Lords of Strife has surpassed its Kickstarter goal in under a week. This would ordinarily be a significant accomplishment, and I still think it is. What puts an asterisk next to this one is that the campaign goal was only $250 USD.

So What’s the Problem?

I don’t want to rag on the game or its developer, but I can’t help wondering if Lords of Strife would have received as many pledges if it had been asking for more money. We’ve seen what can happen when games fall on the opposite end of this axis.

Even developers asking for fairly standard pledge numbers might not receive the same good faith as just a few years ago. Just take a look at the project that Lords of Strife developer Chris Johnson was working on prior to his new title. With the early boom of crowdfunding engagement having long since faded, is it time for lower profile dev teams to temper their expectations?

Hopefully not. Again, I think it’s awesome that Lords of Strife has been funded. It looks like a solid action game with some unique and interesting mechanics. It has a compelling, consistent visual design. Most impressive, it’s one of the rare games I’ve seen to include a justifiable reason for players to take forced damage.

I’ll be glad to see this game succeed, and I think it will. I applaud Chris Johnson for being a largely self-sufficient developer. Setting such a humble goal was an intelligent move, and likely drew the game some extra attention. Unfortunately, not all developers are able to work on the same budget. Not all games can afford to be “refreshingly modest”.

Games exist in a market where season pass pre-order bundles can sell for $100+, but an indie title costing just $20 can face scrutiny for its price tag. At least no one can accuse Chris Johnson of being a “greedy dev”. All the same, here’s hoping the Lords of Strife does well with its upcoming Steam release. If you’d like to support the game before then, the Kickstarter campaign still has a few weeks to go.

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About the Author

Lucia Taylor

Lucia's an avid RPG gamer with a soft spot for old-school titles, the clunkier the better. They're also a part-time dungeon master and full-time tabletop enthusiast. On the off-chance they're not busy thinking about magic swords, they're probably on a desperate, mindless scrounge to find another cup of tea.

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