Long-awaited prehistoric multiplayer platformer Dino Run 2 is heading back to Kickstarter with a new demo

After some setbacks, Pixeljam are readying a fresh Kickstarter to help fund the prehistoric multiplayer racing platformer Dino Run 2, along with a fresh demo.

Dino Run 2 lets players race against extinction in a pixelated world of danger and charm — escaping an apocalyptic wall of doom, selecting from a cast of uniquely specialized dinos, and customizing every scale and claw with a vast library of visual mods.

This is not the first time they've crowdfunded for the game, which has a bit of a troubled history. Their first big Kickstarter failed in 2013, their second in 2018 was a lot smaller to focus on getting more work on it done which did succeed. But after that, things fell off a bit.

In an email they told me how it ended up in "development hell" but in 2022 they started the project over with a new team, rebuilding the foundations and now it's ready to expand.

With the new campaign launching September 2nd, they're hoping for enough funds to get it out in Early Access. They already have plenty to show for it now with a fully playable multiplayer sandbox, which they said has "custom netcode that requires no servers and will last for decades, this sandbox includes worldbuilding tools, online and LAN multiplayer, and early access to the systems that will power the full game".

Since it requires no servers they told me "I suppose we accidentally supported the "stop killing games" movement, but it was never our original intention - we just didn't want the multiplayer experience to ever suddenly go away like Dino Run 1 did".

The Early Access Kickstarter will go live on September 2nd, with full Native Linux support.

I'm a big fan of one of their more recent releases with Utopia Must Fall, so hopefully this goes well.