Kickstarter Katchup - 16th June 2012
So Many Games
I dub this week, Success Week. A lot of projects have seen themselves crossing over the finish line with their targets reached, or massively exceeded. As we mentioned last week, Tex Murphy made it, but incredibly it just finished cents away from $600,000 of their $450,000 goal. I wonder if we are already blasé about these figures, but they got an extra one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Give me that much money and my life is changed forever. And that's on top of the $450k they asked for. Just incredible amounts of money are out there for the taking, so long as your project is interesting enough, and your promotion canny enough. With perhaps a dash of luck.
Usual reminder. Please email me at the address above with any Kickstarters you think should be on the list. There's no promise that everything will be featured, and of course, our mentioning a project here is in no way an endorsement that you should give it your money. That's your call.
The Winners
Tropes Vs. Women In Video Games - Anita Sarkeesian
Unquestionably enormously boosted as a result of the attentions brought by the vile behaviour of many bigots and trolls, the happy ending of the cruel fairy tale is that Sarkeesian's attempt to raise $6,000 saw a finished total of $158,917. Absolutely incredible. The original small sum was intended to be used to finance the time needed to do a great deal of research and then produce a video series on the representation of women in games, via the most common tropes. It reached this funding within 24 hours, before the noise. The ghastliness that ensued meant instead of bringing her down, instead Sarkeesian is in an amazing position of having a huge amount of money to fund her projects for the foreseeable future. Splendid.
With two weeks still to go, the turn-based strategy has leapt over its $7,500 goal and is now on $9,945. They've announced stretch goals, their ambitions now reaching to $20,000 which would see a campaign/puzzle creator being developed alongside the game. But even if they only get to $16,000, that would add a second story campaign to the game.
Two Guys SpaceVenture - Two Guys From Andromeda
The Kickstarter officially finished four days ago, with the target exceeded so late in the day that the Two Guys must have fallen off the edge of their seats when it finally tripped. A big surge saw it reach $539,767, crossing the half million goal, meaning we shall be learning what roll Cluck Y'egger plays in their Space-Quest-ish new adventure.
Lily Looking Through - Geeta Games
The ludicrously pretty adventure has swooped past its $18,000 desires to be on $22,812 with two full weeks still to go. Naturally they've introduced stretch goals, so at $26k they'll add more content, and at $36k they'll port to tablets. The game looks so lovely I'll even forgive Steve Hoodgendyk for having worked on bloody Myst 3.
Cult: Awakenings Of The Old Ones
This one didn't make our list before it already got funded, and is now at nearly double its original $5,000 goal. Procedurally generated worlds, along with generated stories and backgrounds, attempt to create a hybrid of a sandbox world with a meaningful RPG. If that works, that's a dream project for me. It's 2.5 years in the making, but quite how he was planning to do anything with $5k minus fees and taxes I'm not sure.
The Crystal Catacombs - Maxwell Jensen
Another newbie to our list that already has its funding is The Crystal Catacombs. At $8,242, exceeding the $7,500 aim, it still has 20 days to go, to fund a procedurally generated rogue-like meets Castlevania. Another enormously ambitious idea for a tiny amount of funding, but stretch goals are in place. $15k to add a map editor, $30k for a "realm contest", and $45k for co-op multiplayer.
The Losers
Erm, there aren't any. Well, that's not quite true. Projects we only found out about during the week that were clearly going to fall enormously short of their goals fell enormously short of their goals, but there's no point in posting them up to stare at. So, onto those still in progress.
The Runners
Alpha Colony: A Tribute To M.U.L.E. - DreamQuest Games
There's a good chance you won't remember 1983's MULE, because you were only born a minute ago. But DreamQuest Games do, who are planning to do an interesting dual-project. They're planning to do a faithful remake of the original for phones, while creating a new game inspired by the original for PC, with elements of Settlers Of Katan thrown in for good measure. They're aiming for a perhaps ambitious $500,000, and with 29 days to go have $9k. A long way to go. Take a look:
Well, it looks like people want a game by Neal Stephenson then. In the first week this has made an extraordinary $285,056, well on its way to the massive half million. Realistic sword fighting using augmented peripherals sounds bloody great, and I'd be astonished if this didn't make and leap over its target. You can read lots more about it here.
Minis With Enemies - Heatwave Interactive
An attempt to bring the feel of tabletop gaming to the PC (and mobile) is asking for $300k, and with 24 days to go has nearly $6,000. Featuring a high quality video, unfortunately it also makes the oh-so-common "JUST TELL ME WHAT THE FUCKING GAME IS!" mistake that SO many KS projects do. Two and a half minutes in, and still no sodding information. Oh, finally, it lets you create and paint 3D minis in-game, with a GM function and the ability to create games with others. It's a splendid idea, although it's asking for a really big chunk of change to get there. I'm going to nag Kieron to check this one out.
The Repopulation - The Repopulation
We had a lot of requests for this one to appear on the Katchup. It's a science fiction MMO that's only asking for $25k. And it's definitely going to get it, with 16 days left and the target at the time of writing at $24,471. The game's been in development for ages, with a decent team on board, and looks pretty impressive. A very awkward video of a man struggling to read at a distance makes it quite hard to follow, but it's clearly an ambitious game. Again, what difference $25k can make in an MMO I'm not entirely sure, but they're obviously going to exceed that. Here's a trailer:
Dead State - DoubleBear Productions
19 days left, I'm pretty sure Dead State's incredibly ambitious RPG will get to $150,000. And so are they, it seems, having announced a $180,000 stretch goal already. It's just shy of $120,000 at the moment, with the full game available for the minimum $15 pledge, the release aimed for Christmas 2013.
The ghosts-vs-humans multiplayer continues its glacial creep toward a $25,000 ambition, another three grand added in the last week to reach $16,672. I bet he's grateful he went for a massive calendar on this one, with 20 days still to go.
Even though there are still 29 days left to go, that the not-Al-Lowe adventure has only managed $11,744 of a ridiculous half million target means there's a ton of work to do, and success is pretty unrealistic. I think scrapping and starting over, with a project launch that doesn't try to trick people into thinking Lowe's on board, and a target that isn't so daft for a team of unknowns making a game based on a distinctly unappealing character, might be the way ahead for this one.
Torchships - John Carl Gillespie
Despite a lot of attention from RPS readers nagging me to mention it, the super-hardcore 3D space combat sim still hasn't managed to reach $10k of a $40k finish line, and with 42 hours to go is going to have to have a sudden spurt of attention to get there. Disappointingly, I expect we'll be seeing this one on the Losers list next week.
Zombie Playground - Massive Black
However, one I expect to see on the Winners list is Zombie Playground, the cute-but-not-cute zombie action game that's now on $87k of its large $100k goal. They've done extremely well to reach this, and with 10 days left I'm sure they'll get there. The sillies have made the mistake of clogging up their front page with updates, so finding out what the game actually is in the text is a confusing mess - they should probably fix that if they want to pick up lots of new donators over the next week.
Finally the spell-casting spelling game from the Kingdom Of Loathing team has caught, and with five days left has $92.6k of its $100k aim. Surely it's going to get there now, as they push in the final days. Thankfully the updates are appearing now, and its far more clear they're passionate about success here than their sparse, seemingly disinterested attitude had first suggested. And to everyone whinging about the graphics - meh, get over it. It's cartoons, they're not that bad, and who cares when it's the spelling game JOHN WANTS.
Ground Branch - BlackFoot Studios
I'm surprised by this one. I was pretty sure the remarkably impressive shooter would fly toward a perhaps too big $425,000 target, after the attention it was receiving. Clearly a ridiculously high goal for a new name, but being made up of ex Red Stormers I thought would boost things. But only $44,500 has been raised so far. There are 20 days left, so there's obviously plenty of time to get there, but barely clearly 10% isn't what I was expecting.
A small surge forward for this one, now at 3.7k of its $15k ambitions, with two weeks left on the clock. Steampunk post-apocalyptic RPG sounds good to me, but clearly needs to push itself a bit better if it's going to make it. Also, I got told after criticising their crappy quality video!
Retrovirus - Cadenza Interactive
What the hell is going on here? The developers of Sol Survivor launch a KS for their awesome-looking six-axis Descent-like shooter, only ask for $75,000 for polish, and make a piddly $4,621 in the first week? HUH? What is wrong with people? This is the one that should be getting all the money! Who doesn't want this?
