The Kickstarter project of Ed Annunziata, seeking to fund the building of a spiritual successor to Ecco the Dolphin, fell short. Actually it was more than a little short; it was over $600,000 short of reaching its funding goal.

Annunziata isn’t throwing in the towel just yet. Instead, he believes that if people could just try the game, then they would have no problem forking over their hard earned money to fund it. To that end, he is downsizing the game into what he is calling “Little Blue,” which will give players a chance to better understand the game he is trying to make.

Little Blue will offer one playable dolphin plus an additional sea creature. It will offer two large environments and it will offer song mechanics. It will have 10 or more other significant creatures and even a leviathan. Little Blue will be free and it will link directly to the Kickstarter campaign of Big Blue (or Big Blue part 2, if you will).

Annunziata, the creator of the original Ecco the Dolphin, hopes to get the word out better with Little Blue and that this will lead to success in funding Big Blue this time around. We will have to wait and see Little Blue before we can tell you what our impressions are.