What Kickstarter Video Game Campaigns Launched Sep 27 – Oct 3

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.

Featured Campaigns :

Game : Guardians of Orion

What it is : Gary wrote: “Orion: Prelude was a successful 2011 Kickstarter campaign that managed to pull in $17,686 from 371 backers. Successor to the project, Orion: Dino Beatdown, didn’t review particularly well, and there was controversy raised over its subsequent rebranding as Orion: Dino Horde and the influence this had on its Metacritic score. Shadiness aside, backers are getting this new iteration for free, which is hardly a raw deal.“

Keep an eye on it in our calendar

Game : Mambo

What it is : Gary wrote: “Spanish developer Iction Games wants to bring the 80s back to life with Mambo, a top-down arcade shooter newly arrived on Kickstarter. Inspired by retro classics such as Ikari Warriors, Commando, and (no surprises here) Rambo, the game hopes to raise €9,000 by Halloween. So, what exactly does Mambo bring to the table? If one can look past the game’s distinctive, but ugly art style for one moment (it’s hard, I know), then there’s actually more going on here than there might seem at first glance.“

Keep an eye on it in our calendar

Game : Lord of Rigel

What it is : Gabrielle wrote: “Explore, expand, exploit, exterminate. These four “E”s are what make Lord of Rigel a more complex and well rounded 4X strategy game. Usually all of this goes over my head and I have a hard time following a game with so many intense layers, but since I am exploring new things in the crowdfunded world I became interested in howLord of Rigel stands out from other strategy games.”

Keep an eye on it in our calendar

Game : Verona

What it is : Serena wrote: “Verona will be split into five episodes of about an hour length each for the main storyline. There will be other things like side quests that will bump it up to a total of around 10-15 hours. Aside from the story itself you’ll be tasked in each episode to extract one or more monuments for your employer, which you can do with the help of various pieces of equipment.“

Keep an eye on it in our calendar

Game : Battletech

What it is : Serena wrote: “I’ll  freely admit it. Until several years ago I didn’t even know the universe of BattleTech existed. And while I’m still struggling to learn about the heaps of lore released over the past decades I have enjoyed getting to know the future history of the franchise. Which is why I jumped at the chance to get in on the Kickstarter when it launched. In just an hour after going live it got funded. And it’s not showing any signs of slowing down any time soon.“

Keep an eye on it in our calendar

Game : Home Free

What it is : Gary wrote: “Pitched as an open-world action RPG, Home Free has players navigating through a procedurally-generated city as a lost dog. Like Minecraft, each individual will have their own unique world to explore. Gameplay entails (heh) scavenging for food and searching for shelter, encountering humans and other animals along the way. The narrative is sold as a player-driven experience, with emergent moments and opportunities presenting themselves over the course of one’s travels.“

Keep an eye on it in our calendar

Game : Haque

What it is : Gary wrote: “Haque is a roguelike fantasy RPG that looks like something from the early Atari era of videogames. We’re used to seeing NES-like influences in the indie scene, but this is nostalgic on an entirely different level. Bright colors and big, blocky pixels set against a black background make up Haque‘s aesthetic, and it’s charming to see in action (there are modern flourishes in the animation, performance and sound quality, of course).“

Keep an eye on it in our calendar

Game : Magic Lost

What it is : Serena wrote: “One feature that I really find intriguing about Magic Lost that’s quite different from most other adventure games is their choice of combat. Sure, it’s been done before in games like Quest for Glory but it’s how it goes about doing it. From my understanding it plays out more like Mega Man in that Piper gains the ability of the boss that she can then use on other bosses to take them down easier. They’ll also have utility functions outside of combat.“

Keep an eye on it in our calendar

Game : The Journey Down

What it is : Serena wrote: “The Journey Down follows two unlikely heroes Bwana and Kito as they are swept away on a whirlwind adventure beyond their humble home of Kingsport Bay. The duo are approached by a woman about a book and after finding it are forced to fly off into the sunset both to save their own hides and to help her discover what’s hidden inside. Secrets are soon revealed when they approach Port Artue in the second episode and after narrowly escaping with their lives they end up where they need to be.“

Keep an eye on it in our calendar

Game : Vortex: Tears of the Abyss

What it is : Gary wrote: “Still not convinced? Okay then, how about an emphasis on exploration and combat, with the inclusion of permadeath? That’s right, Vortex‘s world is as cruel and deadly as it is beautiful. Should players fall on their journey, they may very well have to restart the game from the beginning, adding not only extreme levels of tension to the combat, but an increased sense of value to the variety of collectible weapons and armors. Did I mention the environments are procedurally generated?“

Keep an eye on it in our calendar

The Rest of the Campaigns :

ADX : Alternate Dimension Xhess : Xhess?

Project: Roll : I dig the concept of a time traveling drone, but am skeptical that so much content can be created by such a small team.

Plan Z : A zombie apocalypse survival game that’s already available to download from a number of other platforms.

Mass Extinction: Red Planet Redemption : The whole VR aspect of this is pushed so hard that it’s a bit difficult to figure out what type of game it is.

VentureTopia : GTA style open world game for the low low funding goal of $224.

Plagues of Europe : A $20,000 funding goal and no images, artwork, or real game description.

LAB 13 : Another horror game with a lot to show, but none of it is really noteworthy unfortunately.

The Unclogging: An Unsanitary Saga : An RPG Maker game about poop.

666 Number of a Man : There’s a ton of writing on this campaign page, but not much else.

The Last Star : A 16bit style JRPG with a lot to show off.

Ambush Platoon – Europe : I’m all for hardcore strategy games, but the developer lost me as soon as the little cartoon men showed up.

prog.1 : A pretty cool looking platformer.

Toxalypse : A multiplayer military shooter that has a ways to go, but looks pretty cool.

Another Epic Adventure : The artwork in this RPG looks pretty great, but unfortunately there’s no video showing it in action.

Disoriented : We covered this game briefly here, unfortunately Gary found it a bit… disorienting.

Citadel VR : Another game that spends a ton of time talking up the VR experience, and not the game itself.

Defender of Solar System : A turn based strategy game with nothing to show.

Beacon of Hope : A somewhat confusing strategy game that looks like it could be fun. Thankfully there’s an in-depth explanation video on the Kickstarter page.

Player One: An Illustrated History of Game Controllers Vol.1 : I’m really intrigued by this one, but I wish the photos were higher quality.

Disaster : With $0 raised so far the campaign for this game is a bit of a… well, you know.

Antinomy : The first campaign for this game fell about £73,000 short of its £75,000 funding goal.  Strangely enough, this new campaign as an even target.

Soldiers Destiny : Another campaign re-launch, and while the funding goal is lower, the game doesn’t look any more appealing.

A Tofu Tail : A really trippy puzzle game about a guy turned into tofu.

Golems ‘n’ Guns : This multi-player shooter has some really cool ideas, unfortunately it looks extremely rough.

DrawAndRace5 : Back again for a fifth time.

The Guardians of Peru : This developer just finished a $350 book and movie Kickstarter on October 1st. If that doesn’t make you nervous then the funding video featuring nothing but photos of Peru should.

Project BrainChild : Nothing here but a brief paragraph of text; although the developer has a Twitter account with some Piece The Veil Youtube videos if you’re into that.

The 31st : Gary expressed some interest in this when he wrote about it earlier, but the campaign is struggling.

Night of Fears : What compelled Gary to write about this is beyond me.

Battleship Commander : To be honest I’d rather play Starship Corporation.

That’s it for last week’s Kickstarter video game campaigns.  Watch your wallets!