More interesting kickstarter games

[Azhag]

Stolen from Banner Saga update:

KICKSTARTER PROJECTS WE SUPPORT

We've been frequently asked by our community what other Kickstarter projects we think are going to be great. What we really like to see are people like us - passionate about their game, a track record of producing good, working products and some real gameplay footage to show on their Kickstarter project. Please note that just because we like these projects doesn't mean we're snubbing other projects that we didn't mention. These are just our personal picks and games we're backing ourselves.

We're sure you already know about awesome, well know projects like Shadowrun, so here are some projects you may not have heard of that we'd love to see do well. Click the name to go their page, and tell them Stoic sent you!

Valdis Story
They've literally got about 6 hours left as of this update, so check them out quick! These guys have a great puzzle game already out on Steam and Valdis Story is looking like an awesome throwback to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. In full transparency we've pledged at the Crew Prize tier (with our own cash) and are really excited about the game!

Republique
These guys are real professionals and extremely ambitious. We immediately loved their dedication and the unique idea for the game tailored for mobile and iOS. We're happy to spread the word that they've recently made it available on PC and Mac.

Legends of Eisenwald
Of all the projects mentioned, this one has what looks like the most work already done and it's gorgeous. We're also suckers for turn-based strategy and low fantasy settings. Give it a look!

Grim Dawn
Some of the original developers of Titan Quest have been diligently working a new action RPG for a long time and have come a long way. It looks fantastic! If you aren't already, go help them polish it off.

[Lordnine]

Republique looks very interesting.  I pledged them $15 for the PC version.

[EngineNo9]

I also think Nekro is another one worth a look.

[CeeKay]

Republique looks very interesting.  I pledged them $15 for the PC version.

sounds a bit like The Experiment.

[MonkeyFinger]

Republique looks very interesting.  I pledged them $15 for the PC version.

sounds a bit like The Experiment.

Yep, definitely made me think of that as well.

I stumbled across a Battle of the Bulge game that looks interesting. It's iPad only (unless you count the boardgame version) and it is from a new company started by Eric Lee Smith, a former SPI designer and co-founder of Victory Games. And the designer John Butterfield designed, amongst other games, Ambush! which was one of my favorites back in the day.

[raydude]

I stumbled across a Battle of the Bulge game that looks interesting. It's iPad only (unless you count the boardgame version) and it is from a new company started by Eric Lee Smith, a former SPI designer and co-founder of Victory Games. And the designer John Butterfield designed, amongst other games, Ambush! which was one of my favorites back in the day.

I am completely in! I've actually had some ideas similar to the ones being shown in Battle of the Bulge, with the zoomable map (zooming in for controlling units, zooming out to pan across the map). Good to see someone else with actual game design credentials is doing it!

[ydejin]

I stumbled across a Battle of the Bulge game that looks interesting. It's iPad only (unless you count the boardgame version) and it is from a new company started by Eric Lee Smith, a former SPI designer and co-founder of Victory Games. And the designer John Butterfield designed, amongst other games, Ambush! which was one of my favorites back in the day.

They added Al Alamein game for $20 donation.

Graphically I think it looks great.  Hopefully this turns out well, I'm definitely very excited about the idea.

[MonkeyFinger]

Cool! Looks like it is now called "Crisis in Command" with the Bulge being volume 1 and El Alamein volume 2.

ps. It's the $25 and up levels that get Volume 2 for free.

[th'FOOL]

So we did a podcast yesterday about Kickstarter- check it out: http://gamingtrend.com/2012/05/06/podcast-may-6th-kickstart-my-heart/

[forgeforsaken]

Carmageddon
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stainlessgames/carmageddon-reincarnation

[Calavera]

The Two Guys SpaceVenture(tm).

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spaceventure/two-guys-spaceventure-by-the-creators-of-space-que

Seriously, running out of money to support these...

[wonderpug]

Aw, man!  How can I resist the two guys from andromeda?!

[EngineNo9]

Aw, man!  How can I resist the two guys from andromeda?!

You know CeeKay went to the trouble to create a thread just for you and you ignored him. 

[wonderpug]

Title wasn't informative enough, and CeeKay threads need to reach a certain critical mass of replies before I'm sure they're real. 

[EngineNo9]

Republique looks very interesting.  I pledged them $15 for the PC version.

sounds a bit like The Experiment.

Yep, definitely made me think of that as well.

They have just under 2 days left on their Kickstarter, and it's another one that seems to be coming down to the wire.  They have made huge progress in the last few days but are still ~$164k short of their goal.

[Lordnine]

Republique looks very interesting.  I pledged them $15 for the PC version.

sounds a bit like The Experiment.

Yep, definitely made me think of that as well.

They have just under 2 days left on their Kickstarter, and it's another one that seems to be coming down to the wire.  They have made huge progress in the last few days but are still ~$164k short of their goal.

I didn’t think they would make it but they’ve brought in almost $100,000 in the last two days so they might actually pull it off.  What is sad is their latest video is MUCH better than the one they started with and it only came out a couple days ago.  If they had started with it and planned the PC version from the start I don’t think they would have had any doubt reaching their goal.

[Turtle]

Republique was up to ~450k they might make it, but there's so few hours left.

[Lordnine]

Republique made it with 6 hours to spare!  Pretty impressive since they were only half funded a few days ago.

[EngineNo9]

Republique made it with 6 hours to spare!  Pretty impressive since they were only half funded a few days ago.

And they finished with $55K over their goal.  Much better than it was looking like it would be even just a day or two ago!

[Azhag]

Conquest 2! Huge goal may be hard to reach... but I'd be in
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1869102574/conquest-2-vyrium-uprising-rts-fans-unite?ref=category

Also, Pathfinder Online? Sounds really far off, but could be cool
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1675907842/pathfinder-online-technology-demo?ref=category

[EngineNo9]

Also, Pathfinder Online? Sounds really far off, but could be cool
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1675907842/pathfinder-online-technology-demo?ref=category

I would be doubly wary of anyone Kickstarting an MMO, especially one that thinks they only need $50k to do it.  That's not even one year's salary for a single mid-level programmer, and MMO's are not quick or easy to develop.  At all.

[Turtle]

I only have a tiny amount of game developer experience, but even I have run into a ridiculous number of people who really should know better about what it takes to actually make a publish an MMO.

Anyone with half-way decent business sense would not be trying to make an MMO at this point in the game.

[EddieA]

I would be doubly wary of anyone Kickstarting an MMO, especially one that thinks they only need $50k to do it.  That's not even one year's salary for a single mid-level programmer, and MMO's are not quick or easy to develop.  At all.

It looks like the $50K is going to be used to produce a short tech demo in order to get publishers interested in funding the actual game.  They're also producing an RPG book, and that's what you get for funding them.

[Chordian]

Tex Murphy - Project Fedora
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/251414413/tex-murphy-project-fedora

Pledged $50 - I'd really like to see this game happen.

[TiLT]

I would be doubly wary of anyone Kickstarting an MMO, especially one that thinks they only need $50k to do it.  That's not even one year's salary for a single mid-level programmer, and MMO's are not quick or easy to develop.  At all.

It looks like the $50K is going to be used to produce a short tech demo in order to get publishers interested in funding the actual game.  They're also producing an RPG book, and that's what you get for funding them.

Doesn't matter, IMHO. The following still stands:

Anyone with half-way decent business sense would not be trying to make an MMO at this point in the game.

The chance of these guys eventually succeeding is so small as to be virtually unmeasurable. There is no room for new MMOs in today's market (unless you have one hell of a licensed property, and Pathfinder isn't one. Hell, even that just marginally increases your chances at this point). At least they have a better chance than this guy.

[wonderpug]

Is everyone picturing WoW size or bust when they think MMO?  I don't see why you can't have big and small MMOs just as you would any other type of game. 

[TiLT]

Is everyone picturing WoW size or bust when they think MMO?  I don't see why you can't have big and small MMOs just as you would any other type of game. 

The costs for this kind of thing aren't linear. Building a game of half the size (relatively speaking) as WoW doesn't mean it costs half as much to develop. Even if someone tries to develop a small MMO they'll need a considerable amount of customers to stay afloat, or at least serious customer loyalty (like EVE Online has).

[wonderpug]

Help me understand what makes this type of game so necessarily expensive to maintain?  FWIW, The Realm (still kicking) is what keeps coming to mind as a viable small scale, single server MMO.

[TiLT]

It's not that it's hard to maintain (but that can be expensive too. Customer loyalty can be lost very quickly if stability is anything but exemplary), but that the initial development costs are dramatically higher than any other type of computer game.

[Calavera]

Help me understand what makes this type of game so necessarily expensive to maintain?  FWIW, The Realm (still kicking) is what keeps coming to mind as a viable small scale, single server MMO.

Holy moly, that game is... 16 years old now. Wow. I'll give you small scale, but it's not an actual single server.

It's actually got a minimum of two servers. The Realm is room based (it actually uses the SCI engine) and the different rooms can be load balanced to different servers based on the population. I'd actually argue that even with the low population they surely have, they're probably still running 3-5 machines. The database server is most assuredly separate from the login/logic servers and there's probably 2 servers providing the database. At a minimum there's a single login/logic server (3 total), but it's more likely they kept a single login server with a pair of logic servers for load balancing (5 total) or have a login/logic server and a second logic server (4 total). Looking here, I'd say it's more likely on a 5 server setup.

At this point, it's just hardware replacement as it fails and data costs (which is probably on a T1 or T3). A new project would still have all of it's development costs to recoup. Still, it's probably a few thousand a month to keep The Realm going.

[wonderpug]

Interesting, thanks!

[Azhag]

Dissapointed Conquest 2 is off to such a slow start. Would like to see that made...

[EngineNo9]

I thought that Cross of the Dutchman looked like it could be a pretty cool game, but it's also not doing very well so far at 17% funded of a fairly modest goal.

[MonkeyFinger]

33 hours to go at the time of this posting for Paper Sorcerer. I thought it looked pretty cool so ended up backing it, they're at almost 200% funded so just basically knocking out the last few stretch goals before it funds on Monday.

[Azhag]

Letgends of Aethereus - may not be distinct enough, but looks like it has promise
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/460738485/legends-of-aethereus-co-op-hack-n-slash-action-gam?ref=category

[Azhag]

This seems interesting enough and at least they have a decent tech demo.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1317934609/forsaken-fortress

[metallicorphan]

Not sure how Dizzy faired over the pond he was a big hit on the Spectrum,Amstrad and Commodore in the 80s,i even had all its adventures on one cartridge for the NES,The Oliver Twins are trying to get a new adventure for the Egg

(doesn't look like they will do it though)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theolivertwins/dizzy-returns


speccy version from the 80s