The kick that won’t stop

Remember my last post about Kickstarter? Yeah, when I wrote that I saw nothing unusual with only linking to 5 or so game projects. I mean, that’s what I was expecting: A few new projects venturing into this new model of funding. Some will be successful some will fail but everybody will agree that this new thing is a good thing. Games that were previously doomed to only getting shunned by publishers now have the possibility of seeing the light, of getting into into the players’ hands.

Five is the perfect number that reflected what I was expecting.

….

Right now I feel like the alternate reality Bill Gates that actually said that 640K ought to be enough for anybody.

As it turns out, there were a vast amount of industry veterans just waiting for the chance to work in the project of their dreams under their own conditions. Silly, silly me. As always, hindsight is a b*tch mean lady.

So, in an effort to give a little more dimension to this whole Kickstarter thingy, I’m going to proceed and link to every single game-related project I find.

Let’s start with the already funded game campaigns:

• Starlight Inception. A classic space combat game in the veins of Wing Commander, X-Wing, etc.
• Nekro. An action game in the style of Diablo.
• Bionite Origins. A First-Person Shooting action with Real-Time Strategy elements. Kind of based on Battlezone ’98.
• Shadowrun Returns. A 2D turn-based game with tactical combat. Think of the original Fallout but with a different setting.
• Grim Dawn. An action role-playing game being created with the tools and technology used to build Titan Quest.
• Jane Jensen’s Moebius and Pinkerton Road Studio. Basically a kickstarter for a game studio that will make one adventure game with the money pledged and another one under a more traditional publisher model.

To put things into perspective, in two weeks time we went from only six games funded counting the Double Fine adventure to a total of 12 games now. That’s a 100% increase in games funded, so I’d say we’re off to a good (kick)start.

But wait! I’ve yet to link to the not yet funded game campaigns:

• Storybricks. It’s a … a …. a game kinda like Storytron? But more restricted, not as grandiose and with 3D graphics? Just watch the video above.
• Republique. A stealth/survival game for iOS and PC. Even with the wide coverage this game will get funded only at the last minute it seems.
• Battle Chess. You know, like that other Battle Chess but this time it’s the official developer with the actual rights to the “franchise” (a one game franchise up until now).
• Carmageddon Reincarnation. Another Carmageddon game? That was unexpected, though not unwelcome.
• Xenonauts. A strategic … turn based? 4X? I seriously don’t know, but it looks as dense as concrete (in a good way). [EDIT: Woops! Funded while I wasn’t looking!]
• Two guys SpaceVenture. From the guys that did the Space Quest games, a comedic adventure game in  space! Kinda like Space Quest! Shocking! Seriously though, this is nothing but awesome.
• Haunts: The Manse Macabre. An almost black & white turn based horror game with grid-based movement and isometric view. It lets you play as the dangerous denizens or the intruders.
• Diamond Trust of London. A Jason Rohrer boardgame for the DS that is already done and only seeks funding for publishing.
• Redux: Dark Matters. A shmup for PC, XBLA, PSN and … Dreamcast???? Wow.

So … 9 more games, huh? That makes it all a total of 21 game campaigns I’ve seen on Kickstarter…. that’s a lot more than five isn’t it? More than four times as much. Thank you for making me look stupid, internet. Really. Thank you.

Seriously though, this is nothing but great news, especially when almost every single game has been easily funded. We’ll see how all of this goes, because this is quite literally the beginning. Some of these games won’t come out. Some of them will inevitably be victims of development hell, and unlike the traditional publisher model, the developers can’t easily ask for more money with the promise of actually finishing the game this time.

Imagine the PR disaster that Duke Nukem Forever would have been if the funds of its 10 year development came from the customers instead of a publisher.