for the Brotherhood? More games? Let us all know and we will pay you more money :)

I have a question - How long is the game ?

I happen to have a question about the economic side of a kickstarter project like this. Now and than people have been a bit disappointed about how a kickstarter project turned out, at times it seemed like some projects just miscalculated the funding they would need for the goals they aspired to or had trouble handling their budget.

I assume there is much uncertainty involved in designing a game like this, like possible future roadblocks or other unforeseen problems. How did you figure out how much funding you would need to finish this project and how did you decide how much extra funding it would take to include the additional goals?

A Good player can do it in 6-8 hours - an average player who reads everything and doesn't cheat (solves puzzles themselves) about 10 hours. Some people do it in 15-20 (based on our beta feedback).
We have 55k words in the game, so it's a novel of writing! :)
We had an idea on how much the game would cost - based on Chris's time and the assets (music, motions, graphics etc) that we had to buy - we worked backwards from there. We tried to plan it well - We overshot our timing by a year but we had factored in extra fees and I (Nic) have continued to work - supporting the project financially. It did cost way more than the KS - in time, not in outlaid cash.

Thanks for the answers, appreciated!

Looking forward to your future productions and if you turn the 1000 Years Later Tech Demo into an full game, I'll be happy to back such a project. In the meantime, I hope Stasis sales go as well as the game deserves.
I didn't know about Stasis until recently so I didn't back the project but the alpha demo sold the game to me. I'd like to mention to anyone reading this that the final release is much more refined than the demo.