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 : Song of the Firefly
What it is : Marcus wrote: “In Song of the Firefly the world has ended. The air has become toxic and humans are almost all gone from the world. Only Sam, Sarah, and Doctor Williams seem to be around in post-apocalyptic Europe. That is, until Sarah goes missing. As her best friend, Sam is incredibly concerned and begins to search for her. This is where the game begins and where players take over. They must explore the darkened landscape for clues – and hopefully discover what happened.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : InnerSpace
What it is : Marcus wrote: “The visual novel genre is full of fun romance-focused games targeted at men and women. In particular, the otome genre intends to draw in hetero women with promises of handsome men wanting to date their avatar. Change! looks to shake up that formula a bit by offering an otome game where the protagonist mysteriously becomes a boy on her 17th birthday. It might be a pretty fanciful start but one certainly has to wonder how romances might play out.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Video Games Live Level 4
What it is : Marcus wrote: “If you’ve never heard of Video Games Live before and consider yourself a gaming fan then you owe it to yourself to experience it at least once. Since the concert series launched years ago gamers of all ages have attended across the country. After taking in the debut show at the Hollywood Bowl, I’ve since attended three more concerts. Every time you go there are new arrangements, new games’ music debuting, and an exciting atmosphere. Video Games Live: Level 4 is the second attempt by Tommy Tallarico to bring new arrangements of orchestral video game tracks to people – even when they can’t attend Video Games Live in person.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Sylvio
What it is : Julie wrote: “Kickstarter is finally reaching out to Sweden! And one of the first games launched on Swedish Kickstarter is Sylvio. Sylvio takes ghost hunting and explorative horror to a completely different level. Who wouldn’t play the role as a paranormal investigator? Love Silent Hill? Love ghost hunting? I bring you, Sylvio. An audio recorder, specializing in the paranormal, visits a closed off family park. Saginaw has been closed in 1971 due to a deadly storm and has yet to reopen. Juliette Waters is curious but unaware of Sylvio, the curse of Saginaw’s forests coined by Italian settlers. Upon exploring, she becomes trapped in the park and things start to get unusual. Voices keep appearing on Juliette’s recordings and they’re a bit peculiar. Just what really happened at Saginaw all those years ago?”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Pixel Galaxy
What it is : Marcus wrote: “In Pixel Galaxy you begin as a single pixel. From that tiny cube you can collect other pixels in space which expand your size. But watch out, getting larger in a shoot ‘em up game seems like an incredibly dangerous proportion. After all, in most shooters you have a small ship which allows for nimble dodging between bullets. How does this game hope to change things? It’s based on the fact that collecting different pixels effect your craft in different ways.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : The Facility
What it is : Julie wrote: “Ever since Nevermind made its way on the indie and crowdfunded game scene, there has been a notable rise in biofeedback gaming and innovative technology to determine the player’s feelings, fears, concerns, and many psychological factors utilized to advanced gameplay. The Oculus Rift is enough to immerse the player but incorporating factors like heart rate monitors or eye movement detectors in horror games is a home run immersion experience. With The Facility, not only are we promised a terrifying setting but a highly immersive one.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Youropa
What it is : Marcus wrote: “The puzzle platforming genre is packed full of games and I for one have enjoyed many of them. With that said, it’s hard to recall too many games that offer gameplay mechanics of the same style that Youropa presents. In this game, you play as a tiny little Youropean in a floating Paris-inspired city named Youropa. For whatever reason, these people have suction cups instead of feet. This genetic advantage allows them to climb on walls or even walk on ceilings. Of course, super sticky feet doesn’t mean you’re impervious to the effects of gravity. If the player jumps while upside down, well, they’re going to fall off the ceiling.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : The Dark Throne
What it is : Marcus wrote: “Did you ever play and adore games like Alone in the Dark, Bioforge, Ecstatica, Dino Crisis, and Resident Evil? If so, you’ve got some very similar tastes to developer Brett Munro. He’s taken his love of these third person polygonal gameplay experiences and used them to inspire The Dark Throne. No, it doesn’t appear to be a horror title, but it is similar in many other ways.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Medusa’s Labyrinth
What it is : Marcus wrote: “The Oculus Rift is one of the hottest gaming accessories today despite still not having an actual “consumer version” up for sale. Tons of developers have created projects for it, many of which are horror experiences. Why horror? Never before have creepy games been able to get so up close and personal. Medusa’s Labyrinth is an upcoming horror title designed for Oculus Rift. Unlike some other Rift games, you will actually be able to play it without the pricey device!”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Lovely Little Thieves
What it is : Julie wrote: “Lovely Little Thieves is the brainchild of Hope Chapman, an assistant editor of Anime News Network, Anime theorist and enthusiast on Youtube (JesuOtaku), and visual novel lover. After a year of development, Lovely Little Thieves is already a playable demo, available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. But more artistic and music assets need implementation and Hope wants to expand her development team. For that, she’s approached Kickstarter in hopes of raising $20K to do so.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Evocality
What it is : Marcus wrote: “One of the main features of Evocality is collecting canine specimens (dog, wolf, etc), breeding them, and discovering brand new animal types. As a scientist this gameplay element makes perfect sense. Breeding offspring is a rarity-based system which means you may end up with a super rare new animal afterwards, or a more standard one. Beyond this aspect, there will also be daily tasks, quests, and puzzles to keep players stopping by regularly. Although the storyline is based off staff member’s creations, it appears that users may even influence the story by creating their own. If approved, these new bits of lore will be integrated and the player will be compensated appropriately.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Nubarron
What it is : Marcus wrote: “Nubarron: The Adventure of an Unlucky Gnome seems to be quite the interesting Kickstarter proposal. The game begins with a little gnome living in a fairy tale forest. As long as he has his lucky hat, everything is just fine. Unfortunately, at the start of the game he loses that hat and a stormy rain cloud assumes position over his nearly bald head. This is hardly the same. Instead of granting luck, the cloud shoots out lightning bolts! If player’s aren’t careful they’re fry the gnome alive. That alone seems like a challenging component for a platformer, but there’s more to it than that.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : OBEY
What it is : Marcus wrote: “Bunnies are adorable little creatures. Maybe its their utter cuteness that has stopped developers from making them protagonists in many video games. OBEY recognizes the inherent aww-factor of bunnies but places them in the fray anyway! In OBEY, an upcoming Windows, Mac, and Linux title, you and a group of local-connected or online friends all jump into a stage as a fluffy white bunny. From there everyone must vie for control of a giant robot which also happens to be on the field. Whoever gets the coveted position has all the power to make their bunny peers “obey,” at least until someone instigates a revolution.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Zpocalypse: Survival
What it is : Marcus wrote: “If you had to condense some of the biggest trends in gaming over the past few years your list might look something like this: zombies, tower defense, roguelike/roguelite, and crafting. Somehow, despite being a blend of all these great aspects, Zpocalypse: Survival didn’t meet its funding goals earlier this year. Greenbriar Games certainly did not give up and have now returned to Kickstarter. This time they’ve dropped the funding goal a tad, but it already looks like things are going in their favor.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Holobunnies
What it is : Marcus Wrote: “Do you happen to have an affinity toward adventurous sidescrollers and bunnies? If so, Holobunnies might be the game you’ve been waiting for! Developed by Montreal-based q-bit games, Holobunnies features a cast of four rabbits who one day find that some evil creature has stolen the eyes of their precious pet Machete. Apparently they can still live without eyes… but it’s really creepy looking. In any case, the bunnies head out to find said eyes and maybe even discover the beings behind this incident.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
[divider]The Rest of the Campaigns :
The Sword of Asumi : A campaign to finish up an already interesting sounding visual novel.
The Wrath of Salistah : An ambitious four part JRPG saga made in RPG Maker.
Air Brawl : An air combat game with some pretty nice looking art design.
Trucking : A trucking empire strategy game.
Mothership! : A coffee break platformer with some great looking levels.
“Multiplayer Free For All FPS” : The title says it all, doesn’t it?
Trees, Sand, and Grass : A screenshotless open world RPG.
Weather Zen : An adventure game with a unique twist; you must decipher weather pattern to determine the best course of action.
T.E.R.R.A. : A strategy / shooter hybrid that looks as though it has some potential.
Hit : A multiplayer action game where players must uncover the bad guy.
Chimera Genesis : A 2D multiplayer platformer with co-op.
Exowar : A top-down shooter with some fast paced action.
Anomaly 1729 : A 3D platformer puzzler with a premise straight out of Cube.
Soul Knights : A lovely looking 2.5D JRPG.
Eclipsed : A dark side scrolling adventure game with some potential.
Elemental Brawl : For lovers of science!
The Virtual Planet : This weeks winner for the least amount of information available on the campaign page.
Bible.Play : A Bible themed game with some great looking concept work.
FireFactor AirAttack : An action strategy game about airborne fire fighting with an educational slant.
Final Moments : An open world zombie shooter.
Murder Castle : A survival horror game based on the real life serial killer Dr.H.H.Holmes.
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That’s it for last weeks Kickstarter campaigns. Watch your wallets!
