Dysfunctional Systems ep. 2 and 3 successfully kickstarted

Earlier today, Dischan’s kickstarter aiming to complete the Dysfunctional Systems series of sci-fi VNs was successfully funded. Dischan has previously funded and created the series’ first episode, Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos independently. The reasons for using Kickstarter this time were given by Dischan founder, Jeremy Miller:

Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos has been quite successful considering the challenges that faced it. Despite its obscurity and niche genre, it was able to muscle its way onto Steam through Greenlight and achieve decent sales.

However, Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos has not really been a financial success. This is largely because we priced it too low, and were forced to continually give deep discounts in order to promote it and attract attention. This left us without enough funds to make the next episode as planned. We’ve accepted these mistakes, and because of that we know they won’t happen again.

In any case, the numbers speak for themselves, and it is obvious that a more properly marketed sequel would do well if we had the funds to create it. Therefore we have turned to our fans and Kickstarter, in the hope that backers might give us the support we need to see the completion of the story we set out to tell.

The project will use a new art style due to the old artist, Doomfest, leaving for personal reasons. Initially the new artist, rtil, used a radically different art style. After receiving negative feedback, he adopted a style that more closely matches the first episode. Nevertheless, it’s enough a blow to make some consider dropping the series.

The second episode is predicted to take about 12 hours’ reading to complete, making it at least six times as long as the first. One of the things Learning to Manage Chaos was often criticized for was its brevity, so this is good news. The VN is currently slated for release on August the 31st. There will also be a free demo, which will essentially be a prequel covering episode one’s protagonist’s first days at school. Meanwhile, the last episode is scheduled to be released on the 3rd of March next year. Whether they actually keep to these dates is anyone’s guess.

The funding goal was set pretty high at $49000 CAD, coming out to about $43700 USD. While not the highest-grossing VN kickstarter yet (that title probably goes to the Megatokyo VN), it’s certainly not peanuts. Some have criticized the high number as being excessive for what’s being offered.