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 : Party Golf
What it is : Jordan wrote: “Like most people, I have never been interested in golf. Not watching, not holding the club, not even playing it in video game form. Honestly, the only time golf ever appealed to me is mini-golf, however, I think Giant Margaritahave managed to capture that same appeal.
Usually, golf is tedious, repetitive and to top it off, long-winded. You have to wait, you have to strategize, and if you’re not “good,” then you’re doomed. Luckily, Party Golf has really gone down to the pure fundamentals of what golf really is. What is it? You may ask, to which the answer is quite literally hitting something with a stick towards a hole.“
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
Game : Riposte
What it is : Gabrielle wrote: “Three different modes are found in Riposte. The one I was drawn to was the lovely game of Footbrawl (football and brawling). Deathmatch and Coins are the others, and players can find themselves in ranked or custom games through steam matchmaking.
I was never good at these games, but I like when things blow up. After I read about the explosions found in Riposteduring the brawl, I’ve been wanting to get my butt in that arena!“
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
Game : Dusty Raging Fist
What it is : Gary wrote: “Players can also summon powerful entities known as Mythical Guardians, either to deal huge amounts of damage to enemies or to restore huge amounts of health to allies. Elemental attacks are also featured, adding further depth and variety to the core combat.
My early impressions are kind of ‘meh’. Repetitive gameplay can be done right – just look at something like Metal Slug or Rocket League – but not every title nails it. I’m not convinced enough by what I’ve seen that I wouldn’t grow bored after a couple of hours, with or without friends.“
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
Game : Super Axe Boy
What it is : Gary wrote: ”
Something that strikes me as particularly interesting is the revelation that the Kickstarter funding would be going towards graphical and audio assets such as enemies, objects, and levels. Perhaps there’s hope yet for the game’s visual design. It’s in desperate need of a revamp, anyway, as plenty of other games have picked up on that polygonal art style and done it much better too, like Grow Home and the upcoming Kickstarter-funded Home Free.“
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
Game : Doko Roko
What it is : Gary wrote: “A 2D action-roguelike with an emphasis on vertical progression, Doko Roko is the story of a towering ecosystem and the perils within. A lot of focus is being put into the game’s fiction, so here’s hoping it’s compelling enough to stand aside the fluid swordplay mechanics, which include dodging, parrying, striking, and reflecting projectiles. With Dark Souls listed as an example of good storytelling in games, it seems like Mack is aware that interactivity and exploration are more effective ways to engage players in a game’s world than forced exposition.“
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
Game : Welcome to Another World!
What it is : Gary wrote: “Whether you’re after nostalgia or knowledge, there’s plenty on offer here, and Welcome to Another World has a full 29 days left to reach its €35,000 goal. The pitch video is perhaps a little presumptious in ending with the line ‘Soon in English thanks to you!’, but that could just be poor translation – rather ironic, really, and hopefully not indicative of the final product’s quality.“
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
Game : Infinity: Battlescape
What it is : Gary wrote: “Most impressive. Whether or not the game will actually be any fun to play remains to be seen, but the sheer amount of content and information available on the project’s Kickstarter page is sure to help it get funded, provided it can maintain this kind of momentum. In their pitch video, developer I-Novae Studios describes the core gameplay loop as one involving epic space battles in a true to scale solar system, with three factions fighting to control as much territory as possible.“
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
Game : Stash
What it is : Gary wrote: “So where is all that money going, if the purpose of this third campaign (the first was cancelled, the second was successful) is simply to widen the game’s audience? Developer Frogdice makes that clear through the project’sKickstarter page, which contains a wealth of information about the game. These resources will be pooled into supporting additional artists, commissioning more professional music and audio, and working on new features. Further information is promised further down the line. The main goal, however, is simply to get more people playing the game.“
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
Game : The Letter
What it is : Serena wrote: “I’ll admit it. I’m not a fan of Japanese horror films. They just don’t sit well with me. Which is why I find it strange that visual novel The Letter speaks to me. Probably in some weird Ouija fueled way. This horror game is heavily inspired by films like The Grudge and The Ring, both movies that I have never had any desire to watch. If you’re a fan then you’ll probably feel right at home here. It looks creepy and something that I’d want to stay away from. Yet I’m strangely attracted to it at the same time.“
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
The Rest of the Campaigns :
Antreya Chronicles Online : A steampunk fantasy MMO with a lot to show off, unfortunately none of it is gameplay.
DJ’s Bane : As someone that’s not a fan of EDM a game where you kill a DJ is intriguing; unfortunately a cool premise is the only thing this $12 Kickstarter has going for it.
Virtual Reality Mobile Game Gets Kids Physically Active : Sound the alarms! It’s a mobile game in the video games section!
Real Tank Battle : You may as well back this one, it will never reach the $560k funding goal.
Jack Nimble: Attack of the Boredom Bugs : A rough looking strategy game with a kiddie angle.
Shop tycoon : The funding goal is low, but this store owner strategy game is offering nothing at the moment.
Secrets Within : The first RPG Maker game of the week.
Fame&Glory : Nothing, nothing, and nothing.
Rescue the Princess : The timeline involving the developers need to ‘re-learn’ the various tools is frightening.
Faxanadu Remastered : A remake of the classic (?) NES rpg that hasn’t been shut down by the rights owners yet.
Soul Emission : At least the funding goal is only $77.
Light Side Dark Side : This might be a record for the least amount of information ever provided.
F1 2015 & 2016 Season Simulator. : How has this not be shut down yet?
An Illustrated History of Game Controllers Vol. 1 : The title says it all, it’s definitely worth a look.
FOREIGN SECTOR : An RTS that has some really interesting things going on, unfortunately the presentation still has a lot of opportunity.
Ota’s World : A visual novel that steps outside of the usual romancing.
CopQuest: Bob’s First Day : A game about police brutality, sounds great! That funding goal though…
Pixel invasion : Take it all in, because this is what indie games looked like fifteen years ago.
Sex, Drugs and Video Games : When trying to get money for a book on Kickstarter it’s best if the campaign isn’t just a wall of text.
Survivors: Unleashed : This campaign is offering up a ton of information and artwork, unfortunately it doesn’t show any gameplay.
MineBoss : Love the concept of a mining sim, but it’d be nice to see something. Anything.
Warriors Of Valor : An NES style 16 bit JRPG.
Dungeon Slayer : A hack & slash dungeon crawler that’s got a ways to go.
Lotia : Another 16 big RPG Maker game that looks more interesting than the hundreds we see on Kickstarter.
Bunny Quest : Sure, it’s not the prettiest looking game, but these kids are doing more than I ever did at that age.
STP – Action Story Survival : A retro adventure RPG about the end of the world that’s got a demo you can check out.
Killing, My Friend : $175k for what looks like a Max Payne clone.
Puzzle Depot : A cool looking puzzler that has a demo available.
Project Codename Game Therapist : I really hate when people rant about wanting to make games the way they “used to be.”
The Greys : Even though much of this campaign is in English it still doesn’t really explain what kind of game it is.
War Of Hearts | The Enemy Inside : Google Translate tells me this is a third person shooter, unfortunately there’s no game to be seen.
ArkWorld : An intriguing anime inspired space adventure(?) shooter(?) strategy(?) game with a campaign that’s sabotaged by not properly explaining how it plays.
BC Clarence : A text adventure with a “Risks and Challenges” section that’s three times as long as the “About this Project” portion.
Let’s Go! Katakana : Another Japanese language learning game.
Jumper : Another first person puzzler.
Husk : The main video is so dark that it’s almost impossible to see what’s going on in this horror game; skip to the “playable teaser gameplay” video to get a better idea.
Catamancer : What’s interesting about this feline CCG is that the developer has plenty of game to show, but spends almost the entire video not showing it.
Tabletop VR : Virtual tabletop sims are getting to be their own genre these days.
That’s it for last week’s Kickstarter video game campaigns. Watch your wallets!
Too bad for “Ota’s World”, I can’t in good faith back a title that is going to be free to play, for me crowdfunding only makes sense if the title is going to be sold.