Shantae: Half-Genie Hero
Developer: WayForward
Goal: $400,000
Platform(s): PC, Wii U, PS3, PS4, Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Pledge Amount to receive the game: $15
Campaign End Date: October 4th
Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1236620800/shantae-half-genie-hero
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero looks like its a slam dunk to receive it's full funding. WayForward and Shantae both have a good enough reputation that its success was really a given. With almost 3 weeks to go they have already reached 75% of their goal amount. At this rate it looks like they'll make it to some of their stretch goals that include other playable characters, extra story chapters, different costumes and more.
River City Ransom: Underground
Developer: Conatus Creative
Goal: $180,000
Platform(s): PC and possible PS4 and Vita for stretch goals
Pledge amount to receive the game: $15
Campaign End Date: October 9
Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/combitstudios/river-city-ransom-underground
This game has an interesting story. The developers Conatus Creative are basically a group of guys who got together and got some money to buy a license to buy the rights to River City Ransom from the current Japanese copyright holders. Now they're looking for funding to complete the game. There's a few red flags with this one given that as a studio these guys don't have a history, and that they originally only aimed for a PC release is a little disappointing and a bit odd given the original's console roots. Still the idea of an 8 bit sequel is appealing and the early demos look promising. Additionally if they reach their stretch goal they will release a version on PS4 and Vita. No word for anything for Nintendo and Microsoft systems. Currently they have $60K of the $180K they need for the PC version and over 3 weeks to get the rest.
Mighty No. 9
Developer: Concept USA, LLC / Keiji Infune
Goal: $900,000 (met)
Platform(s): PC, Wii U, PS3, Xbox 360 (potentiall PS4 and Xbox One)
Pledge Amount to Receive Game: $20
Campaign End Date: October 1
Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mightyno9/mighty-no-9
At this point I think we all know the story of Mighty No. 9 aka Mega Man, but just barely not really Mega Man. This game will likely go down as the game that really started the Kickstarter revolution. Other indie games did it before, but none with a pedigree like this one. It's hit it's main goal within days, it's hitting it's first stretch goals, and soon should hit the Wii U, PS3, and Xbox stretch goals. It still has over a million dollars to go before it hits the Next Generation console goals, but it also has over 2 weeks left so this could actually hit it. At any rate this game is now fact. It will happen. If you want a copy, pre-order by donating now while you can.
Taxi Journey
Developer: Lexis Numerique
Goal: $130,000
Platform(s): Wii U and PC (Vita, Android, iOS, PSN and XBLA for stretch goals)
Campaign End Date: October 12
Pledge amount to receive game: $20
Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lexisgames/taxi-journey-an-epic-odyssey
Taxi Journey is described as an adventure game with a Limbo-like athestic. Art style is definitely dark and burtonesque at any rate, and if the demo video is an accurate depiction it'll be one strange game. I've got a feeling fans of Zack & Wicki are going to like this. The developers have a number of PC adventure games to their credits, though I'm not familiar with any of the titles. This is one that I'm not entirely sure will hit it's goal. At the moment they have a little over 10% of what they need and while there's almost 4 weeks until it hits it's goal at their current pace they will not meet their goal. A major website is going to have to do a feature on this one to get it some extra attention if it's going to make it.
Great thread. Should it also include Steam green lighted projects?
Any video game looking for crowdsource funding can be added to this, but I'm mainly sticking to the higher profile ones. There's not shortage of games looking for money, but the majority of them are utter crap. But I think if you look at the ones that are succeeding right now you can see that we might very well be on the edge of new chapter of how games get created. Mighty No. 9 hit its' console stretch goals yesterday (2.2 million dollars) so it officially will be going to Wii U, 360, and PS3. To me that's a game changer. I really believe we're going to see an influx of bigger names going for money this way now.
Mutant League Football
Developer: Michael Mendheim
Goal: $750,000
Platform(s): XBLA
Campaign End Date: October 16
Pledge Amount to Receive the Game: $30 ($15 for mobile version)
Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mendheim/mutant-football-league
The Mutant League sports games were pretty popular back in the early 90's. The owner of the franchise/license, Michael Mendheim, says he's been trying to get a publisher to back a new installment of Mutant League Footbal for 10 years and hasn't had any success, so now he's turned to Kickstarter. The team he has onboard has some pretty strong history behind them, with a lot of well known games, though not too many A list titles. Still there's no shortage of veterans working on the project so if this a real passion project for them it could turn out good. The $750K goal is a lot higher than the average Kickstarter video game goal though so they've got an uphill battle. Still IGN did a profile on them early on, so they've got about a 50/50 shot of hitting this I think.
Once again, great work.
Citizens of Earth
Developer: EdenIndustries
Goal: $100,000
Platform(s): PC, Linux, Mac with Wii U and 3DS as stretch goals and PS4 and Vita stretch goals further down the line
Campaign End Date: October 20th
Pledge Amount to Receive the Game: $15
Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/499609193/citizens-of-earth-a-modern-rpg
Citizens of Earth is an RPG very clearly and unashamedly inspired by Earthbound with its own special gimmick - the NPCs are all playable characters. The guy police officer you speak to for directions? He'll be on your team. The guy working behind the counter at the store? He'll be on your team. Your mom... yep she'll be on your team. So cross Earthbound with recruitment games like Suikoden or Pokemon and this is what you get. A demo for the game already exists and the early word is that it's pretty good. The main goal is pretty reasonable too at just $100K, though after over a week they only have $13K. Console versions may be out of reach, but they're out there. Nintendo was apparently impressed enough with the game that they gave the devs a Wii U dev kit. Good pedigree of developers too, with several of them coming from the LM: Dark Moon team, Guacamelee and other very good games. Game looks pretty original and it'll be a shame if this one misses its goal.
Edge of Eternity
Developer: Midgar Studio
Goal: $200,000
Platform(s): Smart Phones, Tablets, Vita, PC, Wii U, PS3, PS4, Xbox One (special HD versions for PS4 and XBox One for stretch goals)
Pledge Amount to receive the game: $10 (if you donate early) or $15
Campaign End Date: October 26
Link: www.kickstarter.com/projects/1447029533/edge-of-eternity
Edge of Eternity is a space jRPG designed by a group of French developers who grew up playing jRPGs as kids. The Final Fantasy influence here is clear. The characters look like they came straight out of the series. The look of the series isn't doing them any favors, at least at this point in their demo videos. Character movement looks rough, and right now the game very much has the look of an early gen PS2 game. They've made a choice to go after a look that they may not have the skill and/or funding to make it look as good as they're trying to, instead of going after a different art style that might allow them a little leeway. The game is leaning very heavily on the soundtrack, which from what they show off is in fact excellent. The composer stated that Nobuo Uematsu was a primary influence, and he does him credit. The music is fantastic, and many of the reward levels are tied into it (soundtrack, sheet music, etc.). Not sure if this one will get funded. They're asking for a lot, for a game made without either a big name or brand behind it.
Shadows of the Eternals development has halted.
Yep I saw that it's been halted. No shock. This is one of the bad things about Kickstarter. If you fail to get your funding (twice no less), that pretty much ensures no publisher will touch your project with a 50 foot pole, and at that point you're dead in the water. It is really interesting to see which projects are getting funded and which ones are not. Mighty No. 9 killed it, and a few others (that I didn't bother to post about since they'd already reached their goals when I started this) managed to get their funding too. Oh and my Mysterious Cities of Gold translation killed it's goals and even hit a stretch goal of having Arabic subtitles, which is actually a pretty big deal because it's ultra rare for any game to have that.
Still lots of these don't look like they're going to make it. It's really making me wonder what the "secret sauce" so to speak is.
Just thought I'd throw in a few updates before adding some new projects.
1. Mighty No. 9 met and completely crushed it's goal. It made nearly 4 million dollars and reached a myriad of stretch goals. It'll now be on just about every system imagineable. Current gen consoles, next gen consoles, handhelds, PC, etc. Over 67,000 pledges were made and proved there's definitely an interested audience. The only real question that's left is how stupid does Capcom feel right now? If they were smart they'd jump on a new installment of the series 5 minutes ago, but that's not likely to happen. Oh well, it's Mighty No. 9 from here on out.
2. Shantae: Half Genie Hero is technically a day away from reaching the end of its campaign, but it's already reached it's goal and hit it's first two stretch goals and is likely on its way to hitting the 3rd one. Another big success here.
Cosmic Star Heroine
Developer: Zeybod Games
Goal: $100,000
Platform(s): PC, Mac, PS4, Vita
Pledge Amount to receive the game: $10
Campaign End Date: October 31
Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1596638143/cosmic-star-heroine-sci-fi-spy-rpg-for-pc-mac-ps4
Cosmic Star Heroine is a sci-fi RPG by Zeboyd games, the developers of indie darling hits like Cthulhu Saves the World and Breath of Death VII. The game is meant to be a traditional 16 bit RPG, like most of their other games. This time Phantasy Star will be the main inspiriation, but they're also pulling from Chrono Trigger and Suikoden. The goal is set pretty low at just $100K, and after just 3 days they're already 60% of hitting their goal, so there's little doubt they're reach. Really the only question is how many of their stretch goals will they hit.
What platforms is Shantae confirmed on?
gamingeek said:What platforms is Shantae confirmed on?
All of them. Go click the link if you want specifics, but it pretty much looks like it'll be for everything that plays video games.
robio said:All of them. Go click the link if you want specifics, but it pretty much looks like it'll be for everything that plays video games.
Ouya?
Foolz said:Ouya?
No. Ouya still doesn't count given that there are Ouya games that don't run on Ouya.
Quick update for this:
River City Ransom: Underground hit it's goal for PC and the stretch goal for Linux and Mac. It didn't come close to the console versions. They are still accepting donations via Paypal, but that seems shady as hell. At any rate, I hope that once the game is finished, they'll find a publisher and make it for a console.
Taxi Journey did not hit its goal. Not even close really. It got about 30% of what they were trying to raise. Pity because it did look pretty original, but probably too strange for its own good. Hopefully they'll find someone interested to help publish, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Kickstarter really is becoming the go-to way for indie developers to help fund (and in some cases completely fund) their latest projects. I'm still not sold on this being a great thing, but there's certainly a lot going on and it's worth taking a serious look at what's out there. Since the momentum for using this method of public funding doesn't seem to be slowing down I'll be using this thread to keep track of what's what and if its succeeding or not.