Planetary Annihilation’s factory management spiritual successor has hit its Kickstarter funding goal

Industrial Annihilation is a mashup Planetary Annihilation (big robot armies do battle on a planet) with factory management such as Factorio (conveyor belts conveyor belts conveyor belts). When we last checked in with it back in January, it was funding via StartEngine with an ambitious eye towards a spring Early Access release.

Now it’s September and it’s just got done being successfully funded via Kickstarter, with a probably-still-ambitious eye towards an Early Access release before the end of 2024.

The Kickstarter successfully hit its £152,299 ($200k) funding goal and went on to raise a total of £233,597. That unlocked the first three of several possible stretch goals, including an original soundtrack release and the addition of some extra skins and an extra unit. The funding amount is on top of $820,284.30 (around £624k) raised via the StartEngine campaign earlier this year.

It’s not uncommon for video games to raise capital through multiple platforms on their way to release. StartEngine also differs from Kickstarter in that it’s an investment platform, not a crowdfunding tool.

I never got on with Planetary Annihilation, but I did love Supreme Commander, which is part of the same messy family of spiritually related robot strategy games. Much of that love came from the challenge of efficiently constructing a base with which to churn out units within Supreme Commander’s easily crashed economy. A similar game, more specifically focused on the joy of factory efficiency, sounds like it could be great.

Although the Kickstarter campaign has ended, it’s still possible to place late pledges. You’ll also find more info on the game over on its Steam page.