KickStarter Kickstarter Watch.

[kaizoku]

Not sure if this was already posted here...
Taking into account codexers' love for kittens, this one will be a favorite: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/w21/super-techno-kitten-adventure?ref=category

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Not sure if this was already posted here...
Taking into account codexers' love for kittens, this one will be a favorite: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/w21/super-techno-kitten-adventure?ref=category

Not sure if serious or just a troll.

 

[Alex]

More P&P news. There is a new Lamentations of the Flame Princess crowdfunding going on. Like the last time, Mr. Raggi reunited various authors to write different adventures for his retro-clone. However, instead of relying on stretch goals, each book has its own campaign. There are tiers in each campaign that allow you to receive some or all of the other adventures that get funded, though. So, the more of these get funded, the better for everyone.

You can check all 19 indeigogo campaigns through this page James set up. The authors for the adventures are:

1. Aeron Alfrey, an artist whose work has appeared on many horror books. You can find his blog with a few images here. Personally, I am really interested in reading his module if the adventure is anything like his paintings.
2. Johnathan Bingham is a freelance illustrator who has worked in many of the OSR (old school renaissance) products. Click here to see some of his art. While his work might not be as shocking as Aeron's, they have a really nice old school vibe, I think, somewhat similar to the art in the B1: In Search of the Unknown module. So, I am looking forward his adventure as well.
3. Vincent Baker is an indie game designer who has made many awesome games, like Apocalypse World, Dogs in the Vineyard, Poison'd and others! He has some very deep insights (from my point of view, at least) in what makes RPGs work and knows how to make games that are "emotionally engaging" without being "boring railroads". You should check his blog if this seems interesting.
4. Dave Brockie is also known as Oderus Urungus, a singer at the metal band Gwar. Lamentations of the Flame Princess has this whole metal imagery going on, and I think we can expect Mr. Brockie to only build on that.
5. Monte Cook is and old dog in the RPG industry. He worked on the Planescape setting during the 2e era, and was one of the main designers of the 3e. That is telling nothing of his work on Rolemaster, the many alternate rules, event books and settings at Malhavoc Press and his work on the Dark Matter setting. You can find his new webpage here
6. Kevin Crawford is a pretty awesome game author. He wrote the Stars Without Number game and Red Tide setting. Constant in those two very different books is an obvious understanding of how sandbox campaigns work and what to put in a book to help the GM run his along. You can find his company site, the Sine Nomine Publishing, here.
7. Michael Curtis is also a big name in the OSR circles. His most well know books are the Stonehell dungeon, a massive collection of maps, treasure, and monsters, but also relationships, secrets and stories, and Dungeon Alphabet, a book geared towards helping GMs create their own dungeons, full of tables to generate unique paraphernalia. You can check his blog out and see what he is all about.
8. James Desborough has been in the industry for quite some time. His work seem to consist mostly of sourcebooks for other games, or even systemless supplements, like his 100-adventure seeds supplements. He has also done various humorous products like Bloodsucker: The Angst and The Slayers Guide to series. You can check his site here.
9. Kelvin Green is a comic artist and illustrator for various OSR products, like the Fight On! magazine. His entries for the One Page dungeon contest were among the winners both this and last year. Check his blog out at this address. This year's entry is a simple page telling the characters were caught in a storm at the Dog & Bastard Inn, having them to spend the whole night there. Then it gives the GM a relationship map between the NPCs in the said inn, setting up a complicated situation for the players to interact with.
10. Anna Kreider is an indie gamer, most well known for a supplement to the Polaris game, Thou Art but a Warrior. This supplement adapts the strange, haunting setting of Polaris to a fantasy version of the muslin Arabia, being invaded and defiled by christians. If that itself wasn't enough to get the codex's attention, she also has a blog talking about the new favorite subject around here, women in gaming.
11. Cynthia Celeste Miller is the head of Spectrum Games and authored the Cartoon Action Hour RPG and the Omlevex setting, besides other products with less than usual settings, including a domino based Lovecraftian RPG. She is also the drummer for the doom/death metal band Eminent Remains. Given this strange resumé, I look forward what exactly her adventure will look like.
12. Richard Pett is part of the Paizo staff, and has published several adventures for both 3e and Pathfinder. These often have a macabre tone, like Carrion Hill and Skinsaw Murders. Carrion Hill is pretty interesting, working much better than the closed adventures Wizards sometimes published and putting the fate of a whole town into how well the PCs do their jobs, while giving plenty of possible complications for the GM to handle. While I wasn't able to find a personal page, you can see his profile here.
13. Of Mike Pohjola I know very little, but wikipedia claims he is a finnish poet, playwright, author, politician and roleplaying game designer. Of the games it mention, the only one I can read is Star Wreck, a parody game that rates characters not on their ability, but their incompetence. As they grow in levels, they become stupider, weaker, clumsier and so on, but also gain special abilities to cover up for their lack of talent.
14. While I don't know of any published products by Jeff Rients before, his blog is full of amazing advice and interesting analysis of the D&D game. Given the many interesting insights in his blog, I can't help but be looking forward his module.
15. Juhani Seppälä is another finnish roleplayer in the list. I don't know much about him, as again I don't speak that language. However, Raggi makes pretty incredible adventure modules himself. So if he has been bugging this man to write down his campaign, chances are that it will be pretty amazing. Still, maybe some of the finnish posters could shed some light on what is his deal?
16. Jeff “Bighara” Sparksis another old timer of the industry, having worked on th Who is Who gurps supplement and the Pyramid magazine. While I don't know much about his work, I have heard pretty good things about In the Shadow of Mount Rotten, being a pretty interesting sandbox games putting the PCs in the shoes of goblins. Check out his company out.
17. Jennifer Steen has a podcast series called Jennisodes where she interviews various game designers. She is also the creator of Ninja Panda Taco, a game about world domination trying to get a print run on kickstarter right now. I don't know much about her game, but the podcasts I have heard from her had some interesting questions, so she must at least understand a bit about roleplaying.

Of the last 2 designers, I know close to nothing, unfortunately, by virtue of them being finnish. So, again, if some codexer who speaks the language can help shed some light in who they are, it would be welcome. Hopefully this small list will get your attention and make some of you donate. I really like Mr. Raggi's modules, and his idea of getting so many people to write for him was pretty smart!

 

[Wise Emperor]

Ehh

Why such projects don't use Kickstarter... it would get them more coverage & wider audience = more money.

Its hard for me to believe that creating account in US its so damn hard, or is it 10% off for Amazon & Kickstarter?

indiegogo:
Alexa Traffic Rank: 2,567

Traffic Rank in US: 468

kickstarter:Alexa Traffic Rank: 744

Traffic Rank in US: 375

Or maybe they want to cash whatever will be pledged...

 

[Kz3r0]

Ehh

Why such projects don't use Kickstarter... it would get them more coverage & wider audience = more money.

Its hard for me to believe that creating account in US its so damn hard, or is it 10% off for Amazon & Kickstarter?

indiegogo:
Alexa Traffic Rank: 2,567

Traffic Rank in US: 468

kickstarter:Alexa Traffic Rank: 744

Traffic Rank in US: 375

Or maybe they want to cash whatever will be pledged...

All their projects on Indiegogo were successful, it's more of where their audience is I think.

 

[Wise Emperor]

Didn't know that. If so, I wish them luck. Still, "I" would try Kickstarter

 

[Kz3r0]

Browsing Indiegogo I discovered that the developers of Jack Houston and the Necronauts already run a campaign there for a risible sum of money:
http://www.indiegogo.com/warbirdgames

 

[Alex]

@Wise Emepror

That project is not using the flexible funding system.

 

[Kz3r0]

Pendulo Studios(Runaway 1&2) new graphic adventure, a dark comedy about a terminally ill cynic.
http://www.lab.gamesplanet.com/dayone/

 

[Metro]

Defense Grid developers want MORE MONEY: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hiddenpath/defense-grid-2

 

[Ulminati]

Defense Grid developers want MORE MONEY: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hiddenpath/defense-grid-2

I especially like how they cash in at $250k but won't actually make the sequal the KS is about unless they get $1M. The 250k will just get you a map pack.

 

[JudasIscariot]

Project Lodus a cyberpunk Action-RPG just appeared on Kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...dus-a-cyberpunk-co-op-action-rpg?ref=category

 

[kaizoku]

Magrunner: Dark Pulse
http://www.lab.gamesplanet.com/magrunner/

They say it's A First Person Puzzler set in the eerie universe of HP Lovecraft but then this is what they come up with:

I saw nothing that reminded me of cthulhu. But after watching the video, the game could end up to be something like Portal 3, thus the reason for posting this.

 

[kaizoku]

Project Lodus a cyberpunk Action-RPG just appeared on Kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...dus-a-cyberpunk-co-op-action-rpg?ref=category

"all about co-op"
action
not even clear if the final game will be on PC
disney art direction
loot auto equip?
"motion capture is essential to our combat system"
...


I hope they fail.

 

[Kz3r0]

Defense Grid developers want MORE MONEY: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hiddenpath/defense-grid-2

I especially like how they cash in at $250k but won't actually make the sequal the KS is about unless they get $1M. The 250k will just get you a map pack.

I am almost tempted to put them in the brown.

Project Lodus a cyberpunk Action-RPG just appeared on Kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...dus-a-cyberpunk-co-op-action-rpg?ref=category

Doesn't seem very interesting to me, maybe if more people will show interest.

Magrunner: Dark Pulse
http://www.lab.gamesplanet.com/magrunner/

They say it's A First Person Puzzler set in the eerie universe of HP Lovecraft but then this is what they come up with:

I saw nothing that reminded me of cthulhu. But after watching the video, the game could end up to be something like Portal 3, thus the reason for posting this.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/kickstarter-watch.70894/page-40#post-2170851

 

[CSM]

Developer of a cardgame kickstarter that got $8000 last year, refuses to release her game because she's hearing voices telling her "the sun doesn't want you to publish Katalyka, because it wants to be almost exactly LIKE Katalyka, but it keep it all a secret. If you publish your game, it is going to let people in on too many secrets. (paraphrasing)".

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1820893788/katalyka/posts/239764

 

[Kz3r0]

Developer of a cardgame kickstarter that got $8000 last year, refuses to release her game because she's hearing voices telling her "the sun doesn't want you to publish Katalyka, because it wants to be almost exactly LIKE Katalyka, but it keep it all a secret. If you publish your game, it is going to let people in on too many secrets. (paraphrasing)".

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1820893788/katalyka/posts/239764

Crisis averted:

Thanks to everyone for their patience, its been a crazy recent couple weeks, but yesterday the pressures and voices that were pounding down on me and making me feel locked up finally started lifting, and then I started getting a ton of people communicating with me in my journal on Deviant Art,

porkshanks.deviantart.com

And so I checked and my journal on deviant art has had 6,500 views in the last two days, due to a post on Reddit, and it has been helping so much to have new perspectives, and it just feels good to finally not feel trapped inside the elements with little empathy to ease it or allow me to solve the printing issues.

Thanks for helping to ease these pressures on me!

So it is printing now, I have all the supplies, and hopefully you'll have your copy very soon!

 

[JudasIscariot]

Project Lodus a cyberpunk Action-RPG just appeared on Kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...dus-a-cyberpunk-co-op-action-rpg?ref=category

"all about co-op"
action
not even clear if the final game will be on PC
disney art direction
loot auto equip?
"motion capture is essential to our combat system"
...


I hope they fail.

Yeah, plus I saw them playing the game with some console controllers. The only place I see the PC mentioned is in the $50 reward tier but that's only for the private playable beta...

 

[skuphundaku]

Here's a new batch of shit interesting projects:

1) OUYA: Android-based console, the people involved are a combination of consolefags and mobilefags/tabletfags. They claim that each device will be an SDK/dev device as well and that every game on the platform will either be f2p (freemium) or have a trial version. Brian Fargo is quoted as being mildly optimistic about its prospects. Of course, they plan on taking a 30% cut out of everything published on their device, so, you know that single good thing about the current generation of consoles - the fact that you own your games - forget about it! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console

P.S. They're already at $3,813,192 with 27 days to go and an initially set goal of $950,000

2) QONQR: Expansion for a mobile, location-based, MMO with social integration. The buzzword soup is ready to be served to gullible hipsters so that they can sustain a concept that shouldn't have been created in the first place because it works flawlessly as a privacy invasion tool under the guise of a game. I suggest brown. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/qonqr/qonqr-world-domination-command-center-game-expansi

3) Insurgency 2: Half-Life 2 total conversion wants to become a stand-alone multiplayer FPS "with a gameplay style best characterized as high speed tactical" . Most of the mod team, quote, "got picked up by top game studios (Crytek, Blizzard, Digital Extremes and Gearbox to name a few) or went off to get a degree, leaving the mod in a creative state of disarray." Now they claim that the core team came back together and are working on a combination of Rainbow Six and Day of the Defeat. "The main difference between the game and the mod has to do with the smaller scale and more linear nature of our maps, which was a design decision based on the technical specifications of the engine we're using." - that should put everything into perspective nicely. The last nugget of information is that their ultimate goal is to make a console game, the final ($800k) stretch goal being a console version. Again, I suggest brown. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/newworldinteractive/insurgency-2

4) Crea: 2D sandbox game with RPG elements and modding as part of the core design. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jmcmorris/crea

 

[Kz3r0]

Here's a new batch of shit interesting projects:

1) OUYA: Android-based console, the people involved are a combination of consolefags and mobilefags/tabletfags. They claim that each device will be an SDK/dev device as well and that every game on the platform will either be f2p (freemium) or have a trial version. Brian Fargo is quoted as being mildly optimistic about its prospects. Of course, they plan on taking a 30% cut out of everything published on their device, so, you know that single good thing about the current generation of consoles - the fact that you own your games - forget about it! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console

P.S. They're already at $3,813,192 with 27 days to go and an initially set goal of $950,000

Already added in a new section, Hardware.
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console.74033/

2) QONQR: Expansion for a mobile, location-based, MMO with social integration. The buzzword soup is ready to be served to gullible hipsters so that they can sustain a concept that shouldn't have been created in the first place because it works flawlessly as a privacy invasion tool under the guise of a game. I suggest brown. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/qonqr/qonqr-world-domination-command-center-game-expansi

Actually there are quite a number of similar games on Kickstarter, I remember a zombie one and another that used the augmented reality function to show a urban warfare scenario, I always ignored them.

3) Insurgency 2: Half-Life 2 total conversion wants to become a stand-alone multiplayer FPS "with a gameplay style best characterized as high speed tactical" . Most of the mod team, quote, "got picked up by top game studios (Crytek, Blizzard, Digital Extremes and Gearbox to name a few) or went off to get a degree, leaving the mod in a creative state of disarray." Now they claim that the core team came back together and are working on a combination of Rainbow Six and Day of the Defeat. "The main difference between the game and the mod has to do with the smaller scale and more linear nature of our maps, which was a design decision based on the technical specifications of the engine we're using." - that should put everything into perspective nicely. The last nugget of information is that their ultimate goal is to make a console game, the final ($800k) stretch goal being a console version. Again, I suggest brown. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/newworldinteractive/insurgency-2

Well, I think that their project is pure decline but putting them in the brown for that is a bit too harsh, besides, the shit list is already large enough, unless a project is really offensive I prefer to leave the shit list alone.

Edit:
Fuck them, the brown it is.

4) Crea: 2D sandbox game with RPG elements and modding as part of the core design. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jmcmorris/crea

Minecraft and Terraria are the pioneers of sandbox RPGs, LOL, primitive and irrelevant, I will ignore them.

 

[Kz3r0]

Another big name joins Kickstarter:

Anomalisa is a stop-motion animated film written by Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).

The film is about a man crippled by the mundanity of his life.

The film will be approximately 40 minutes in length.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/anomalisa/charlie-kaufmans-anomalisa/?ref=kicktraq

 

[kaizoku]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...-refuge-revenge-of-the-old-schoo?ref=category
These guys are on the right path, but I have doubts that the implementation will extend beyond the meh level.

Legacy of the Last Refuge is a turn-based RPG that we are currently developing for the PC. It draws strongly from the mechanics in the party-based RPGs of the '80s and early '90s, while incorporating many elements from roguelikes and their modern descendants.
If you want the gritty details, read on. If, instead, you just want to try the game in the current (Alpha) state, go here.

 

[Kz3r0]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...-refuge-revenge-of-the-old-schoo?ref=category
These guys are on the right path, but I have doubts that the implementation will extend beyond the meh level.

Legacy of the Last Refuge is a turn-based RPG that we are currently developing for the PC. It draws strongly from the mechanics in the party-based RPGs of the '80s and early '90s, while incorporating many elements from roguelikes and their modern descendants.
If you want the gritty details, read on. If, instead, you just want to try the game in the current (Alpha) state, go here.

Seems really too amateurish to me, if people will show some interest I will add it to the list.


Some project now:
Skylantis - The Video Game, a Ratchet and Clank like developed by students, it began as a single level now a full game.

Detective Grimoire: Adventure Game on iOS/Android (+PC/Mac?), a graphic adventure with a PC port as stretch goal.

 

[Jarpie]

Haunts: The Manse Macabre managed to achieve its goal 25 000 dollars, at least for me it looks promising and interesting game.

 

[Rhalle]

Sorry, how can you charge money for a total conversion, what is essentially a mod?

Gaben's lawyers will be all over them, no?