The Contractors is an immersive, grand-scale role-playing game set in a war-torn future of super-soldiers, giant mechs, and vanishing humanity.

Because of its size, we’re developing the game in stages. For this fund goal, we are focusing on:

Finalized creation of concept art: Earl

Character | Earl

What We Will Achieve In This Phase

To tackle such a big project, we’re adopting an old strategy: “How do you take down a hydra? One head at a time.” We’re applying this approach to our funding, where we’ll be breaking up the games funding and development into discrete, deliverable milestones.

For this stage of funding, we’ll be focusing on creating finalized concept character art for Earl.

In addition, we’ll be creating a simple “whitebox” test environment, in which you’ll be able to play as some of our characters, with some of our weapons. Backers even at the lowest tier will receive this test environment as a playable executable file (.exe).

Our Vision

Think about the games you love and what you love most about them.

Is it driving around a huge cityscape in a sweet ride of your choosing, whether it’s got four wheels or spinning blades, chasing glory while sunset eases in the night?

Is it the adrenaline rush of raining gunfire as you tactically take out waves of enemy soldiers with a kick-ass arsenal of weapons you’ve level grinding to obtain?

Is it mastering the skills and upgrades of your multi-class character as you send them through an epic, seamless, and reactive story?

Well, we love all those things, too. That’s why we want to fuse together all the best parts of all our favorite games and make something awesome – and we want to bring you in on it. We understand that’s an ambitious goal. We’re an ambitious people. But we’re also being realistic about it.

Building something like this is going to take time, a clear and flexible plan, and lots of hard work. So, we’re planning to get the engine running one phase at a time.

We’re hoping you’ll join us while we realise our dream game. It’s still early days, but if you stick with us, your ideas can become a reality too.

The Story

In The Contractors, the world has advanced through unimaginable technological marvels in the game of war. So much so, that our drives of greed and ambition ran unencumbered by limitation and consumed the world like a wildfire. Now we are spared one thing: desperation.

We’ve come full circle. It’s a dog-eat-dog world but instead of claws and fangs, we have guns loaded with more ammo than there are human lives left.

The cities are hollow. Our armies draw strength from living steel. In some measures, machines are the dominant species of the world’s ravaged ecosystem, and the masters they answer to are ones who will never stop fighting.

Because, after all, isn’t there always something to fight for?

Gameplay

A lot of what we have planned for The Contractors is still being refined and tested, while other aspects are still being designed. What we can share for sure now is our design goals:

Open-world exploration Seamless storyline with interwoven missions Gorgeously rendered environments Third- and first-person interchangeable POV Elegant, world-appropriate interfaces

Want some more details? Here are some features we have planned:

Powered mech-suits Drivable vehicles to explore with RPG-style experience leveling Real-time encounters of waves of enemies in the open world (no transitions here!) Gun fights with elements of cover-based combat Item loot drops and a robust inventory system Customisable weapon upgrades

Why Crowdfunding

Getting to this point in pre-production hasn’t been easy. As an indie developer, I personally have tapped into my own funds to create the initial concept art and models, as well as devote my time to work on building this game. To date, it’s been 3 years – and there’s been no inkling to slow down. To continue with building this game, we need some support. The funds which you, our beloved backers, generate will be used to fund the creation of high-end assets made by some very talented artists – and they don’t come cheap. That’s why we need you.

Rewards and Perks

One of the unique aspects of our crowdfunding efforts is including any potential backer into the development process. Have you ever wanted to design a weapon or vehicle, and then see it fully realised in a game? Well this is your chance!

For a limited number of backers at certain reward tiers, we’re offering a chance to work together with our art team to design a custom exclusive skin for a weapon, vehicle, or character (whichever you choose) which will then be posted in our game store.

We’ve made this opportunity exclusive to some of the higher-end reward tiers. Please see our reward perks for more details.

Other Ways You Can Help

Whether you can contribute as a backer or not, you can always help by sharing the game with people you know. So please don’t hesitate to spread the word if you want to see the game get made! Any of our promotional art or videos – anything at all – are free to be shared on social media, forums, or what-have-you. Thank you for your support!