Every week we take a brief look at all of the Kickstarter video game 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 : Steam Battle
What it is : Marcus wrote: “What types of things do many gamers love? Let’s see… Shooters, MMOs, and steampunk aesthetics. Three years ago Wild Wolf Game Studios began creating a game which captured all these aspects to create a new, exciting game. They came up with Steam Battle and have worked on it ever since. Basically, the game takes place in an alternate Middle Ages where tons of steam vehicles exist (and look much cooler than any cars we have today). Player groupings of over 20 can jump into a map together and battle it out against enemies with weapons mounted on top of their vehicles.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Absent II
What it is : Marcus wrote: “Absent is a game with a bit of a history. The ideas for it first came to creator James Fenton when he created a student film of the same name in 2010. Shortly after, work began on creating an adventure game with the same style. Last year Absent arrived as a free download on Desura. But what was this game about? It focused around a cast of friends at a college where student disappearances began occurring. This incredibly strange series of events were very supernatural and, at the end of the first game, it appeared things would be okay.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Daydreamer
What it is : Marcus wrote: “Sidescrolling action games may not be the most unique thing in gaming right now butDaydreamer still manages to stand out from the pack immediately. All you have to do is take one look at the game. The pre-rendered CG sprites look incredibly distinctive. Because of the pre-rendered technique they look very different from standard game models. Of course, the creature and level designs appear to be top notch as well. There’s definitely some super creative people working behind the scenes to make this game a reality. Perhaps this game might spur a trend toward pre-rendered art again, the likes of which we haven’t really seen since Donkey Kong Country.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Glorious Leader!
What it is : Marcus wrote: “Glorious Leader! is a 2D sidescroller where you play as Kim Jong Un on his quest to defeat every last bit of the American army. Yep, this is a real video game which will come to fruition with a successful Kickstarter campaign. If it looks or sounds familiar that’s probably because you did stumble across it before. Earlier this year, the developer got quite a bit of attention over its satirical video game. With that said, this is the very first crowdfunding campaign for the game. As with so many 2D shooters you’ll adventure across multiple levels and fight all manner of baddies.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : The Grisaia Trilogy
What it is : Marcus wrote: “The Grisaia Trilogy is a very unique set of visual novels which began with The Fruit of Grisaia in 2011. The story revolves around Mihama Academy which at first appears to be a typical sort of private school. However, when protagonist Kazami Yuuji arrives he realizes there are only five girls enrolled. This strange aspect is just the start as he befriends each character and learns more about them. Thanks to positive player reaction, the game became a series with sequels The Labyrinth of Grisaia and The Eden of Grisaia. Heck, there are even spin-offs!”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : But I love you
What it is : Marcus wrote: “As a visual novel fan it’s always exciting to see more people bring projects of the genre to Kickstarter. Of course, it’s very easy to simply fall in line with what everyone else is doing. Developer Gorshatastic! has presented something pretty unique on the crowdfunding site and it’s called But I Love You. In this game, you play as a character who becomes stranded after their car breaks down. Luckily, you’re quickly helped by some incredibly friendly locals. These girls all seem completely willing to aid a poor stranger in need.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Harold VS The Horde
What it is : Marcus wrote: “Harold is just your normal guy temping a job. Unfortunately, this job happens to be the assistant to an exorcist. One day something goes wrong and said exorcist cannot complete his duties. It’s up to Harold to keep evil from invading our world – if he can. Harold VS The Horde is one of those games that hopes to balance humor with horror. The themes are certainly there, of course we can’t yet see if they mesh together. Whatever the case may be this is a game inspired by the likes of classic point and click adventures which is apparent from the get go.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
[divider]The Rest of the Campaigns :
Amazing Stories : A 2D platformer that emphasizes level creation and sharing.
Chief:Legends : A first person shooter with very little to share at the moment, but it does have a very humble goal.
Rocky Shores : A bird hunting game featuring killer waves.
Subverses Covert : A cute sounding spy game that also teaches foreign language skills.
space break : This weeks winner of our “least amount of info in a Kickstarter” award.
Music Tycoon : A great sounding business sim with nothing to show, not even a little bit.
U4 The Experience : Gotta be honest, I’m a little confused about this one. Is it a comet collision sim?
Alien Abduction Game : A browser game about you know what.
Street Tuning Evolution : A car tuner sim that launched with a tragically high funding goal.
Challenge Maze : I’m not here to mock any campaign, but this one features a 12 minute funding video that just stays on the same static screen, a confusing objective, and a $2.67mil funding goal.
Creativo Life : A very optimistic life sim with an equally optimistic $1.3CADmil funding goal.
DrawAndRace3 : A racing game in which you draw the tracks, then race on them.
Kandahar Crush : A top/down shmup that is sparse on campaign content, but features a lot of gameplay footage.
The Gosling Clock : Runner up for providing the least amount of game info out of all campaigns this week.
Recovery Rapids : A motion game that aims to help people recovering from motor related disabilities.
Deputy Dangle : A hilarious looking physics game that’s off to a much slower start than one would expect.
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That’s it for last weeks Kickstarter campaigns. Watch your wallets!
OMFG If the dear leaders game isn’t funded, Im scared of how Pyongyang will see fit to punish the world.
P.S. At least we got the Grisaia trilogy this week 😉