Infinitap Games

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is one of the biggest campaigns right now. It is a sandbox RPG made with Cryengine.

Cradle is an open-world game that is also using Cryengine.

Olympia Rising is a Greek mythology themed 2D action game with a demo.

La-mulana 2 is a sequel to a 2005 game from a Japanese developer.

There is a horror game called Spectre that has a campaign planned for next month.

matt wrote:It's on IndieGogo, but I'm excited about The Lady Game. I really like the art style, and it's really, really weird. It is similar in theme (but not in execution) to Neverending Nightmares in that it is an exploration of anxiety and depression. I backed it and hope they can get their funding!

The Lady does look interesting. It seems strange from a fundraising perspective, though. you pledge for $10 to get the game, but the video says that the game will sell for seven or eight dollars at launch. plus they say they will be making the game regardless of the fundraising results.but I do understand that raising money could help them improve the game quality.

In general, I'm not nuts about the flexible funding model for that reason. I like backing projects because I like to make them possible. However, I still back projects that are over their funding goals, so I guess flexible funding is sort of in the same boat.

Anyway, I don't expect anyone to back the projects I like. I honestly felt weird recommending crowd funding projects, but people suggested I do it, and I'm happy to oblige. Crowdfunding made my dreams (nightmares?) come true, so I like to help others.

Oh, I'm glad to get suggestions about crowdfunding projects, and I've backed several that various people posted about here. For The Lady Game, I was mainly commenting about how they were structuring their fundraising campaign (flexible funding and charging more than retail ahead of time). I think it has potential, and there's a good chance I'll buy it if it gets good reviews upon release.

Good point. I'm not nuts about how they are running their crowd funding campaign either.

They are charging above retail? That makes absolutely no sense! You might as well just stick out a little tip jar at that point, because there is absolutely no incentive for anyone to pre-order...in fact there's negative incentive!

I get that it's a crowd-funding effort, but you should at least sell the game at price, and then give people the *option* via tip jar to give you extra to help create your game.

But then again, I'm very out of touch with the times...people go insane over pre-ordering digital goods. It's weird. My mother pre-ordered Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for me when I was a child from Blockbuster video. That was an exciting time...but now it seems as if every single game can be digitally pre-ordered, and they slap on tons of weird crap to incentivize you.

*GET THE EXCLUSIVE BIKINI DLC WITH PRE-ORDER*

To quote the Beach Boys, I guess I just wasn't made for these times!

Matt, looking at the market today, I think you need to add microtransactions to NN. ***PAY $0.99 TO PICK UP CANDLE***. ***YOU HAVE RUN OUT OF ADAM TOKENS. PLEASE BUY MORE TO PICK UP AXE*** ***THE WARDROBE IS LOCKED. PAY 4.99 TO OPEN***

Also, a three star rating system. Apparently every game since Angry Birds needs a three star rating system.

Ok, I'll end my sarcastic rant. To be honest, The Lady looks lovely, and I can't wait to play it, but my heart still lies with NN.

matt wrote:In general, I'm not nuts about the flexible funding model for that reason. I like backing projects because I like to make them possible. However, I still back projects that are over their funding goals, so I guess flexible funding is sort of in the same boat.

I used to pay equal attention to IndieGoGo and Kickstarter, but I quickly saw the flexible funding model as being harmful for the early momentum of a campaign and much more risky for backers. None of the IndieGoGo projects I backed in those early days delivered and a ferrofluid vial project I backed appears to have been a scam as the project creator disappeared (I eventually backed another ferrofluid project which I did receive).

Harry Sunderland wrote:They are charging above retail? That makes absolutely no sense! You might as well just stick out a little tip jar at that point, because there is absolutely no incentive for anyone to pre-order...in fact there's negative incentive!

I get that it's a crowd-funding effort, but you should at least sell the game at price, and then give people the *option* via tip jar to give you extra to help create your game.

When designing rewards, the fair compensation to backers for the risks they are taking should be one of the priorities.

Now that it is Febraury there is a wave of new campaigns.

Horror game Nevermind has the optional feature of the gameplay changing based on feedback from a generic heart sensor.

Classroom Aquatic is a Oculus Rift game with dolphins in a school taking a test and the player trying to peek answers.

39 Days to Mars is a small campaign for a co-op steampunk survival adventure game.

Catapult for Hire is a 3D game where you utilize a teleporting catapult.

Ooo! I head about Nevermind and always wanted to play it. $250k is going to be really tough - especially when they are really pushing the biofeedback aspect of the game. I feel like we made a similar mistake on Retro/Grade by saying "play with the guitar" in all our marketing (at least for the PS3 version). People who didn't have guitar controllers didn't think the game was worth trying - despite that I spent probably 90% of the dev time playing with a controller.

Well, hopefully it'll work out for them!

With the 2012 London Olympics there was a big slowdown on Kickstarter. Hopefully there isn't as much slowdown from the Sochi Olympics.

FRAMED has the potential to be something like an indie Heavy Rain. The rewards structure has some bizarre decisions I don't like such as the number of limited slots.

Darkest Dungeon is already looking like an example of how to run a campaign well. It is a roguelike RPG with a strong presentation with great use of various hues of red. I had already seen it on Prefundia and there was a strong Reddit presence this morning. The dev is a Neverending Nightmares backer.

matt wrote:Ooo! I head about Nevermind and always wanted to play it. $250k is going to be really tough - especially when they are really pushing the biofeedback aspect of the game. I feel like we made a similar mistake on Retro/Grade by saying "play with the guitar" in all our marketing (at least for the PS3 version). People who didn't have guitar controllers didn't think the game was worth trying - despite that I spent probably 90% of the dev time playing with a controller.

Something they could have done is mentioning as soon as possible on the project page or in the pitch video that the heartrate sensor is optional. Someone assuming they must have the sensor to play could be someone who decides not to pledge. With so much emphasis on the heartrate feature, I feel there needs to be more information on the project page about the sensors. It looks like an average backer wanting to try that feature is going to have to spend another $70 to get the type of heartrate monitor they use.

Maybe it's just me, but even if I know you don't need the biofeedback sensor, it really feels like you are missing out. I know I want to play it with a biofeedback sensor. The sad part is that I do have a Garmin heart rate sensor, but I have no idea if it will be compatible. I suspect it is not.

I also dislike it when they dangle the idea of a console port in the campaign without any details. I have an Xbox One (which is mostly used for Netflix at this point :-/ ) and I'd love to take advantage of the Kinect's pulse sensor just because it seems super cool. Will I get the XbOne version if they make one? I don't know. Probably not. :-/

As well, there is no demo and not much info on the actual horror. While this is potentially not indicative of the quality of the game, there is nothing that scary in it - but they are just showing bits and pieces, so it may be super scary. Who knows! Not me.

Well, they seem to be off to a good start (and I backed them despite my reservations), so what do I know! It is a long way to $250k though...

Framed seems cool, but $300k is a lot of money to ask for with no demo and without an established track record.

Darkest Dungeon looks really cool, and holy crap! They are doing awesomely on their first day! Maybe they'll have another Hyper Light Drifter level of success on their hands.