It’s been two days since Team MJM launched a Campfire crowdfunding campaign to help fund production of extra physical editions of Serial Experiments Lain RPG //signal. Since then, the project has exceeded its initial 1,500,000 yen ($10,214 USD) goal and currently has a funding of 6,901,000 yen ($48,358 USD). This has allowed the developers to produce the pre-ordered physical copies as well as work on additional game content.
Post translation: Thank you, everyone! We have reached our stretch goal of 4.5 million yen! The game will now be fully voiced. While the initial release will not include voice acting, we will send a download key to all backers once the fully voiced product is completed. Thank you so much!
Upon reaching the 4,500,000 JPY stretch goal, Team MJM announced that it will be adding full voice-over audio to //signal. While the base game will not have full voice acting at launch, Team MJM promises that all backers will receive a download key to the fully voiced version once it is complete (hopefully non-backers will still be able to play //signal. fully voiced through a free patch.)
Once the physical edition crowdfunding campaign reaches 7,500,000 JPY ($52,556 USD), Team MJM says that the next step will be to create an animated opening movie for //signal. The completed video will be first shown to backers before being uploaded to YouTube and other platforms (the game itself will presumably include the opening animation too). As //signal. is based on the original 1998 Serial Experiments Lain anime and derives from the 1998 PlayStation title, creating an opening animation for this officially approved derivative game would bring things full circle.
//signal. is set to release on May 19 for the PC via Steam and itch.io for 1,000 JPY ($6.71 USD). A physical edition will be sold for 1,700 JPY ($11.41 USD). Pre-orders can be found on Amazon, while a free playable demo can be downloaded from the Team MJM webpage.
