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 : Alien Dinosaurs
What it is : Dan wrote: “In the spirit of older platformers the plot is pretty simple. Evil alien dinosaurs have abducted a single human to test his skills across a selection of levels which of course involve platforms and a variety of weapons with which to defend himself. It does seem very basic but there will be a lot of gamers who would relish this very experience and the entry-level pledges to get a copy on PC are only $5, while the stretch goals to port the game to Nintendo DS and Wii U sound promising (but less feasible for the Xbox One and PS4).“
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
Game : The Last Shore
What it is : Serena wrote: “Some gods are benevolent and some gods are just assholes. Unfortunately for our young protagonist inThe Last Shore this happens to be quite the latter. According to the pitch, her people are being threatened by their deities for whatever reason and she goes on a quest to take them on to save her family from their wrath. It’s a tale about exploration, finding oneself, and conquering your fear. And for an action adventure that’s a pretty bold statement. Which looks to be a grand pixelated experience even if you’re not a fan of the genre.“
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
Game : Realms of Magic
What it is : Serena wrote: “Realms of Magic takes place in a Western fantasy setting inspired by classics like Lord of the Rings and Warcraft. You’ll have plenty of tropes to have fun with, including several familiar humanoid and monstrous creatures. You should also expect a whole host of classic classes and character archetypes, including a few that are unique to the setting. The best part is that you aren’t limited to having a character of one type as your alter ego can dip into any of up to thirty skill trees. Be a specialist or a jack of all trades if you want. It’s your sandbox. Do whatever you want.“
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
Game : The Great Whale Road
What it is : Serena wrote: “Set sail for adventure, fame, and glory during the Middle Ages as one of several historical tribes of the seventh century. The Great Whale Road is a turn-based strategy and card game hybrid that just launched on Kickstarter and it looks to be an interesting combination that sounds like a fun and somewhat educational look at the past. If nothing else, you should learn something as the developers are looking to make the game as historically accurate as possible. In fact, they’ve been spending a lot of time researching this time period to make sure they get it right. Now that’s dedication to your work.“
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
Game : Poltergus
What it is : Serena wrote: “So, Poltergus is a point and click adventure game with a twist. To start off, it’s a comedy that features ghostly companions as our dynamic duo work to solve mysteries surrounding the other denizens of the underworld. Or something. The best part about this game is that it’s set on a reality show. That’s right. It’s being produced as reality television. Complete with one-on-one interviews with the cast and crew that help break up the story as a whole. I actually love this idea as you get the story not only from playing the game but also from the actors’ own viewpoints as well. I may hate reality television but this sounds like a real laugh.“
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
Game : Quantum Suicide
What it is : Serena wrote: “Visual novels generally revolve around romancing one or more main characters and while Quantum Suicide certainly doesn’t deviate from this norm it also does so with its own take on the genre. You are a member of the second generation of humanity that left the Earth for a better place, presumably because we screwed it up in the first place, and it’s up to you and the rest of the ship’s crew to continue keeping the race alive and well. Not an easy feat when you consider that the ship’s AI has gone rogue and that there was an “incident” involving the first generation’s crew.“
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
Game : Dukes and Dirigibles
What it is : Dan wrote: “Boasting a rather brilliant theme tune from comedy hip hop artist Professor Elemental, Dukes and Dirigibles is already looking a lot of fun. Set in a steampunk version of Victorian England where planes and blimps battle for dominance in aerial tournaments, this top down arena shooter marks the debut Kickstarter campaign from developer Backward PieS.
This husband and wife development team do have a previous Steam title under their belt with Let There Be Lifewhich is going some way to fund production of Dukes and Dirigibles – which has itself already been Greenlit. A web version of Dukes and Dirigibles is already available but the Kickstarter campaign promises additional features including a multiplayer mode which could end up being the killer component.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
Game : AdventureQuest 3D
What it is : Serena wrote: “AdventureQuest 3D won’t be breaking too much ground as it follows a lot of the same tropes other MMORPGs use. You’ll be able to go questing solo or as a large adventuring party to take down the usual fantasy monsters. You’ll also have skills and abilities that you learn as you level up, weapons and armor to increase your stats that can be transmogrified (most games of this genre seem to be going this route, which I love), and other features that should be familiar to any seasoned veteran.“
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
Game : Douglas Circumstance
What it is : Serena wrote: “Douglas Circumstance is a 2D side scrolling shooter where you play as the titular character as he goes out hunting monsters for money. He won’t be completely alone in his journey as he has his brainy sister, named…sigh…Douglette, on hand providing him the weaponry he needs to finish the task at hand. And it looks like the guns are as varied as the monstrous varieties that he has to face. Which is a most certainly eclectic bunch. From brains to zombies to what appears to be Cthulhu you’ll be facing more than just your run-of-the-mill creatures of the night.“
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
The Rest of the Campaigns :
Critter Island : The funding video features Pikachu, so there’s that.
Zems : A lovely looking tactical CCG, it’s a crowded genre though!
The Fall of Neries : Another 16 bit JRPG.
Altar : This horror adventure does a great job of communicating its vibe, unfortunately no game is shown from what I can tell.
Citadel Siege : Relaunch of a campaign we saw previously. They brought the funding goal from $100k to less than $8k this time around.
ZFiles: Infection : A videogame / comic mashup that looks pretty interesting.
petsu.it : The concept of designing, playing with, trading, and selling pets for a game sounds cool, unfortunately the artwork is killing this game.
Worlds Hardest Game 3D : The title could be telling the truth, this game looks pretty tough.
Tankwork : A tank combat game with some cool looking artwork and unit customization.
Deleez Cookies : A visual novel about you know what.
Devil May Cry Succesor Project Wolf Demo : There are so many issues with this campaign, but the one that jumped out at me is that the developer calls out the fact that he’s running an Indiegogo campaign at the same time.
Fatropolis : Very rough concept art and nothing else.
Destrus : A blocky first person RPG that doesn’t have much to show, but at least the funding goal is only to cover the cost of getting on Steam Greenlight.
Alpha Strike : A promising space shooter that we’ll be taking a closer look at a bit later.
Empires of the Undergrowth : A modern day Sim Ant.
Battery Acid : An action adventure that has some things going for it. I was thrown off by the mixing of art styles though.
The Dark Paladin : Another 16 Bit SNES style RPG.
ZDS : Zombie Defense Simulation : Yet another zombie defense game, but this one has nothing to show.
Dusk : An open world horror game with survival elements that looks pretty interesting.
UORQS : The developer of this $250k campaign says that it’s a parody.
Spacetimeshift : Yes, this developer is asking for $32,000 for this.
Future Studios an Island Experience in VR : There’s a huge number of “look at this low framerate video of an island world with nothing happening” campaigns on Kickstarter. Here’s another one.
Hero Draft : An ESports fantasy website/game.
Fire And Sprite : It’s unfortunate when a developer relaunches a campaign and brings nothing new to the table.
Echo Leader : A great looking shooter worth a second look.
A Matter of Caos : A Lovecraft inspired point and click adventure game.
Garden Adventures : $1,000 for nothing.
Torn Valley : The mix of games the developers are claiming is interesting: Eve Online and he Last Of Us. Unfortunately that $1mil funding goal is a killer.
Kick Ass Commandos : A curious relaunch. The game was on Kickstarter back in September with a $15,000 funding goal but fell far short. The new campaign is for just $250. Did I mention that the game has already been released on Steam Early Access?
Stories Of Eternia : An RPG Maker game with a campaign that has almost no information. Strangely enough though, the funding video is 21 minutes of gameplay. That might be a record for the longest video.
Bellus Mortem : I don’t know why, but this spell-casting arena fighter looks familiar to me.
TurboLink : A slick looking top-down racer that I’m hoping we can take a closer look at later.
R.A.D. : An action RPG platformer that looks curiously compelling.
That’s it for last week’s Kickstarter video game campaigns. Watch your wallets!
