KickStarter Kickstarter Watch.

[Kz3r0]

SolForge Digital Trading Card Game has been released

 

[Infinitron]

Kz3r0 A new inXile fundraising campaign!...sort of: http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/help-ron-beat-cancer-/115847
http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/25/5...n-collects-money-for-blizzard-dev-with-cancer

 

[ghostdog]

Not directly gaming related but this looks pretty fun. Props to the guy because everything you see was shot in one room on a green screen:

KUNG FURY a visually spectacular action comedy that has its foundation in 80s cop movies.

Also featuring some nice music from your favorite new retro wave bands.

 

[Crooked Bee]

They got me at Kung Führer.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

At least they have the soundtrack right.

 

[kaizoku]

Well, they do portrait the 80s tv shows in an historically correct way.

 

[kris]

Kz3r0 A new inXile fundraising campaign!...sort of: http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/help-ron-beat-cancer-/115847
http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/25/5...n-collects-money-for-blizzard-dev-with-cancer

Worrying. I know it sounds great to help someone with something this humane... but I think you all see the problem and pitfall.

 

[almondblight]

Sunrider, a visual novel/tactical RPG:

• IN COMMAND: You are the captain of the starship Sunrider. Upgrade and command a squadron of mechas and defeat the enemy!
• STORY: Epic, space opera story of a one ship struggle against a massive space nation bent on galactic domination.
• FREEDOM: Travel across the galaxy. Undertake side missions to earn money and help the war effort against PACT.
• COMBAT: Tactical, turn based battle engine. Command the Sunrider and your squadron of pilots.
• MORALITY: Make heavy moral decisions. What will you sacrifice to win the war?

Spoiler

• ROMANCE: Win the affection... or dislike of your crew!

7. Eroge/sex scenes: There are already planned sex scenes in the game. As for how much exactly we'll show, I don't really know yet. All I can say is that I won't unnecessarily censor anything just to avoid offending people

 

[Kz3r0]

Sunrider, a visual novel/tactical RPG:

• IN COMMAND: You are the captain of the starship Sunrider. Upgrade and command a squadron of mechas and defeat the enemy!
• STORY: Epic, space opera story of a one ship struggle against a massive space nation bent on galactic domination.
• FREEDOM: Travel across the galaxy. Undertake side missions to earn money and help the war effort against PACT.
• COMBAT: Tactical, turn based battle engine. Command the Sunrider and your squadron of pilots.
• MORALITY: Make heavy moral decisions. What will you sacrifice to win the war?

Spoiler

• ROMANCE: Win the affection... or dislike of your crew!

7. Eroge/sex scenes: There are already planned sex scenes in the game. As for how much exactly we'll show, I don't really know yet. All I can say is that I won't unnecessarily censor anything just to avoid offending people

 

[Spectacle]

Sunrider, a visual novel/tactical RPG:

• ROMANCE: Win the affection... or dislike of your crew!

7. Eroge/sex scenes: There are already planned sex scenes in the game. As for how much exactly we'll show, I don't really know yet. All I can say is that I won't unnecessarily censor anything just to avoid offending people

In b4 Kickstarter cancels the project for being "adult".

 

[Spectacle]

Unwritten: That Which Happened has been abandoned by the creator, who claims he needs to get a proper job to pay family medical bills.
:patriot: :kwanzania:

 

[Dieithrio]

Unwritten: That Which Happened has been abandoned by the creator, who claims he needs to get a proper job to pay family medical bills.
:patriot: :kwanzania:

A pity. I'm wondering if would be proper/possible to ask for a refund... Something tells me to not believe a dev not even mentioning any alternative idea for funding the game.

 

[Spectacle]

He does claim to have some money set away to honor refund requests, but obviously there's nowhere near enough money left to refund everyone.
Some people in the comments are calling for him to open-source the code and assets that have been created for the game so far, that would be a decent way to give the backers something in return for their pledges.

 

[Trash]

Note: although most posts are written from the whole team’s perspective, once again the following post was written by Joe alone.

More often than not these days, I find myself in a difficult situation. For example, today I am going to make every effort to be direct and to the point in this post. However, I also must respect the privacy of the many people in my life that affect my decisions, so there are some things I just can’t talk about. As always, I’m going to do my best and hope that it’s enough.

It’s been a few months since the last update, which is hardly fair to the project or its backers. However, it is also true that this is the earliest that I could manage to write an update, for reasons that I will get into shortly. Realizing that I’m short in my duties to Unwritten Passage, and that I’m also doing the absolute best I can, has caused me to come to terms with the reality of the position I’m in. This also means that the project’s backers deserve to know the whole picture, without sugar coating or spin.

As I’ve alluded to in the past, my family has struggled with medical issues. However, what is only clear to those that are close to us, is that these problems have been far-reaching and long lasting. The past year (the year that I decided to go indie), has been particularly difficult in ways we never predicted. Although in many ways it would be easier to talk about by getting into specifics, I will have to leave it by simply saying that it has been hard, that a lot has been demanded of the entire family, that it has been getting harder each month, and that I have been failing to balance the load.

Every person in life has a limited amount of themselves to give. I have been striking a compromise between a project that has had its own troubles, a family in crisis (that I oftentimes couldn’t or wouldn’t recognize), and the regular demands of supporting my wife and daughter on my own. I am tenacious and hardworking, and I have been creative in addressing the problems that I see. But I have my limits, and sometimes tenacity can become willful blindness and stubbornness. And those qualities don’t honor the trust that my wife, my daughter, my backers, and my contributors put in me.

So here’s the situation right now, as simply as I can think to put it. We raised $75k (which became about $68k after various Kickstarter costs) to make a game in 6 months with the efforts of 3 people. At this stage we’re at the 9-10 month mark. I’ve stretched the budget hard, and for the last month and a half I’ve been doing contracting on the side to try and stay afloat and to give my family the stability to see the doctors we need in order to heal. To be blunt, this is not enough. It is not stable enough for my fragile personal life (due in part to how healthcare works in the U.S.). It is not enough to retain fulltime commitments from my contributors. And in the meantime, as I balance my roles between programmer, designer, writer, producer, contractor, husband, father, brother, and son, I am not doing a very good job.

This is difficult for me to admit, as I have a reputation in the industry for taking risks and for following through on that ambition. But it turns out I have my limits (as everyone does), and I am at my limit right now. But even though this is a bitter pill to swallow, Unwritten Passage and its backers have been very important to me this past year. You all deserve my best effort, even when that means admitting difficult truths.

So why did we fail to create a realistic budget and come in on time? I feel that I would need to write 3 full postmortems to address that question: one as an indie game developer, one as a small business owner, and one as a bit of flotsam swirling in the maelstrom of the U.S. health system. But in short two idioms apply: “hindsight is 20/20″, and “shit happens”. Although nobody was perfect in this process, I do feel that everybody did their best with the information we had. I am grateful to everyone that has helped us gather so much success so quickly, and despite it all I still feel lucky. I have learned a lot about myself and the people I love, and I want very much to be a better person moving forward.

OK, now the big question: is the game canceled or what? I have been thinking hard about what is the right thing to do. The stupendous work already put forth in Julian’s music and Lee’s art still sets my imagination on fire. And I see people come to life all the time when I describe the concept to them. However, my experience also says that we have lost momentum, we’re out of money, and it’s now a one-man project centered around a fulltime game developer with family baggage that needs better health insurance. And I’ve worked in the past on wonderful projects with real promise that have been canceled, so I know what that looks like. Sometimes it still takes a lot of luck to make a game.

But I’m not ready to completely call it quits and say that Unwritten Passage is dead forever. However, to say that the project as I pitched it is alive and well would be beyond naive. It would be dishonest. It lives on as my personal side project, something I hope to bring about on my own and through the help of talented friends when possible. And should it come to be I will do my best to deliver on my original promises… but I have to be honest. To many this is probably the end.

To all that have helped me, my contributors, and my family embark on this experiment, I thank you. I don’t have the words to express my sincerity and my appreciation. I will be leaving up the websites and will continue to update the backer pages as news develops, so if you are interested in staying in touch with the project I’ll keep you up to date. Finally, we have of course been using the campaign funds to best make good on our promises. However, there is a small fund left for pursuing future art costs for the game. If you are a backer and feel that we have violated your trust in us, please contact Roxlou Games via Kickstarter and I will do my best to give you a refund.

Thank you all.

Joe Houston - Roxlou Games

P.S. Anybody know any good jokes? Leave them in the comments to brighten this post up.

Funny how many of these guys seem to feel that a Kickstarter does not come with any responsibilities to actually deliver a product. Otoh, when you pledge you also know that chances are the project bombs. Still, after the umpteenth 'apologies' note it gets tiresome.

 

[Minttunator]

Those are the chances we take with Kickstarter - good thing I only backed Unwritten for $15. That's still a shame, though, I was looking forward to it.

 

[Kz3r0]

The Undelivered
Section dedicated to all the projects that failed to deliver for whatever reason.


CLANG Sword fighting simulator using motion sensor controller, picked up quite some interest. Demoted for running out of money.
Code Hero: A Game That Teaches You To Make Games The name says it all, It got some exposure.They squandered all the money to play Game Guru, now the project is about how to program the Unity engine.
iControlPad 2 - The open source controller For any device using Bluetooth or USB. Demoted for not delivering, possible scam.
Cult: Awakening of the Old Ones Procedurally generated open ended RPG with strong focus on storytelling and characters.
Haunts: The Manse Macabre A turn based horror game.The only programmer left, code hell ensued.
Rainfall: The Sojourn Their objective is "to create a game with a vibrant world, tons of fun puzzles, interesting level designs, engaging battles, and a great story".Demoted for not delivering, possible scam.
The Doom That Came To Atlantic City! Cthulu comes to town with nifty, and expensive, figurines. Demoted for SCAM.
The Kingsport Cases Fully procedurally generated survival horror game set in late 19th century Lovecraftian lore.Kickstarter suspended the funding for this projects(backers received rfunds), it was due to the Developers self pledging eight thousand dollars, out of a stated goal of twenty thousand.
Unwritten: That Which Happened Turn based roguelike strategy game in which you guide a tribe on its quest to meet their god though a randomly generated tundra, with permadeath.Stopped by medical bills.

 

[Spectacle]

Unwritten's cancellation has been cancelled:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1599677835/unwritten-that-which-happened/posts

Not sure what the chances of it ever being released are, but it sound's like they're still working on it, at least.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Another KS that got the asking price (instead of doubling or tripling it) is canceled because the developers suddenly realized that what they asked for is not enough to make the game.

 

[Kz3r0]

Conclave has been released

 

[Kz3r0]

Cloudberry Kingdom has been released

 

[himmy]

It's pretty weird to see all these pitches that got 200k, 300k+ back in the day, yet you know they would barely scrape 50k today. Although I believe that come spring we will see some more big projects going up.

 

[Heresiarch]

Bible Chronicles: The Call of Abraham

Phoenix Interactive Studios today launched a Kickstarter campaign for Christian-themed single-player PC RPG called Bible Chronicles: Call of Abraham, a new game that aims to "stir hunger for God's word."

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

This could be made to be quite interesting. There's so much violence, perversion and nastiness in the bible... If done in AoD style, and without too much preaching, it might even be good. However, I think that this project will not produce anything interesting, probably not even get half the money they want.

 

[Spectacle]

This could be made to be quite interesting. There's so much violence, perversion and nastiness in the bible... If done in AoD style, and without too much preaching, it might even be good. However, I think that this project will not produce anything interesting, probably not even get half the money they want.

I doubt there will be all that many gamers that are interested in this pitch. Their aim with the game is to "stir a thirst for god's word" so gamers that are already religious and "thirst for god's word" don't need it, and those that don't care for religion have no reason to be interested. They'll need to mobilize the right-wing blogosphere if they're going to be successfully funded.

 

[himmy]

Bible Chronicles: The Call of Abraham

Phoenix Interactive Studios today launched a Kickstarter campaign for Christian-themed single-player PC RPG called Bible Chronicles: Call of Abraham, a new game that aims to "stir hunger for God's word."

Won't fair any better than the last one: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1778230208/mind-of-christ-bible-game

Additionally, dunno if this was posted already:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2122031929/novus-aeterno-the-next-evolution-in-rts-games

Novus AEterno: MMO 4x RTS The Largest Strategy Game Ever. Negotiate, Trade, Dominate, Deceive in a Persistent Universe with thousands of players.