Every week we take a brief look at all of the Kickstarter campaigns that launched in the previous week. This isn’t to say that all of these projects are worth your hard earned cash, but with any luck having all of them in one place will make it easier to educate yourself on the projects you’d like to back, and which ones to run from. You’ll find two types of campaigns listed, “featured” and “the rest“. Featured campaigns are those that contain a significant amount of game information, are from known developers, or are significant in some other way. The rest of the games are usually smaller campaigns that are lacking in information, are from unknowns, have unanswered questions, or have not yet stood out for one reason or another.
[divider]Featured Campaigns :
Game : Culina: Hands In The Kitchen
What it is : Inspired by an interesting combination of Persona 4 and Hot Dog Stand: The Works, Culina strives to create a unique visual novel experience, wherein you will build the restaurant of your dreams, cook there, craft new and enticing recipes, and, yes, form bonds and romances with the people you meet. It is still a visual novel, after all. You can check out our gameplay video of the demo below.
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Game : Script Kiddies
What is it : A hacking game, but not presented the way you would think. Sure, it’s got some late 80’s style graphics, but there’s also plenty of music and dancing; something I don’t think has appeared in any other hacking game. Rather than looking at a fake command line, things play out like a frantic party game, with players racing from floor to floor to protect their computers from others. So far this campaign has been largely ignored, which could be due in part to the unexpected gameplay mechanics; a shame really, Script Kiddies looks very interesting.
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Game : In The Dead Of Night – Urszula’s Revenge
What is it : Another game thats been mostly ignore since it launched; In The Dead of Night is a strategy game where players must collect resources and fortify their town during the day, and fight off hordes of undead enemies at night. Think Stronghold with zombies. There’s a demo available for download, and the funding videos includes some nice looking gameplay footage. So what’s the problem? For there being a demo available there isn’t enough gameplay in the funding video, there’s only a couple screenshots on the campaign page, and the artwork that’s emphasized looks amateurish compared to the game itself.
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Game : Forgotten Ball
What is it : Have you ever been curious what the world of indie games looked like in the early 2000’s? Look no further than Forgotten Ball; a game that’s just as much a puzzle game as it is a 3D platformer. You control a ball in an attempt to work your way through a maze; that’s it. There’s no presumption of a deep message, social commentary, or an insufferable artist behind the scenes; just a guy making a seemingly basic game that could turn out to be a ton of fun. Having raised nearly half of its humble £1,800 funding goal, Forgotten Ball looks like it’ll be successfully finishing its campaign in a few weeks.
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Game : Space Simulator
What is it : “In Space Simulator, players play through all the Apollo missions and various space shuttle missions, including a general purpose solar explorer all on their iOS and Android devices. Space Simulatorstrives to be as realistic as possible and implements every detail of the solar system (such as the different gravitational fields, distance between planets and their moons, etc. accurately. Players are taken into a cockpit modeled exactly like the control panels in famous craft. It’s an all around realistic space simulation.”
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Game : Night Trap Revamped
What is it : An HD re-release of the “classic”(?) camp-horror adventure that was all anyone could talk about in the early 90’s. The late 80’s Z Budget production values filtered through the lens of early 90’s CD game tech meant the game was only ever taken seriously by parents groups camped out on capitol hill. Some of the original developers are looking to bring it to a whole new generation, sans the media outrage. Unfortunately, the Night Trap outrage has been focused less on garbage bag clad vampires, and instead zeroes in on a Kickstarter campaign that is in dire need of professional help.
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Game : Dandy
What is it : “You play as the titular Dandy, searching far and wide for rare and exotic candies. On your journeys, you’re trapped in an ancient and mystical realm full of beasties and gorgeous scenery, and it’s your job to utilize the power of candy to destroy them all and save yourself from a horrible demise. You ride on a lollipop. You shoot candy at squids. It’s great fun, it’s family friendly, and it needs your help to meet its funding goal.”
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Game : Archaic
What is it : “The survival game formula has been attributed, primarily, to zombies, and Archaic is following a similar design. You’re stranded in a lush, dino-infested island, part of a group that was sent there to protect a team of scientists. Unfortunately, things didn’t exactly go according to plan, and the facility was overrun, leaving just you and whoever you choose to play with to survive in the most hostile of environments. The multiplayer will be open, allowing you to team up with strangers, and the various survival mechanics make for a tense and highly strategic approach to survival. You must manage hunger, thirst, and shelter to protect yourself while crafting better and better weapons to defend yourself against a variety of unique dinosaurs – each with their own habits and demeanor.”
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Game : Stash
What is it : “In Stash, you’ll play as a highly customizable character, exploring the wilderness to find a combination of shops, pre-made dungeons that move the storyline along, and procedurally generated dungeons to add endless variety to your adventures. You can team up with your friends to maximize your chances of survival in the hostile environments, using each of your unique abilities to best your foes in turn-based tactical grid combat. Loot flows freely as well, coming in one of several ways in dungeons and at your home. You build your manor from hut to castle, upgrading your crafting capabilities and collecting a huge variety of in-game gear, pets, and more.”
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Game : Rose: Time Apart
What is it : “Rose is a “kids in danger” game that plays similarly to the point-and-click dungeon crawlers of years gone by. You play as the titular Rose, accompanied by three friends and a brother, all trapped in a house that’s remained untouched for 30 years. You’re completely trapped, and the only way to escape is to unravel the tainted mystery that surrounds the house and its horrifying state of abandon.”
[divider]The Rest of the Campaigns :
Porco Grande : A game for Oculus Rift that’s part first person platformer and part fitness app.
Ari The Viking : The developer, in his graveyard filmed funding video, says that it’ll be a mix between Metal Slug and Super Ghost’s N’ Goblins.
Shadow Hunter Expanded : A rogue-like dungeon puzzle game that the developer wants to update with improved graphics.
Auraspark : A fantasy adventure game that has an interesting concept; but no gameplay or solid artwork to back it up.
Event Horizon: Immolation : A narrative focused first person shooter that shows too much of the developers and not enough of the team.
Legend of Lotus : A top-down steampunk inspired fantasy JRPG made in RPG Maker.
Alien Mega Blasters : A promising looking platformer trapped in a campaign with no screenshots, but does include gameplay footage if you watch the funding video.
Elemental : A first person puzzle adventure with some great looking graphics.
Astrostyle : A 360 degree shooter for the Ouya whose campaign feature no gameplay footage or screenshots.
Pumpkin Online : A MMO farming and dating sim.
Queen At Arms : A visual novel that steps outside of the usual high-school dating scenarios and puts the player into an intense wartime environment.
Asuka Online : An MMO platformer with very little information available, and a single “screenshot.”
Whisper Saga : An episodic first person horror game with no shortage of fog.
Marooned : A side view 2D block game with a funding video that has one of the strangest endings I’ve ever seen.
Major Drip: A Case Of The Runnies : A side scrolling platformer that features some solid graphics, and a subject matter that will turn off more than a couple backers.
Bubble Struggle: Adventures : The developer of this classic browser game is looking to bring it to PCs and consoles.
Gaomonteras : A 16 bit style side scrolling adventure with no screenshots, but plenty of gameplay footage.
Flicker : A multiplayer horror game with no funding video.
EX Coqui Racers : A running, fighting, and driving game with no gameplay footage or screenshots on the Kickstarter page; but with rough web demos on the developers site.
Particule : A top down MMO action survival game for PC, “consoles,” and mobile devices.
End of the Line : This weeks award for the least amount of info provided.
P3/V3 : A Populous meets Dungeon Keeper hybrid from an experienced developer and Kickstarter.
Kevin vs the Monkeys : A beat-em-up that features a scientist beating up a variety of monkeys.
Bear Senpai : A bear dating sim from the organizer of the GaymerX convention.
[divider]That’s it for last week. Watch your wallets!
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