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 : Rogue Wizards
What it is : Marcus wrote: “As you might have guessed from the title, this is a roguelike. That means you are up for a tough challenge, randomly-generated dungeons, and really shouldn’t die. Everything is shown from an isometric perspective as your dungeoneer explores. Unlike most dungeon crawlers this takes a bit more care with its aesthetic. The outer edges of the dungeon are non-existent until you proceed closer to them. At that point the world “builds” itself, akin to the likes of Bastion. The effect is strangely stunning – but don’t let it distract you from the main task!”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Buldanauts
What it is : Marcus wrote: “As opposed to the likes of Sim City, Buildanauts is very small in scope, which should keep it easy enough for many players to enjoy. Of course, it also utilizes elements that directly involve the player in their work. For example, you can just sit back and draft designs or actually dig for resources, drive trucks, and get very hands-on too. There are also quests and challenges that can be completed to reward players with even more tools.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Ice-Bound
What it is : Marcus wrote: “As someone with a taste for video games with heavy narrative focus, such as interactive fiction or even alternate reality games, Ice-Bound is incredibly exciting. This is a game with an interactive story, but to really explain what that means takes a bit of work. First, let’s go over the very generalized story concept. In Ice-Bound, there is an abandoned polar base called Carina Station. Over the years new buildings and people have resided there and all of this intrigued author Kristopher Holmquist. He penned a story with Carina Station as its locale but died before finishing the work.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Voxelfield
What it is : Marcus wrote: “First off, let’s cover why voxels were utilized for Voxelfield. The team desired a fully destructible environment and decided to utilize voxels. With these cubes, they can easily apply realistic physics, generate awesome explosions, and all that they had hoped for. What is the point of such wanton destruction? Apparently toppling massive buildings on enemies will harm them! If it works as anticipated it will add a new layer of strategy to the typical genre formula. Of course, there’s still a “normal” MOBA at the game’s core. Players assume the role of a mechanic, each of whom pilots a different mech. Mechs can be enhanced with a variety of items and abilities and all offer exclusive skills.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : The Black Glove
What it is : Marcus wrote: “Beyond the unique locale, gameplay is also said to be different. You are indebted with “the black glove” which allows one to alter history. As far as the game is concerned, this power is utilized to change how three artists express themselves. For example, you can turn a musical artist from singing country to performing jazzy lounge tunes. Having direct control over the narrative definitely sounds cool, but we’ll have to see if its implementation pushes beyond what already exists in games.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : The Flame in the Flood
What it is : Marcus wrote: “The Flame in the Flood focuses on a woman named Scout and her dog Aesop as they journey to the end of a river in post-societal America. As she explores, many problems will need to be overcome such as finding food, staying dry and healthy, and avoiding dangerous animals. It’s also a rogue-lite which means there are some roguelike features included, although not to the extreme. As such, the river you travel will be procedurally generated and dying makes the game start over. In order to keep the experience from being too rough, river generation is “pseudo” random, which means there are some rules in place to always create a good mix of gameplay. Deaths are also made a bit gentler by Aesop bringing back any backpack items that you had before dying.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Battlestation: Humanity’s Last Hope
What it is : Marcus wrote: “How will you choose to save the day? In Bugbyte’s game you have a huge wealth of options at your disposal. Commanders can exceed in warfare on one end or diplomacy on the other. With full control of the “Battlestation” ship you can perform many strategic actions. Here is just a handful of all the features available: Create ship layout, customize ships it produces, research technologies, and negotiate. The choices you make will determine what kind of Commander you become, offering a great variety of play through experiences. If it’s anything as challenging as a typical roguelike then you’ll definitely end up playing as multiple Commanders.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Impact Winter
What it is : Greg wrote: “Impact Winter is a post-apocalyptic survival game that takes place in Canada’s frozen hellscape that’s actually gotten worse thanks to an asteroid hitting earth and setting off a new ice-age. Players control Jacob Soloman, an Average Joe survivor, as he leads a group of survivors holed up in an old church. Using a variety of skills and special abilities Jacob and his crew will have to keep their spirits up, their stomachs full, their hands warm, and their body meat out of the bellies of hungry bears for at least 30 days; which is when help will arrive. Or so we’re led to believe.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : The Interactive Adventures of Dog Mendonca & Pizza Boy
What it is : Marcus wrote: “Dog Mendonca & Pizzaboy began as a comic series created by Felipe Melo, Juan Cavia, and Santiago R. Villa that was published by Dark Horse comics. Soon, the series was met with great popularity and success, leading to additional books. Felipe took an interest in bringing Dog Mendonca to video games and OKAM partnered up with him. Thus, The Interactive Adventures of Dog Mendonca and Pizzaboy, a point and click adventure game, was born.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Nevermind
What it is : Julie wrote: “Back in August, we interviewed Erin Reynolds, the creator of Nevermind and founder of Flying Mollusk. Around that time, the Nevermind team had just partnered with Intel and received enough funding to continue development and establish studio quarters. In the interview, there was talk of a Kickstarter campaign in the near future and the time has come! On October 8th, a second Nevermind Kickstarter campaign was launched, this time asking for significantly less.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Dicetiny
What it is : Marcus wrote: “One to four players all team up to play DICETINY. When in a game you’re presented with a square game board with a building on each end. Every turn players roll the dice, move forward that number of squares, and trigger a random event. Events range from springing traps, fighting monsters, or even discovering a treasure chest. When fights break out players can utilize their cards which offer a variety of effects. As you play, you gain more cards as well. Eventually you’ll be able to customize a deck before playing.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : The Sixth Chaos
What it is : Marcus wrote: “The Sixth Chaos has a puzzle mechanic where the protagonist utilizes a question mark and exclamation point. During play, one of these characters will appear above their head which means it can be used. Some examples shown had the question mark working as a bouncy trampoline to get players to higher platforms. Another feature shown was a star marker blowing up walls. As this was alpha footage, there’s probably a lot still subject to change. As is, the puzzles didn’t seem particularly complex. The 2D platforming also appears more a mechanic for moving players around than a challenge itself.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Voxel Quest
What it is : Marcus wrote: “Thanks to games like Minecraft and a litany of similar titles that have followed, many gamers (including myself) suddenly believed “voxel-based” games to be comprised of blocky shapes. Voxel Questimmediately proves this notion wrong with a world that looks quite attractive (and not outwardly like a Lego set). In any case, Voxel Quest is an isometric RPG that hopes to hook players with easy to learn but challenging to master gameplay as well as an AI storytelling mechanic. The latter is definitely something of note as most RPGs try their best to craft sprawling, important narratives.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Animal Gods
What it is : Marcus wrote: “The story of Animal Gods takes place in the 15th century and stars Thistle. As Thistle, you must fight against a curse placed on creatures around you. Hopefully, you’ll be able to set the Gods of this world free. Players get a top-down perspective of a very stylized, colorful landscape. With close range weapons such as a sword (or long range bow) you’ll be well-equipped to take care of anything in your path. This can also dash in able to get out of particularly tight situations. Open world design is also an important aspect to Still Games’ design philosophy. They want their game to not just be beautiful but also offer a huge amount of exploration.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Afterimage
What it is : Marcus wrote: “In any case, they still showcase a bit about the project. It takes an isometric perspective of the world and places you in direct control of said gamer. There’s also a very distinct point and click adventure vibe going on, although whether it’ll actually feature “point and click” gameplay, or more action-oriented aspects, remains to be seen. The coolest part of Afterimage thus far is definitely the environment. There are tons of dark, atmospheric shadows in the city setting which would feel right at home in a noir film. Of course, instead of taking place in the 20th century this game has a far flung future aesthetic where everything is apparently shades of neon.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Golden Hour
What it is : Marcus wrote: “The RPG leveling system is easy enough to comprehend. After leveling up, you increase a character’s battle, crafting, and secondary skills. But what about that whole destructible environments thing? One example showcases the player shooting a bow at a gigantic chandelier. It then falls and smushes enemies who were unluckily underneath at that moment. Obviously, this is just a very basic example of an exciting concept. If the environment has many manipulable aspects then this will definitely helpGolden Hour set itself apart from the crowd.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
[divider]The Rest of the Campaigns :
Shatter Point : An old-school looking arena shooter that emphasizes VR tech.
Avalon: The Journey Begins : A crazy expansive sci-fi space adventure with a 32 minute funding video. It might be a new record.
Border – Remembrance : A top-down RPG with some nice looking art.
Buzz Whizz Bees : A bee game and learning tool for kids.
The Book of Gods 1: DawnHaven : The developer describes it as a “2D Skyrim.”
Reality Kings : A real estate investment sim.
Forsaken Life : No funding video, a cover image that came from Skyrim, no screenshots, and minimal game info.
Dead Nights : An open-world zombie survival game.
Blackschmidt’s Treasure : A pirate themed adventure game with some great looking graphics here and there.
Football Boss : A standalone version of the Football Boss online game.
Anime Online : A social RPG with no gameplay ready to show.
Cure Carrier : A platformer with an interesting concept that needs a graphical overhaul.
The Block Basketball Game : No video, screenshots, or real game info; lots of typos though!
Sketch Warfare : An MMO with hand-drawn graphics created by the community; nothing to show yet though unfortunately.
Wizard Genes : A platformer with some very basic graphics.
Reign of Monsters : A Pokemon inspired MMO with some unique graphics and gameplay concepts.
One Final Breath : A very pretty first person survival horror game with a website that does not instill confidence.
Leave ‘Em Laughing : A stand-up comedy themed adventure game.
4089 Ghost Within : A first person RPG with procedurally generated environments.
Plan Z : A Choose Your Own Adventure style horror adventure game.
Greg The Geek : A platformer with lo-bit graphics.
Swiss Invasion : An expanded version of an iTunes game; almost no information is given on the Kickstarter page.
Cara : A first person shooter that emphasizes magic being put together by a student team as a project.
Iron Fire : A top down Mech MOBA could could go somewhere once its been in the oven a bit longer.
Towers of Cataclysm : A tower defense game with some nice looking 3D graphics.
[divider]That’s it for last week. Watch your wallets!
