Two big wins this week and both are projects that I’ve been intrigued by since I first saw them. Lacuna Passage is the game about mysteries on Mars, using real topography of the Red Planet, and Satellite Reign is the Syndicate successor that promises an emergent cyberpunk city. Excellent news. The two represent different points on the Kickstarter spectrum. One is a project with a (relatively) large goal, a veteran developer and a connection to a recognised franchise. The other is the creation of a team of industry newcomers with no heritage to draw on, a smaller financial goal, and a brilliant central idea backed up by impressive tech. A good week.

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There have been plenty of weeks with no losers and several winners, but I can’t remember compiling this column and finding losers without winners to sit above them. There are lots of projects that are readying themselves for a spot in the winners’ section though, propped on the podium, parading their plaudits. Dungeonmans and Tangiers are my current favourites, with Monochroma not far behind. It’s a busy week though and there should be something for everyone. Except sports fans. Nothing for sports fans. Probably the least Kickstarted genre actually. Licensing issues to blame?

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When was the last time a project made almost a million dollars in a week? Warmachine: Tactics came and conquered, with its fantastic visual design and promise of turn-based shenanigans pleasing all who saw it. Well, maybe not all, but a heck of a lot. Elsewhere, intriguing procedural pirate game, Freebooter, was cancelled early in its campaign, leaving me with affections to spare. I’m lavishing them on Dropsy, a surreal adventure starring a creepy clown, and Monochroma, which every single person should look at right now.

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There are several failures this week, although most vow to return or to continue development by finding other means of funding. That’s becoming increasingly common by my reckoning. There are also more developers realising that while operating a campaign is hard work in and of itself, the amount of effort expended before even launching can be just as important. New space games make up the bulk of fresh entries and Centration is already at the top of my personal wishlist. Space Station 13 from a first-person perspective? Oh yes.

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Last week I was at Rezzed instead of looking at Kickstarter pages but I’ve made up for it by spending most of today browsing through projects. Thoughts of Kickstarter’s purpose have been hanging in the air (on twitter and in chatrooms that I frequent) and I have been pondering how I see the site. I have backed projects knowing that I’m essentially pre-ordering something that I assume will be released and will be as expected, based on the team’s previous work and a comfortable place in a familiar genre. But I mostly back smaller projects that I want to support and to play because they are different, risky and challenging. There’s a great deal of innovation among the nostalgia.

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Occasionally projects appear that tickle me right in the hype-ocampus. They’re the kind of games I’d like to take out for a drink. I want to get to know them better and feel like I’ve waited my whole life to meet them. It’s awkward when two appear at the same time but thankfully I don’t have to choose a favourite. Frozen State is an open world survival horror RPG with a spooky ecosystem and shades of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. while GhostControl is a ghostbusters management game with turn-based tactical trapping. A good week.

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I can’t stop thinking about the Deus Ex Machina 2 trailer, which you can see below. Make sure to listen to it as well as looking at it, but also be sure to have some powerful mental mouthwash on hand/ It has taken up residence in my brain and I don’t know how to get it out. Maybe I’ll play a game. I’ve spent the weekend playing something that I first covered when it appeared as a Kickstarter campaign – Expeditions: Conquistador. It’s packed with interesting words and systems, many of which deserve a round of applause. Like many crowd-funded projects, it’s a game with obvious inspirations and heritage, but with a personality that is far removed from the fantasy worlds that are common in the genre. I’ll have more to say about it in the next couple of days. Enjoy the music.

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I’ve been quiet for a few weeks so this Katchup is going to be a little different. I’ll add a few new projects, but I’m also looking back all the way to April 28th, when the last Katchup emerged, and checking the success or failure of every project included. That way everyone can remember why they were/weren’t enchanted by Dog Sled Slaga, tell all their friends (again) about that one cool cemetery game, and then commiserate or congratulate as the fate of all is revealed. Yes, the destinies of all are contained herein – even the sad future of that one reader who is doomed to spend the summer of 2016 adapting Portal for the big screen, only to find that Chris Tucker will be providing the voice of GlaDOS and Chell is now Cypher Raige Chad Danger, played by Danny Dyer. Michael Bay directs.

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Jagged Alliance: Flashback arrives in the Katchup this week. I’ve expected (and hoped for) a Jagged Alliance crowdfunding attempt for some time now. As soon as it became obvious that Kickstarter was a place where old franchises could revive themselves, every week that the mercenaries didn’t appear was slightly more unsettling than the last. Would I rather have a direct sequel without a crowdfunding campaign? Perhaps. The transparency that Full Control promise, listening and learning as they go, is appealing and it’s hard to imagine fans of the series pledging for a sequel, like Back in Action, without the core of the original games’ features in place. Elsewhere, Worlds of Magic and Infinite Space: Sea of Stars are two major successes.

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Two $100,000 winners this week and a few other projects close to the finish line. While I was compiling the column this week, I realised I was keeping track of the number of projects that apparently ‘contained roguelike elements’. It’s about 90%, although to be fair I stopped keeping track almost as soon as I’d started so that figure is entirely made up. Perhaps my memory fails me, but I don’t recall the term being anything like as popular 12 months ago. Of course, some would argue that the meaning has been lost and that anything with procedural generation or a modicum of difficulty is now wearing the roguelike hat, but that in itself surely tells us something. Games want to be like rogue, which is far more agreeable than the days when every other one wanted to be like a soldier or a space marine.

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Last weekend took on a life of its own, which is the sort of thing weekends should probably do more often, and I was stranded away from my trusty keyboard and therefore unable to type words about games that might exist at some point in the future. This was a sad thing. Fortunately, missing a week means that there are more winners than ever before and the bumper crop contains two games that I’ve played and enjoyed, at least three that I look forward to playing when they are released and a project that makes me realise how much I want to play with an Oculus Rift.

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I haven’t eaten a single chocolate egg in the last twenty four hours, which would normally be an acceptable dietary state, but with this being the extended weekend of confeggtionary rabbit worship, I’m a little bit upset that nobody bought me a big Smarties egg. There’s nothing like a tube of Smarties to make me feel like a kid again. Some crispy chocolate buttons, a few episodes of Button Moon and a glass of Tizer. Right, that’s my annual product placement commitment out of the way and hopefully I’ll be receiving a batch of shop-soiled Smarties eggs any day now. On with the Katchup.

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A few winners, a few losers and a heap of new entries. It’s a busy week and there are quite a few projects that people have contacted me about that aren’t included, even though I’m interested in them. I’ll do some individual posts on those over the next couple of days but, for now, feast your eyes on the contents of the Katchup at the breadth of gaming delights that it contains. Then feel a bit morose that Rogue System probably isn’t going to be on your computer for a long time.

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