Benician Erik Umenhofer hopes to use Kickstarter to fund his studio of artists and developers, and to launch his idea for an XBox game.

“It all started about five years ago,” Umenhofer said by email last week. First came a proof of concept, some music and “making a little ship fly around.”

Since then he has upgraded to better software and hired freelance artists, all collaborating as Firebelly Studios.

Umenhofer said some of the artists have been working steadily with him on the project, even though he and the others have jobs in a variety of other industries. “It slowly took shape into something I could launch as a campaign,” he said. The project is named “Temporus.”

Umenhofer has been a developer for Fortune 500 companies who need Microsoft help. “By trade, I am a C#/SharePoint developer with XNA experience on the side,” he said.

His interest in gaming began years ago, when he played his first game — “Delta Patrol” — on a Commodore 64.

His fascination with games not only didn’t wane, in led him to want to create games and a studio of his own.

Among those working remotely as part of the studio is Peter Queckenstedt, a Canadian industrial designer who builds furniture from recycled material, and Dmitry “C-jeff” Zhemkov, a Russian-based Chiptune composer who collaborates with others when he’s not contributing to the Temporus development.

Umenhofer began Firebelly Studios about 10 years ago, originally focusing on mobile applications and tools for Windows and Windows Phone platforms.

“I’ve only been in Benicia for about five or six years, so while I’m not native to the area, this is my home,” he said.

He grew up in Solvang, in the Central Coast, a place he called “the Danish capital of America.”

He said, “It was an interesting town, because it had great history, great views and great weather. I think that Benicia hit these same notes, which is why I stay. We get water views, beautiful oak tree hills and weather that is somewhere in between San Francisco and Sacramento.

“I can see the big ships from my office, and now it’s my pastime to look them up online as they come in, and see where they have been recently,” he said. “Everyone should try it!

“I’d also like to state on the record, I miss the Indian food at the 76 station,” he added.

But Umenhofer said he enjoys living in Benicia, saying it gives him “the best of both worlds. We get the peace and quiet of being a coastal town, but we are close to major transit stops like the ferry and BART. This gives me the serenity I need to be creative, but ability to be downtown San Francisco on a moment’s notice.”

He said the city supports him creatively in other ways. “If I need to get some quiet time, I just go for a walk or bike or skateboard around the area,” he said. “Everything is close. And when I need to have a brainstorming sessions with my friends in San Francisco, I’m right there.”

Umenhofer said he and other Firebelly Studio collaborators have published one game so far, EvolveUs. “It’s a puzzle game for iOS and Android,” he said.

“Essentially it is a cross between Pokemon and Candy Crush,” he said. “You swipe at tiles to create combos that attack your enemy.

“I have really interesting dreams, and sometimes I dream up silly creatures you’d find in a children’s book. I eventually sketched a bunch of them out and had an artist turn them into pixels. There are over 100 in the game if I recall.”

Developing that game was a learning experience, he said.

“We ran into a lot of problems with it and eventually had to downscale the game due to technical reasons,” he said.

Before that, Umenhofer and his colleagues competed in a few Game Jams. These are 24- to 72-hour competitions, he said. “You have to create everything in that time, art, music, code. Winners are picked by vote,” he said.

His last competition took place near Christmas time, and those playing his game do so as Santa Claus, who dispenses presents with a large gun.

“Greedy kids take the presents until they can’t carry anymore, and then explode in a cloud of milk and cookies,” he said. “I took a little liberty in retelling the classic story of how Santa delivers presents.”

He and his company developed another title for a competition. For this game, players portray a giant sand worm, similar to those portrayed in the “Tremors” movies and in the movies and books of the “Dune” series.

“The twist is that you have an apartment underground, and you are super sensitive to sound. So to get any sleep, you have to navigate the ground and eat people so they stop stomping about,” Umenhofer said. “I thought it was a little dark, so I have him wear a top hat and monocle at least.”

Temporus is a two-dimensional platformer and side-scrolling shooter for Windows, Mac and Linus, and the cost begins at $10 for a game pack that includes a digital copy of the game.

The game challenges a player with a serious task.

It is set in a time and place in which society has been devastated by an unknown force, and the player endeavors to search through the remaining rubble for clues to help set events right and prevent the elimination of the player’s people.

To take his latest project further, Umenhofer decided last month to launch a Kickstarter fundraising campaign, in hopes of raising $20,000, which he said is a reasonable goal compared to some other campaigns. The money needs to be collected by Sunday.

“I have no way of generating this kind of money on my own, so I felt crowdfunding was the best way to go,” he said.

Going the online fundraising route was a logical choice, he said. “I don’t know anything about getting funding through startup investors,” he said. “And the Web is my second home, so it was natural.”

He chose Kickstarter instead of other crowdfunding options because more game magazines and blogs mention Kickstarter.

“All the funds are either paying for the campaign itself — fees, taxes, rewards — or going directly to the artists,” he said. “I am in a position where I don’t need to fund my housing or food, so this entire campaign is for the content creators.”

Depending on how much people invest, they get rewards, Umenhofer said.

“We have a good selection of great rewards. The soundtrack, which is going to be amazing. The composer was born to make game music,” he said.

“We also have a little stuffed toy of the main character and a toy ship modeled after the players’ ship. A lot of them are limited edition though and may have sold out! I’m looking into making more!”

He said once the funding goal is reached, he and his collaborators will spend the rest of the year working toward an early 2015 release date on the core platforms.

“Then sometime in 2015, we will complete all the console versions for XBox, Playstation, WiiU, VITA and 3DS,” he said.

Besides direct sales, he said he expects to market the game through independent game resources, such as IndieGameStand, Desura, Steam, Itch.IO, XBox Marketplace, Playstation Marketplace and WiiU Marketplace.

Previews can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7nK7CcnbIc, and those interested can learn about Firebelly Studios from its website, www.firebelly-studios.com.

Those interested may contribute to Temporus through the website https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/firebelly/temporus.

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