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 : Epic Manager
What it is : Julie wrote: “Epic Manager is squeezing into the fantasy game genre and looks to redefine it, taking aspects of Dungeons and Dragons (random encounters), Final Fantasy Tactics (level-based job system), Crusader Kings II (management simulation) and melding them together to create something unheard of before. Developed by Montreal-based studio, ManaVoid, Epic Manager is a fantasy RPG with tycoon elements where the player is in control of the adventure, in fact, they’re the head honcho and calling all the shots.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : You Are Now Earthbound
What it is : Marcus wrote: “In the history of video games few fandoms can compare with the extreme amounts of passion exhibited by EarthBound lovers. As a testament to how strong this community really is, Fangamer have just launched a Kickstarter project titled You Are Now EarthBound. The full scope of the project comes in four parts. First, they want to produce a physical and digital book titled Travel Eagleland the EarthBound Way. This 250 page title will be doused in 90s design aesthetics and provide a lovely companion for playing and enjoying EarthBound.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : WAS The Hourglass of Lepidoptera
What it is : Marcus wrote: “The name itself might be a little confusing so here’s a brief synopsis of the game. Basically, this visual novel takes place in Tottori, which is a real city in Japan. Developer S.R.L. hoped that by making this game as a form of “content tourism” that many more people would be exposed to the beauty of Tottori. As common in visual novels and dating sims, it also features a great many youthful anime girl characters. However, they suggest it will eschew appearances with a “brand-new interpretation of the concept.” I’m not sure what that means but I’m all for non-cookie cutter visual novels!”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Concrete Jungle
What it is : Marcus wrote: “Concrete Jungle includes a single player mode which allows you to grow your deck, solve the problems of citizens, and hopefully create an excellent city. As you build, tasks will grow more challenging. As with real city planning, you’ll need to think ahead or suffer the consequences of your poor early city design later on. If you’d rather hone your skills against an opponent there are even a few options for that. Players can compete against AI or against local players (up to four). Friendlier players can instead initiate local cooperative play. Finally, if you want to show off your skills in an indirect fashion you’ll be able to check out an online leaderboard.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Laser Fury
What it is : Marcus wrote: “Laser Fury is a game that can be played by one to four players. Of course, it does appear that multiplayer is the way it’s intended to be played. As far as co-op is concerned, you’ll be able to play with friends locally or via the internet. This simple statement is a huge deal for online multiplayer fans such as myself since so many indie developers have been shying away from online play as of late. There’s nothing wrong with local play inherently – it’s just really difficult to get friends together in person sometimes! In any case, with that out of the way, Laser Fury’s gameplay in general also seems polished and engaging.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Flamberge
What it is : Marcus wrote: “What does the concept of simultaneous turns mean? Basically, it means that the player and their enemy will draft their movements before seeing what the other person does. Then, both plays are run simultaneously. Effectively it means you must anticipate what your opponent will do next – and plan for it. This may prove very challenging in single player mode where you must discern the AI’s plan. Or perhaps it will be easy if AI thinks very simply. In any case, multiplayer is also going to be implemented. Simultaneous battles should prove particularly interesting against an actual human player. Right now that is only in pre-alpha, but is definitely planned for completion.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : The Adventures of 00-Dilly – My Crash Test Dummy
What it is : Julie wrote: “The Adventures of 00-Dilly is a casual 3D obstacle and jump and run game designed with every player in mind. Developed by multi-continental indie studio, Light in JAR, 00-Dilly is planned for release on Steam for PC and Mac, and for mobile devices both Android and iOS. Through the manipulation of mouse movements or screen touching, players can maneuver 00-Dilly throughout the course and accumulate points. Along the way, more interesting objects will unlock, allowing the player to expand the way Dilly conducts his tests (i.e. a rocket into the sky or shooting out of a canon).”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Convoy
What it is : Marcus wrote: “Convoy plays from a top-down perspective and on a giant hex grid. Each pixelated vehicle offers colorful designs as opposed to the drab desert backgrounds. Players are encouraged to explore, battle, and gain experience. Throughout the travels there are many random events which can occur, some great and some awful. Often times you might be lured into battle which is both tactical and plays out in real time. It seems quite hectic with multiple convoy’s shooting at each other as they drive, but also pretty awesome! Once victorious, you can regularly collect loot and increase the stats of your crew. The better prepared you are the less likely you’ll die.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Incarnate
What it is : Marcus wrote: “As someone with a love for card games, it’s hard to ignore the many titles coming forth on Kickstarter. Incarnate is one of the latest and, despite entering a crowded genre, does a variety of things to differentiate itself. Players begin with a deck which pulls from one of 123 currently available cards. The battlefield is comprised like a board game but offers tactical aspects. For example, a certain title on the board may be raised much higher than the others. Getting into that position confers that you’ll be able to do more damage to lower enemies. Interestingly, unlike most tactical games with positional advantage, you can also manipulate the field for your benefit (via special land cards).”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Ember
What it is : Marcus wrote: “The first thing you’ll likely notice about Ember though is the art style. Although not entirely monochromatic, it is pretty dark in visual tone. Chances are this relates to the storyline of Emilie and her powers, but the developers aren’t revealing any bit of the storyline just yet. One promise states that every puzzle in the game will be unique and even offer some sort of insight into the story as players progress. Achieving such goals will definitely help to make the game stand out against its genre brethren.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club
What it is : Nathaniel wrote: “Ever wanted to hold hands with JonTron while his mechanical parrot Jaques watches from within his cage? You can probably do that! Ever daydream about sneaking a longing glance at one of ProJared’s many luxurious chins? Who hasn’t?! As if you could possibly need to know more before backing this game, the game will be an otome or, for those of you who don’t know what that is (including myself until just moments ago), a romantic visual novel with a female protagonist. Not only that, but it’s going to be free, which is just fantastic, because I need to play this, but if it showed up on some sort of receipt, my girlfriend would become very justifiably suspicious.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
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Game : When You’re Gone
What it is : Marcus wrote: “When You’re Gone is about Sam and Emma, two people who form a relationship, live that way for a while, and then finally break up. Told from Sam’s perspective, it is meant to be much more than just a “love story,” though. The worlds will be designed based off emotions rather than reality, offering an unusual glimpse into the state of mind of someone during high and low points of their relationship. So far, the concept art looks super stylized and unlike that out of any other title. This cool art will be present during comic book-style scenes between gameplay.”
Keep an eye on it in our calendar
[divider]The Rest of the Campaigns :
Fireworks Command Ship : Think Missle Command with Fireworks.
Protocol E : A cyberpunk RTS that looks to be off to a solid start game-wise.
Vita Incerta : This weeks winner for the coveted “Least amount of effort put into a Kickstarter campaign” award.
Green Game : A relaunch of an eco-themed educational game. Here’s our previous coverage.
High Frontier : A space station (or rather, Space Settlement) game with a lot of potential.
Detroit On Fire : A fighting game based on a variety of hip-hop artists and personalities from Detroit.
Abole – Killer Disease : A zombie shooter with not much to show yet.
Maze Runner RPG : An oldschool rpg in the RPG Maker vein.
iSpace2 : An attempt to re-create the entire planet in a game; certainly ambitious.
8 Bit Kingdoms : Another campaign on the heels of a successful campaign a few months ago. Not sure why they’re going back to the well on this one.
Turmali Adventures : An expansive game for kids with a variety of play options.
CC Survival : A “team survival” game with lots of info, but little game yet.
The Ritual On Weylyn Island : A first person horror survival game that’s got a lot of potential.
Lizard : An old-school looking platformer that’s being developers for a number of platforms; including the original NES.
Cannibal Fever : A zombie themed RTS with a slick funding video, but no gameplay.
Stowaway : A graphically impressive first person adventure.
Super Sea Star : A action arcade game starring a loveable starfish.
Valiance Online : A City of Heroes inspired MMORPG
Full Tilt : A horror game with a trippy funding video. The developer is also runnng the “Flyest Bird Ever” campaign.
99 Crystals : A stick figure shooter that promises “billions” of weapon combinations.
UCraft : An open world Minecraft style game for the Wii U.
Aerannis : An old-school platformer with some snazzy graphics and a variety of gameplay styles.
Live or Die : Forget Vita Incerta, this is this weeks actual winner of the “Least amount of effort put into a Kickstarter campaign” award. Bonus points for the lack of video or even cover image.
The Questening : A quaint looking platformer for a variety of platforms.
Adventure Box : A browser based Minecraft styled RPG.
The Demonslayer : A role playing game with nothing to show.
INGONGA : A swampy Louisiana based horror adventure that could turn into something great.
Alone : A horror game with nothing to show.
DREAD: Book of Lovecraft : A horror game that could be something, just need to see more first.
Survive : Otherwise known as “Killing Zombies With a Bow and Arrow Simulator”
Flyest Bird Ever : A flappy bird clone. The developer is also running a campaign for Full Tilt (see above).
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That’s it for last weeks Kickstarter campaigns. Watch your wallets!
Hooray glad to see that Sekai Project latest localization “WAS The Hourglass of Lepidoptera” is still getting attention and coverage =3
Hi, about Fireworks Command Ship, you wrote “Fireworks Command Ship : Think Missle Command with Fireworks.” This game has nothing to do with Missil Command, since you don’t aim at UFO to blow them up, you have to launch the correct Firework to eliminate the correct color of the UFO’s lifebar.
You could download the prototype to give it a try…