Jim Walls, the creator of the classic Sierra series Police Quest, recently launched a Kickstarter project for a new adventure called Precinct. At the time of writing, this worthy game has already received $56,417 of its $500,000 target from 1,211 eager backers.
Jim Walls was once a game developer for the now defunct Sierra Online back in the 1980s and 1990s. Before he became a developer though he had a much more dangerous job: for many years he was a police officer. After being involved in a shootout whilst of duty Walls decided that he would leave the force to do something different with his life, and this led to him meeting with the guys from Sierra. The decision was made to make the very successful Police Quest series using his experiences and expertise from when he was a cop, and now Walls wants to step back into game development with the help of Kickstarter.
I backed this project for two reasons, the first being that this genre rarely gets tapped into; not since LA Noir back in 2011 have we truly seen a classic police title and in my opinion that’s just too long of a wait. The second reason is that Walls himself has so much to offer in terms of his memories and real life experiences, and I feel he will be totally dedicated to giving us as real as an experience as possible without actually walking the beat ourselves.
Precinct will be a new police adventure game where players take on the role of Officer Maxwell Jones in the run down, corrupt city of Fraser Canyon, CA. Your character starts out as rookie before rising through the ranks when completing various quests. One of the interesting things about this title is that you’ll have to follow real by-the-book police procedures while solving crimes and arresting suspects.
The story is set to be a good one, with Walls enlisting the help of some of the best Hollywood writers. It will be based on true accounts of real life police cases; players will be expected to clean up the crime-ridden streets, and the plot thickens once you find out about greedy public figures and corrupt cops. Combine that with also trying to keep the city’s criminal underground at bay, and it’s a busy days’ work.
There’s no time for coffee and doughnuts when approaching a crime scene.
Precinct needs a whopping $500,000 by 16 August 2013 in order for the game to be released on PC and Mac in June 2014. That may sound like a tall order but I believe that Walls will get the money he needs and make one of the best police games we’ve ever seen. Head on over to Kickstarter to support this campaign that will no doubt produce a future classic.
