So the holiday crowdfunding calm season is officially over…
New
UnDungeon. Pixelart action RPG with roguelike elements, part of the SquareEnix Collective which means they will get additional funding if this KS succeeds, which it certainly looks like it will. Hyperlight Drifter-ish, but with 7 unique characters to choose between that play differently, have different upgrade paths, and presumably have unique storylines and endings. Watch the trailer, really good art and music. Action RPGs aren’t really my genre, still tempted. €41,534 pledged of €50,000 goal, 23 days to go.
The Last Monsters. Pokemon/Digimon for grownups. They go with the premise that have been used for many webcomic strips punchlines “Having enslaved animals battling like gladiators for the amusement of kids, isn’t that rather savage?” and run with it. Good concept art. The mix of cuteness, innocence lost, post-apocalypsism, “who are the real monsters here” etc looks like it could pull effectively at the heartstrings if the writing is good. $4,127 pledged of $7,500 goal, 27 days left.
The Pedestrian. 2D puzzle platformer, where you run from signpost to signpost. Looks a lot better than it sounds. $6,502 pledged of $21,000 goal, 26 days remaining.
The Lighthouse. 1st person point & click horror adventure game. A remake of an earlier 2d point & click adventure that had an original mechanic where the light from the lighthouse revealed new details in scenes, now being redone in the Unreal engine. Set in the 1960s, spooky coasts at night, searching for clues for vanished people in dark and creaky wooden cabins, can’t go wrong with that. Hopefully has what it takes to stand out from the many jump-scare Amnesia clones on Steam. Full VR support planned, for those who really like to get their heart attacks on. $2,268 pledged of $25,000 goal, 41 days remaining.
Ongoing
Little Bug - stylish 2D platform adventure. $25,280 of $35,000 goal (72%), 20 days remaining.
Solo - cell shaded 3D exploration game which also aims to be an introspective meditation on love. Got a mention from Pip on the frontpage. $24,950of $64,500 goal (38 %), 34 days remaining
Sundered. Really nice looking Metrodvania by the team behind Jotun. Game already playable, this is to add some more months of development time to add polish and content. CA$ 67,373 pledged of CA$ 25,000 goal (250% funded!), 27 days to go. For $250 you can be added to the game as a slain Elite Soldier, or - the clearly superior choice - a fallen Eschaton Fanatic corrupted by Eldricht powers.
The Herbologist. Dystopian first persion mystery game. 50% there, looks like it has a fighting chance of making it. $5,074 pledged of $10,000 goal, 14 days remaining.
Pixel Princess Blitz. Sandbox roguelike 2d action rpg, with an anime inspired art style as would be expected from the name. €46,314 pledged of €77,700 goal, 19 days to go.
Upcoming
Lots of really exciting ones, IMO.
Beautiful Desolation in 3 days. A post-apocalyptic adventure game by the South African studio behind Stasis which got a good review by RPS. Some good artists and audio people working on there, I have the lovely ambient sounds from that homepage on the background as I’m typing this.
Cultist Simulator. By Alexis Kennedy one of the founders of Failbetter Games (Sunless Sea) who left to create a new studio. A “single player boardgame” where you allocate cards to research new rituals, perform sacrifices, gain powers etc. Alice wrote about it almost half a year ago. Unknown when the Kickstarter starts, but might be soon since I saw this mentioned somewhere?
Sunless Skies, sequel to Sunless Sea and Fallen London, starts February 1.
Possibly Pillars of Eternity 2. It is definitely coming, Obsidian are teasing images on their Twitter account right now, which depending on how many companions they are going to go through means the official reveal is probably coming 5 or 8 days from now (possibly sooner if some companions are unused). Unknown if they are going to go back to Kick- or Fig-starter, or if they are going self-funded, Paradox funded, or something else. I personally do hope they crowdfund it partially again, I want to throw more money their way.
Other
Lots of high profile games from Kickstarter launching soon. Night in the Woods, and Torment: Numenera for instance. Underworld Ascendant which I’m really looking forward to is going to show off what they’ve been working on the last 6 months or so. It seems like it’s fallen off a lot of people’s radar, but come on! This really is a lot of people from Looking Glass studios doing a spiritual sequel to Underworld, the game(s) that were such a big inspiration for RPGs and the “immersive sim” genre.
Edit: Also Witchmarch development has started up again, and Narita Boy is coming to Kickstarter in one month. Cliqist is a good site which writes about crowdfunded PC games, I found those news there.
