Kommunity Kickstarter Katchup Kollektiv

Internet 2018-08-18 02:02:47 UTC #122

This is a little whatever, but I try to stay away from Russian projects. Even big ones that will succeed, like the new Pathfinder game, seem to have problems with transparency.

davey 2018-08-23 12:49:18 UTC #123

A CRPG in development called Realms Beyond is coming to Kickstarter in October. If you follow indie RPG news, you may remember a game called “Chaos Chronicles” which was sadly canceled when the developer had disputes with their publisher (both of them eventually shutting down due to financial problems). Basically, Realms Beyond is a revival of that game. A turn-based tactical isometric fantasy CRPG using OGL (Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 ruleset). The developer now owns the rights to all of the assets for that game, which looks great IMO. I’m stoked.

LarsWestergren 2018-08-29 05:19:45 UTC #124

Starflight 3 campaign is up.

icemann 2018-08-31 05:38:03 UTC #125

After a silence of 8 months (they say 6) unDungeon has put out their first update in quite some time.

Apparently their programmer quit. Which threw the project into chaos.

And a new trailer is out:

LarsWestergren 2018-09-05 19:05:40 UTC #126

Nighthawks is up, which I have high hopes for. By Wadjet Eye, and occasional RPS RPG contributor Richard Cobbet.

Do I want to be a victim, or vampire…hmm…

This one just launched looks interesting too.

Starflight 3 has reached 26% funded, with 22 days remaining.

Sarfrin 2018-09-05 20:22:34 UTC #127

Nighthawks does look interesting. Very solid team behind it.

This sentence though… It’s technically correct, I guess.

Blockquote
The initial concept for the game came when working on Sunless Skies and dreaming of seeing that calibre of interactive fiction merged with the atmosphere of some of his favourite urban-fantasy books and games, in particular 2004’s Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines… and then deciding he wanted to play that new game far too much to just leave the idea sitting in the mental “What If?” folder.

LarsWestergren 2018-09-13 06:35:49 UTC #128

Wadjet Eye, Dave Gilber and Richard Cobbet’s Nighthawks is doing well, which makes me happy.
I’m a bit concerned about Starflight 3 though, it is 40% funded with 14 days remaining. I thought it was a bit ambitious to set the goal at ~8 times what they got during the backstage phase. But maybe that amount is what they think they need to do the game justice, in which case it’s better to find out what the anticipation level from possible fans is now, than after years of development. And adjust the project accordingly.

ColdSpiral 2018-09-13 08:08:27 UTC #129

Between the Stars campaign is up:

I’ve been tracking this game for a little while and am excited to see how it turns out.
There’s a demo, available direct on the Kickstarter page or via Steam that has a self-contained story, a couple of ships, and a sector to putter about in. Worth a look.

Kiril 2018-09-13 09:56:04 UTC #130

I also think there is problems with the pitch on Fig.

Firstly the images in the gallery look blurry and quite frankly crap. I know its pre-alpha but players get hyped by images. Yes they look ok in the main body, but how many didn’t bother to read after the images.

Secondly while Starflight was a big game and important it doesn’t have as big a nostalgia hit as Elite or Wing Commander.

Thirdly its delivery is Q4 2020. Thats a long wait, I know there is projects that succeeded on Kickstarter with longer times but Fig gives the impression of studios looking to finish passion projects, not a small indie team stepping up. Well thats my impression of Fig

Internet 2018-09-13 22:59:22 UTC #131

I didn’t find the pitch horribly convincing myself. One thing that nostalgia based games need to do is convince the audience that either something about the original is unmatched in the modern canon OR they’ll offer real improvements on a genre AND they’ll have improved production values. Quite honestly, I didn’t see much of that, just nostalgia. This got a soft pass from me.

LarsWestergren 2018-09-19 05:55:22 UTC #132

Also, if you can’t get enough of that Wasteland/Fallout stuff:

Off to a strong start, 40% funded with 27 days to go.

Kiril 2018-09-19 14:11:53 UTC #133

That is the game with Ex Divinity Original Sin Devs. Thats a backing straight away.

LarsWestergren 2018-09-27 17:52:46 UTC #134

There are lots of campaigns now that look like they probably might get funded, but it’s far from guaranteed.

NightHawks, the Vampire: Bloodlines inspired story based RPG by Richard Cobbett plus Dave Gilbert and Wadjet Eye, is around 2/3rds funded at almost $80 000, with 8 days remaining. Richard has hinted he has some very cool stretch goals in mind, but they won’t be revealed until the game is funded. Personally I think famous guest writers is a likely one, to help make the game bigger with more quests and more stories. They have a free demo to download now if you are on the fence.

This one looks intriguing. Retro synth music and cyberpunk setting, stylish comic-book style graphics.

Encased, the Wasteland/Fallout 1&2 style isometric turn based RPG by ex Larian folks (thanks @Kiril) is almost 75% funded, 18 days remaining.

The Darkside Detective: Season 2 also around 75% funded with 14 days to go.

Virtual Cities has hit its first stretch goal, so now another 5 cities will get their own chapters in the book. I’m just in a discussion with Konstantinos which city I want included as my backer reward. Many of the most obvious ones are already confirmed as included (Rubacava from Grim Fandango, Sigil from Planescape: Torment, a few other great ones that I’m not sure have been publicly confirmed yet…). So I’m currently leaning towards Neketaka from Pillars of Eternity 2, or maybe Santa Monica from Vampire: Bloodlines as my chosen chapter. You can still back it if you want them to hit further stretch goals…

Also I have been playing several Kickstarted games lately. We Happy Few was a bit of disappointment, it’s not a bad game, parts of it are actually good, but the good parts are all stretched so thin, and lots of the gameplay mechanics are lacking (stealth especially). Bard’s Tale 4 and Pillars of Eternity 2 on the other hand are both excellent.

Little Bug, one of the small indie projects from Fig that has been in development for years just got released. A puzzle platformer, looks like it might be quite good judging by reviews, but could use some word of mouth or it will sink without a trace in the eternal Steam flood.

Starflight 3 didn’t make it.

Internet 2018-09-30 21:03:12 UTC #135

Wow, Nighthawks looks a lot like Fallen London. That’s not a bad thing.

LarsWestergren 2018-10-04 09:23:19 UTC #136

Last day-and-a-half for Nighthawks. Needs another $15000 or around 10%, so totally reachable but far from guaranteed so if you wanted to back this now is your chance.

Edit: Horray, it got funded! Poor Richard, that must have been some stressful last days. So happy it made it. Alexis Kennedy of Failbetter Games/Cultist Simulator swooped in and grabbed one $5000 tier a few hours ago, so now he is an antagonist we get to beat. And in the game!
(End edit)

One of the Telltale staff suddenly fired without severance has gone back to a well recieved comedic-noir point&click adventure series, which will hopefully get a new episode.

Edit:

Also very intriguing -

This one made me laugh several times, but the creator seems to mainly be famous for these absurd meme pics, so who knows if they can make a compelling game to match?

LarsWestergren 2018-10-15 16:48:38 UTC #137

New

This one looks interesting, a topical game about the modern surveillance state, and the weak security of lots of the devices in our homes and on-line services we rely on. Seems to have semi-realistic hacking mechanics in parts of it, developed together with *-hat developers. Lots of hype from other British developers, and various indie awards and conferences.

This is one of those where I have a feeling it probably will get released anyway, but the Kickstarter is to add additional polish and content, and to raise awareness. I’m backing it.

Ongoing

Last 24 hours for Encased, they’ve made it and 2 stretch goals so far.

Last 26 hours for Between the Stars who also just made it.

Last 64 hours for Rainbow Arcade.

Also made it and have around 15 days left: Nick Bounty and the Dame with the Blue Chewed Shoe and Through the Gorge

Finished

So NightHawks, Darkside Detective 2 made it. Sundew and Retro Synthesis were cancelled.

Other news

The Dancer DLC for Cultist Simulator will be released tomorrow, featuring a new legacy, a new desire, romances, rivals, wounds instead of insta-death for your cultists when expeditions fail, and lots of quality of life fixes (warnings when you reach dangerous levels of Despair or Fascination for instance). Free for those with the Perpetual Edition. Looking forward to trying it again, maybe I can find the book I wrote this time…

davey 2018-10-16 16:32:19 UTC #138

Realms Beyond: Ashes of the Fallen just launched.

It’s a party based CRPG with turn-based tactical combat on a hex grid and a ruleset based on 3.5 edition OGL (i.e., 3.5 D&D). Very much a dream game for old school CRPG fans. I just hope the story will be much better than Temple of Elemental Evil!

Internet 2018-10-16 23:54:15 UTC #139

I appreciate what they’ve done so far. However, $23 for an early bird pledge is just too much! Especially from a team that is led by veterans of games that haven’t exactly set the world on fire.

LarsWestergren 2018-10-17 06:22:25 UTC #140

Realms Beyond looks neat. Even more RPGs. Mike Laidlaw listed as “collaborator”.

OFF GRID is 2/3rds funded after a couple of days into the campaign, so that’s nice.

davey 2018-10-17 15:18:48 UTC #141

Since Waylanders is RTwP I’m not really interested but even if I was, I’d be very wary considering the developer. Gato Salvajes Studio previously Kickstarted a point & click adventure game “AR-K” over 5 years ago… They just announced that the final 4th episode of AR-K will supposedly be released in February 2019 (as well as sending physical copies) after absolutely no KS updates for 3 years.

Assuming they actually release part 4 in February they will be 5? years beyond the estimated release date (which wouldn’t necessarily be a huge problem if the game was any good), but Steam reviewers certainly didn’t praise the game… IMHO the studio hasn’t done anything to indicate they’re capable of creating a decent game of any genre, let alone a CRPG spiritual successor of DA:O, BG2, etc.

They’ve also never released a DRM-free copy of AR-K which was promised to backers. Apparently there was a Humble DL of the first two episodes at some time but it’s not available at present. I contacted GS about the DRM-free version a couple of years ago & never received a response. KS comments about it also went unanswered. Finally, I reached out again last night and actually received a response this morning:

“Hi Dave, you’re right, we promised DRM-free release, we announced the steam store to showcase game development but it doesn’t imply we forgot about DRM-free version, don’t worry because you’ll get it for sure.”

Their only other released game is Bullshot, a Contra-like shooter.

I wouldn’t trust this developer with my money considering how they handled their last Kickstarter. It boggles my mind that a developer can run a Kickstarter so poorly and launch another crowdfunding project, when they’re still years behind on the first one… Sadly they might succeed because they hired an ex-Bioware guy.

I don’t follow Bioware news enough to be very familiar with Laidlaw but I’ve heard from people that do he’s known for lying and overpomising. Anyway, I just advise anyone who is thinking about backing to check out reviews of their previous games first.