I thought that the Kickstarter phenomenon (and anything similar) might actually suit one long thread, given their temporal nature.
So. This could be a place to link to interesting projects that you've spotted, and think that other people might like to spot too.
But please... if you have something more detailed to say about a game, or a real discussion starts about one, make a new thread! Especially when it comes to remakes or sequels to older games, which people are more likely to talk about.
Kinetic Void got a bit of publicity recently, and squeaked home in its final day to its $60K goal. I think about half of the money came in that time-span.
It's a bit vague, but sounds ambitious, and any serious entrant in the space sim genre is noteworthy in my books.
I bet they wish they had Ogre's community.
Checking over my emails to answer your question has made me realise that I'm currently backing 6 (!) projects:
- Double Fine Adventure
- Leisure Suit Larry
- Two Guys Space Venture
- Shadowrun
- Wasteland 2
- Starlight Inception
I think for me a definite case of kickstarter fatigue has set in now - I'm not putting any more money down on projects until something has come of these ones, even though there's quite a few other interesting projects still kicking around.
The obvious ones: Double Fine and Wasteland 2. They're the right combination of ideas, genres and people. There are others where one or two of these are in place but not the third; from what I've seen/heard, for instance, the Two Guys Space Venture one comes across as an amateurish mess so far.
Shadowrun was the one that got my interest the most, being a HUGE fan of the SNES and Genesis games (as I've stated a zillion times over the last decade here). Which their going to link in to (other than the crappy FPS one) this new game as well. Yay.
The Tex Murphy kickstarter has me interested as whilst I've yet to play the previous games in the franchise, they have been on my todo list for quite some time due to their overall originality.
Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...project-fedora
Bipolar Game: http://store.steampowered.com/app/463450/
GRIM DAWN muhhhfuggazzz.
I missed the KS, but I shall be pre-ordering if there are any worthwhile goodies to be had. I still play Titan Quest: Immortal Throne to this day.
Has any of these kickstarter projects been finished yet? I'm not backing anything until I see that this business model actually works. Also I guess I just haven't found anything that I believe in enough to put money down on. The Double Fine, Carmageddon and Republique ones look interesting enough but I'll wait with buying them once they're released, if they get good reviews.
Three at the moment. Grandroids, which I backed long before Doublefine's project, Wasteland and Carmageddon.
Wasteland 2 and DFA over here. As previously mentioned, that documentary for Double Fine Adventure's looking to be more than worth the price of entry on its own. I wish I'd backed Shadowrun and Grim Dawn too, but what the hey, I'll get 'em on release.
Project Fedora's looking spiffy, though I don't know how they're gonna do FMV with a $450,000 budget. I guess digital video and general current-day PC grunt absorb a fair bit of the overhead compared to back in the day?
henke: Nope, most of these have, at minimum, development time of a year. It's a bit of a medium-term investment, and yup, anything can happen in the interim. You're essentially doing a really early pre-purchase of something based on whether you like the idea of it or not, and of course there's risks to evaluate before you click that 'Back This Project' button.
At $15-$30 on average, though, I'm guessing most people don't mind shuffling some money off purely in gratitude to devs who've garnered plenty of goodwill over the years for having a hand in games like Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Shadowrun, Titan Quest, and Fallout.
Good god, I can't believe I never heard about that. I still have a whole bunch of OGRE stuff sitting around and would have happily helped fund it. Wow.Originally Posted by Shadowcat
I am really keen to see where it goes, hence I'm being an early adopter. If it turns out well, it could produce a middle ground between Indie and AAA which is ripe ground for the emergence of high quality cult classics. Hopefully, it won't just restrict itself to sequels and re-boots.
From memory they've already set aside some money so it will likely be a combination of the kickstarter money + what they've already set aside. If you watch the 1st video on their kickstarter page it outlines everything.
Bipolar Game: http://store.steampowered.com/app/463450/
I was a part of a kickstarter project for a local feature film (actor/ I did the soundtrack/ whatever odd jobs needed to be done). It was a much smaller project than the big ones people are talking about, but they raised about $3,000 and were able to get the movie premiered at a local theater and have some local distribution of DVD copies. It's just a very basic adventure-comedy, but most people that have watched it have said it's pretty entertaining.
I think kickstarter is great. I've used it to donate money to fund websites I frequent often that don't rely on advertising for their revenue. I also think it's a great idea for independent game projects like wasteland 2.
Also that Resonance adventure game that's coming out next week did a Kickstarter part way though its development. I think it got around $2000.
Anyway, so far I've backed DFA, Wasteland 2, The Banner Saga, Grim Dawn and just today, Lily Looking Through. The last one is probably the biggest 'risk' as the devs are complete unknowns but I was quite taken by the demo (you can download it from their Kickstarter page) so they've got $10 from me!
Chris Jones elaborated a bit on that in the RPS interview he did a week or so ago but, yeah, you're pretty much correct in that assumption.
Ground Branch. They've just put up their KS page with a 11 minute video showing pre-alpha gameplay footage.
It's a realistic tactical shooter being developed by John Sonedecker, level designer for Rainbow Six, rogue Spear and the first Ghost Recon for PC.
Full mod support for PC (you can make levels for it right now with the UDK), free look and free aim, weapon collision (longer weapons will be more awkward in close quarters), customisable uniforms and equipment, weapons and ammo will somewhat affect your movement and speed, no bunny hopping or dolphin diving and so on.
Take all of the above, without the clunky interface or unwieldly controls of Arma 2 and you have Ground Branch. I love old school military shooters like Infiltration for UT, Ghost Recon and Flashpoint, and Arma is excellent, especially with the ACE mod, but I feel like I'm in charge of a tank half the time I'm on foot and as for combat indoors? Ughhh.
HD video link below;
http://youtu.be/eVStChs5Uuc?hd=1
Really? Sounds kinda high to me. FMVs do not really require a lot of complex programming, I mean you can make one using just Youtube's annotation system, like this one does. Considering you can throw one together with just a cameraphone, a few friends and a Youtube-account, I'm thinking they should be able to make a pretty good one on a $450,000 budget.
Well hell, that's a considerably more impressive pitch than the initial attempt. I hope it pans out for them.
Goddamnit, I'm such a sucker...
I mean I basically had to fund Dead State, it's been sitting atop my wish list for years.
Yes, but that's not how Tex Murphy games are structured. They provide full 3D environments to explore and solve puzzles, with FMV for all the dialog and major events.
I've now backed the Tex Murphy Kickstarter as well as thrown a couple of bucks towards this.
Regarding Kickstarters, one thing that I've been thinking about is how the in-game rewards (of the 'your face/story/idea in the game' variety) will affect the experience. Wasteland 2 has something like 200 NPCs/artifacts/locations, 21 statues and 12 shrines to put in place as commemorative rewards for users. Now they've probably got an idea of how to do so without it cluttering or pulling you out of the game but, yeah, it is a little concerning.
As for the good stuff, I'm really liking the more open nature of communication and updates with the teams. It's not really something unique to Kickstarter but it does seem to go hand in hand with it. I'm not talking so much about game design details, I generally avoid that kind of stuff, but things like The Banner Saga guys introducing the two new devs they've hired with the Kickstarter funds or the Double Fine team writing a post up on how they went about choosing the engine they're going to use. It's interesting and nice to know exactly how much your pledge has helped.
I'm not convinced they'll be on top of what was already planned. Chances are they'll be existing assets re-designated (subject to approval, as stated) as user-defined. Or maybe I'm just cynical.
When I heard there was a new Giana Sisters game being made I was like "pffft, a remake of an old Super Mario Brothers rip-off? Whateeeeever." but when I saw a gameplay video of the progress so far...
I was like "wicka-wicka-wicka-whaaaaaat!?!?
Giana sisters! Cool! And they are also 'morphing' the Machinae Supremacy metal track with the old school music.
That looks awesome. Love the music also.
Bipolar Game: http://store.steampowered.com/app/463450/
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