One of my favorite announcements this year was when a new developer, West Games, announced they were making a spiritual successor to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. called Areal. While it sounded good, it quickly descended into madness and eventually led to the project being suspended on Kickstarter. This is skipping over the drama involving a certain Russian donor infusing them with cash and the questionable link to GSC Gameworld they originally claimed to have.

It would seem that West Games isn’t ready to throw in the towel yet, since the game is now being resurrected as “Stalker Apocalypse”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuI7rleKd5o

This time however, the developers are asking for $600,000 rather than $50,000, and are doing it on a new platform called “World Wide Funder”, which apparently offers zero investor protection whatsoever.

Naturally, using the name “Stalker” might present problems, since they don’t own the rights to the name. When asked about this, West Games responded: “We have registered a trademark for Stalker Apocalypse, and have every right to use it as our title. Stalker by itself is a common word, and anyone can use it.”