The active Kickstarter projects discussion thread.

[LobsterSundew]

Power Drive 2000 is like a game halfway between Drift Stage and Distance.

Starfall Tactics is a space combat strategy game.

Ex-Konami game designer Koji Igarashi has a teaser site with runes that translate to "What a wonderful night to have a KS".

There was an article about how well Yooka-Laylee was the fastest video game to raise $1,000,000 through Kickstarter.

[matt]

Yooka-Laylee is doing amazingly. It's funny because their pitch video is "we are making a game very similar to Banjo-Kazooie" right down to pairing a flying animal with a larger animal, but people really want another Banjo-Kazooie. I know I do! Microsoft only made Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, which was a really impressive game - but poor use of the Banjo Kazooie license... I wonder if Microsoft isn't kicking themselves for not making a traditional BK game... Maybe they will now!

Formula Fusion is funded, but only their minimal goal that seems like they aren't confident they can deliver a good game with... I wonder how many of the stretch goals they'll get given their bizarre reward structure. They pretty much admitted that it was confusing in an update...

I imagine Koji Igarashi doing another kickstarter will be really successful! It's too bad I never worked on any classic games that I could reboot. It seems like that's the best way to kickstarter success. Dan worked at Retro Studios and Origin, but he was before Metroid Prime and after the Origin hayday. :-/

[matt]

Starfighter Inc is a multiplayer space warfare game, that is off to a strong start. Kicktraq shows it trending towards $876k, but it's only 3 days into the campaign, so I'm sure that will drop. The reason I mention it is because the developers released their stretch goals already (they are 31% funded) with a $17 MILLION DOLLAR goal. Holy crap, that's insane! After the base goal, their first stretch goal is at 2.8 times their funding goal, so I'm not sure they understand how stretch goals work...

I don't really like multiplayer games, but I would be interested in their single player game, which they need a minimum of $10 million to make, so I don't think I'll be backing that after all... Their argument that AAA single player campaigns cost $50 million, so they are doing it for cheap is pretty ridiculous...

[LobsterSundew]

Mystic Searches is an odd campaign. It is one of those projects where it is difficult to tell if it is good or bad. The eyes of the protagonist are uncanny.

LIGHT FALL has a well refined presentation. As soon as the developer starts talking it is about the gameplay mechanic which I really like.

The Cabin had an interesting rero VHS style pitch. Another pitch that was a bit weird was the one for The Lil Trucker.

There is a thread where I've talked about STARFIGHTER INC.
http://descendentstudios.com/community/ ... of-x-wing/

I was tempted to pledge for an early-bird for a $9 ARM-based computer. Then I saw that as a Canadian I would have to pledge another $20 for shipping which made it not worth it. I already have an idle Raspberry Pi that my Ouya replaced as a XBMC machine.

[LobsterSundew]

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night had a very well executed launch. There was the teaser and rumours before it launched. The "Backer Achievements" section is interesting to watch get unlocked. All the recent negativity against Konami's treatment of its employees and IPs means this is a good time for an ex-Konami game designer to come to crowdfunding.

[evilkinggumby]

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night had a very well executed launch. There was the teaser and rumours before it launched. The "Backer Achievements" section is interesting to watch get unlocked. All the recent negativity against Konami's treatment of its employees and IPs means this is a good time for an ex-Konami game designer to come to crowdfunding.

Yeah the guys at Game sack did a video just to promote the game and the moment I saw, I snagged it as a physical release. Hope it does really well and kicks butt!

I will say.. I don't follow the castlevania games and so i'll likely suck at the final game but.. still worth it! lol

[matt]

It is interesting they are doing physical releases so inexpensively. If you read on Gamasutra, apparently the got 90% of their funding for the game from an unknown source ($4.5 million) and they just did the kickstarter to demonstrate the game is viable in today's current market. Lobster, I think that is a very insightful point that the timing worked out in their favor since Konami is mistreating their employees and more or less exiting the AAA game market.

[LobsterSundew]

For some reason a big wave of medium quality campaigns launched today and are set to end around Saturday June 13th and Sunday June 14th. I think it may be due to project creators having an understanding that E3 on June 16th will be hard to compete against. It looks like a horrible time to launch right now. The hype for E3 and traveling to E3 begins to ramp up before it officially opens. It is potentially the worst time until December for a video game project.

One project that launched that looked interesting was the fantasy game Umbra, but it launched a bit slow for a project that needs to reach $225,000. Another was the horror game Through the Woods.

This morning Kicktraq showed a net -$7,634 for May 14th on STARFIGHTER INC. What could have caused this? On May 13th there was a series of unusual large pledges were made to multiple projects by a backer who is now suspended by the staff. It resulted in Dimension Drive (Kotaku article) being €7000 short of its goal, Elsinore showing a net -$9,840 and Hero-U showing net -$4,530.

From my data I also see other projects that potentially suffered but have not been confirmed yet to be the same troll. These pledges are ones that appeared on May 13th and disappeared May 14th. They also happen to be the largest tiers available. Starfall Tactics had a $10,000 pledge for only yesterday. The Intergalactic Trashman had a $3,000 backer appear and disappear. Louie Cooks had a blip for a €1,200 backer yesterday. LOUD on Planet X has a blip of a $5,000CAD backer. Little Devil Inside has a blip with a $8,000 backer. Light Fall had a blip of a $5,000 backer. Herald had a blip of a €1,500 backer. Guardians of the Forest had a $1,000 blip. Das Tal had a blip of a €1,500 backer. Yooka Laylee had a blip from a £5,000 backer. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night had a $10,000 backer blip. a•part•ment had a $2,000 backer blip.

On brighter news, I saw Shovel Knight made a cameo at 10:56 in the kickstarted Tales of Alethrion: The First Hero animated short.

[evilkinggumby]

damn thats a lot of blips and trolling.. WTF? If you don't like a project, walk away. don't sabotage it and ruin weeks of hard work and the finances and emotional states of dozens of developers. jees. thats just SO craptastic...

or.. ya know.. go on their forums and be a constant thorn in their side *lol*

[matt]

That is a big bummer. I am friends with Robin running a•part•ment, and I bet losing 10% of her funding goal - especially during the middle slump has to be really rough.

That is super duper sucky about Dimension Drive because who knows - had they not had the funding pulled half an hour before their campaign ended, it's quite possible the backers could have banded together and made sure they got over the hump. At least they have some major press, which will help them for a relaunch.