The Dead State Kickstarter has received its funding, and Doublebear founder Brian Mitsoda reflects on his inspiration in surviving a hurricane in Miami:

In 1992, Miami was hit by a category 5 hurricane that leveled the entire city. It changed the landscape, such that you couldn’t really use landmarks to navigate anymore – trees, debris, water was everywhere. It really looked like a nuclear weapon had been used. It took weeks to clear streets, months to restore power and water to certain areas, and the military to keep order.

You don’t ever forget seeing your house and parts of your neighborhood just utterly destroyed and silent and smelling of mangrove muck and standing water – it’s quite haunting. Even months after the storm, there were many places that were stuck in the same post-storm state and damaged/abandoned houses being looted, including our own. It’s about as close to the apocalypse as I’d like to experience in one lifetime.

Mitsoda is looking forward to players’ emergent stories when they play Dead State:

I’m most excited to hear how people lead their shelter and the horrible things they learn about themselves from it. Will their conscience or min/max-ing  dictate their policies at the shelter? If an ally becomes a thorn in their side, will they try to reason with them, or take them on a “special” mission where “they didn’t make it back”?

[via Forbes]