12 Is Better Than 6, a cowboy-themed Hotline Miami, is on Kickstarter

12 is Better Than 6, a top-down wild west shooter by Russia based developer Ink Stains Games, has been doing the rounds for a while. I first heard about it near the start of the year, but I am always late to such parties, so it has probably been around even longer. Regardless, the burgeoning studio have been working on the game for almost a year and a half, and after being public knowledge for a decent period of time the team have now taken to Kickstarter to finish up development. (Kickstarter).

At first glance the gameplay seems very much akin to the style seen in the Hotline Miami games, which itself was heavily  influenced by the early  Grand Theft Auto efforts. 12 is Better Than 6 has chosen to drop the whole psychedelic, gruesome, neo-noir arthouse, crime (whatever the hell was going on with Hotline Miami) style, for a cleaner hand-drawn, paper and pencil look. However, the tinge of violence is still there with vivid red blood splatter greeting every fatal blow.

Compared to many other gaming Kickstarters, this one seems relatively inexpensive. At the time of writing, limited amounts of an early bird and a super early bird pledge option is available – with a price of £2 and £4 respectively. However, even if both sell out the usual £6 is not a huge ask either. As is the norm with Kickstarter, you can pay a bit more and get various rewards if you have a need for such things.

Anton Grischenko, lead programmer at Ink Stains Games comments

Bringing 12 is Better Than 6 to Kickstarter is going to be an exciting journey for us! Our game’s a lovingly crafted homage to the Western movies and action games that we grew up with, and we’re keen to share our passion with our fans and backers.

Hopefully the Kickstarter manages to do better than the failed IndieGoGo crowdfunding effort that few paid attention to early this year. If you are still interested, there is a fully playable pre-alpha demo of the early parts of the game available right now.

If the Kickstarter goes to plan, the promise is that 12 Is Better Than 6, will be released on PC, Mac, and Linux in March 2016. As is the Kickstarter norm, don’t throw a hissy fit if the studio misses that date by a small margin.