After hitting its funding target in less than two days , the Kickstarter campaign for Battalion 1944 went on to become a huge success.

The crowdfunding just ended for this World War II first-person shooter, and developer Bulkhead Interactive ended up hauling in £317,218 ($451,000) from over 10,000 backers. Even after raising the target by £100,000 ($142,000) after its tremendous start, the project still beat its funding goal by 317 percent! This extra money means the team can "challenge the biggest AAA shooters in the industry."

Achieved stretch goals include enhanced particle effects, the Currahee Boot Camp (inspired by the popular TV show "Band of Brothers") and a D-Day map, though the game didn't earn enough for British (£325,000) and Russian (£400,000) armies. As executive producer Joe Brammer said on the game's Kickstarter page :

"The reason these stretch goals were placed at such a high price is because characters cost a lot to make. We aren't cutting corners on this game AT ALL. If we want to join the ranks alongside Activision and DICE we need to build quality like they do, this costs money. For us to design entire character sets, all the customizations that go with it, custom faces, weapons, voice overs, implementing them into the game, maps, environments, and in some cases game modes, that all costs money."

Brammer added that "very big publishers" have reached out to Bulkhead in recent weeks, which might allow the game to grow even larger. However, the developer is worried that they wouldn't retain 100 percent creative control of the game, and they have zero intention of sacrificing even a small piece of that control. "The game will always 100 percent remain ours, built together with the community," he said.

That won't stop them from pursuing various partners, however. And they could bring in the missing British and Russian armies if these partnerships prove fruitful, though the stretch goal for a single-player campaign (£1.2 million) May be out of the realm of possibility. Still, the team will open a PayPal "slacker backer" page soon and though it'll only be open for one week, supporters can still get some of the Kickstarter rewards. Then, they'll open an official Battalion 1944 store, where people can purchase the game for a "higher but still discounted pre-order price." They can also pay for access to the game's beta and alpha tests.

It's tentatively scheduled to launch for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in May 2017. Looking forward to it!