An early access title like Ark: Survival Evolved selling over 400,000 units in less than a week is impressive. Hearing that Studio Wildcard brought in more than $10 million in revenue during that same week is enough to make any aspiring developer take notice of Steam’s Early Access…
Joanna Mueller
516 Articles
Joanna Mueller is a lifelong gamer who used to insist on having the Super Mario Bros manual read to her as a bedtime story. Now she's reading Fortnite books to her own kiddo while finally making use of her degree to write about games as Cliqist's EIC.
Joanna Mueller
2 Min Read
Buying an early access title on Steam is something of a gamble. The current system makes no distinction between a title requiring a bit more polish and one that is years away from working as intended. You can (and should) do your research before paying anything to make sure…
Joanna Mueller
1 Min Read
After an impressive E3 trailer put it on my radar, I’ve been looking forward to diving into the retro-futuristic alternative world of We Happy Few. Now that the Steam Early Access version has released, I got the chance to play and see what all the…
Joanna Mueller
1 Min Read
Part of the allure of moral choices in games is the ability to take the path less traveled. You can be an outright villain or hero without repercussion nor acclaim. Unfortunately, some developers lack the deft skill to properly pose moral choices to their players….
Joanna Mueller
1 Min Read
Let’s face it, most of us didn’t end up working in our first career choice. I still maintain that I would have made an amazing unicorn veterinarian. Perhaps you had a more realistic goal? Something in the public sector? Good news, there might still be hope…
Joanna Mueller
4 Min Read
Crowdfunding has opened the floodgates for creatives to bring new and exciting ideas to the world. This is awesome. The rise of indie developers, self-published authors, and artists is a welcome sign of the times. Unfortunately, some people want to jump right in and start…
Joanna Mueller
4 Min Read
Crowdfunding is an investment, not a purchase. This has become the mantra of failed developers meant to shield them from criticism when a crowdfunded game fizzles out and dies. While Kickstarter’s “Terms of Use” provide some guidelines for the process, it is far from perfect….
Joanna Mueller
4 Min Read
Kickstarter campaigns are rarely hurt by developers bringing too much to the table. As we’ve covered in the past, typically the opposite is true. Campaigns that offer minimal information or developer involvement rarely see the light of day. So, it might be tempting to take every…
Joanna Mueller
2 Min Read
With LGBT representation in media slowly growing, it’s exciting to see more diverse characters come into their own. The visual novel community seems to be especially ripe with intriguing new ideas. Engines like Ren’Py and Novelty remove the barriers to entry that would often omit inclusive stories. I recently had…
Joanna Mueller
1 Min Read
Dad Quest is on Steam Greenlight, after securing $9,350 through Kickstarter. The new downloadable demo gives players an inside look at Sundae Month’s bizarre world of child rearing. In Dad Quest, children are indestructible weapons. Dad’s raise their children by throwing them at enemies and buildings. Tongue-in-cheek premises seem to be…
Joanna Mueller
1 Min Read
Mages in RPG’s tend to be looked at as mere support roles. They are there to back up the beefy tanks and quick striking rogues. Even powerful spell-casters have to start at the bottom of the pecking order, until now. Scraping Bottom Games has launched a Kickstarter…
Joanna Mueller
2 Min Read
AutoAttack Games only secured funding for Legion TD2 a few months ago, but they aren’t wasting any time in showing off what they’ve been working on. Backers just got their first hands-on with Legion TD2 in the form of an exclusive Steam Pre-Alpha Demo. Back in March, AutoAttack raised…
Joanna Mueller
1 Min Read
Creepy Castle developer, Dopterra made a brief announcement that they would be in attendance to present the game at E3 this year. Dopterra’s Zach Lazarus told backers to mark their calendars as he would be showing off some, “really cool and never-before-seen parts of the game.”…
Joanna Mueller
1 Min Read
Istanbul based Cultic Games just launched a Kickstarter campaign for Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones, their take on the beloved Lovecraftian genre. While many games draw inspiration from the Cthulhu Mythos, rarely has one looked as tragically beautiful as Stygian. Touted as a game of “horror, loss, and madness,” Stygian…
Joanna Mueller
1 Min Read
The first tavern management RPG has just launched it’s funding campaign on Kickstarter, and backer support has been swift. It has even been given the coveted “Project We Love” designation. Epic Tavern, by Hyperkinetic, is already well on it’s way to reaching its $40,000 funding…
Joanna Mueller
2 Min Read
Last summer saw the introduction the “funpocalypse” with a Japanese-inspired Visual Novel Dungeon-crawling RPG hybrid, Undead Darlings ~no cure for love.~ While the initial reception was positive, Undead Darlings was ultimately unable to meet their funding goals. Fortunately, developer, Mr. Tired Media didn’t plan to…