Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, the computer game that marks the return to the fantasy role-playing genre by legendary game developer Richard Garriott, raced past its one-million dollar Kickstarter goal today. The milestone was reached on Monday night around 8:30 Central Daylight time, in less than 10 and one half days. Since launching the Kickstarter campaign on March 8, more than 14,800 people have backed the highly anticipated project.

There are still 18 days left in the crowd funding campaign and Portalarium, Garriott’s Austin-based game developer, announced the first stretch goals for Shroud of the Avatar, an in-game pet system and seasonal weather. Once the crowd funding campaign reaches $1.1 million, the team plans to add both social and combat pets into the game’s design and at $1.2 million, weather systems will be added. More stretch goals will be revealed as the campaign continues to evolve. Also today, the development team announced more bonus rewards to the Kickstarter campaign.

‘We are thrilled but also gratified with what we are seeing from the fans backing Shroud of the Avatar,’ said Garriott. "My goal is to create an RPG style of gameplay that harkens back to my earlier game development with the Ultima series. If you liked those games which included fully interactive virtual worlds, ethical parables and deep original fiction, then you are going to truly enjoy this new experience. Our team is super excited to be able to use all the current day state-of-the-art tools to really reinvent the fantasy RPG genre."

"I’m also extremely happy to be working again with my longtime friend and colleague Tracy Hickman, one of the all-time great fantasy novelists, who will help create our story in the game." Portalarium announced last week that Hickman is joining the Portalarium team as lead story designer on Shroud of the Avatar. Hickman is the New York Times best-selling author of the Dragonlance and Deathgate series.

Shroud of the Avatar is the first of a series of releases in Garriott’s new world. The game has been under development at Portalarium for the past six months and the company expects an early alpha version for backers to try out by the end of the year. Full release of the product will be in 2014.