Successfully-Funded Kickstarters Thread [Comprehensive List in the OP]

[Great Rumbler]

Mercenary Kings in now on Steam in early access beta form:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/218820/

[Great Rumbler]

Preview for Jane Jensen's Moebius:

Without a doubt, Moebius feels like a Jane Jensen game. From the opening sequence to the game’s nearly-obsessive attention to historical detail, this game is unquestionably a return to form for one of the adventure genre’s pioneers. At E3, I had an opportunity to sit down with Jane herself for a preview of the preliminary build that was about to be released to the supporters of her Kickstarter campaign. It was a rare chance to hear the design philosophy behind the game, which, when it is finally released later this year will be the first from Jane’s Pinkerton Road Studios.

Moebius certainly has a lot of pressure on it. In addition to being the first "real Jane Jensen" adventure in 13 years – while she wouldn’t say it directly, it’s clear that at least some of the failings of 2010’s Gray Matter resulted from the lack of Jane's full creative control – it will also be one of the first high-profile Kickstarted adventures to be released. The question that kept running through my head throughout the presentation and my own later playthrough of the first two chapters was whether Moebius was going to be too old school for today’s gaming audience – would Jane be able to innovate in a medium that has advanced considerably since cat moustaches? (And yes, I know that wasn't one of Jane's own puzzles.) That’s a question that won’t be answered until the final game is released, as I found my early exposure raised more questions than it answered, though from what I did see Moebius looks incredibly promising,.

Similar to Jane’s Gabriel Knight series, Moebius is a paranormal thriller which stars a very unusual protagonist. Malachi Rector is the newest hero, and while he may not be a chosen schattenjager, he certainly possesses a number of traits that set him apart from his fellow man. Players are treated to an electronic comic at the start of the game which provides Malachi’s backstory: in a nutshell, he’s an uber-genius with an IQ north of 175 with a fractured and difficult family history. In addition to his smarts, he possesses a photographic memory and the ability to quickly measure up situations and people – often analyzing them against the limitless database in his cranium. He’s a modern day Sherlock, who also happens to pop Xanax pills like Skittles.

Watching the opening to Moebius, I was struck by the obvious similarities to Sins of the Fathers. After the e-comic which introduces Malachi, we have an opportunity to get a little acquainted with his home base. While he’s in New York City instead of New Orleans, Malachi’s antique shop is eerily similar to Gabriel’s bookstore. And Malachi’s cheeky female assistant Gretchen could be a body double for Grace Nakimura. The fact that Malachi also has a tiny office off his main shop is another detail that provided a sense of deep déjà vu.

The way the gameplay begins is also in the classic Sierra adventure style. Moebius is played in third-person perspective, and players will point-and-click to send Malachi to different locations, inspect and interact with objects within each location, and open up dialogues with the game’s cast of characters. Unlike Gabriel, however, Malachi isn’t a simple salesman at the start of the game – he hires his memory and deductive abilities out to bidders who wish to determine the authenticity of historical antiquities.

The adventure begins with a job assignment that Malachi must complete, and while the themes and style are firmly planted in the thriller genre that Jane is known for, a few of the gameplay elements offer some interesting experiments during this first job. The first new feature is the ability to zoom into particular objects and people to inspect them a little more closely. This allows Malachi to make deductions about specific details, such as how a woman’s hairstyle reveals something about her personality. Each time you click on a clue, you receive a little more information on the target and earn data points. Data points are Moebius's way of providing a score (another nice little throwback to the Sierra games of old.)

Even more compelling is the menu bar at the upper left of the screen which allows you to access Malachi’s smartphone/PDA. Gabriel would probably have loved to have such a tool available as he traipsed across Germany, because here Malachi is able to access the Internet for research, keep a to-do list which acts like a de facto hint system, take notes during his investigations, and most importantly, to analyze all the data he has collected. While Moebius certainly features classic adventure game logic and inventory puzzles – several are apparent in the first two chapters – using the phone to analyze data is just as significant here.

Throughout the game, Malachi must evaluate antiques and will be asked to determine if certain people are eerily similar to famous historical figures. “Malachi’s job is to determine the authenticity of historical artifacts,” said Jane. “Because of his photographic memory, he can match anyone in history.” Through his phone, he is able to compare the information he’s collected with historical fact in order to make conclusions.

In the first two chapters, this feature was more impressive for its wealth of historical information and accuracy than as a challenging exercise. I don’t think anyone can match Jane for her passion in using real world history to provide a captivating sandbox for her heroes to explore. In the first analysis you have to perform, you’re treated to fascinating backstories of Italian painters such as Raphael and Botticelli; in another sequence you have to examine each artistic element of an Egyptian Canopic chest to accurately appraise its value.

While the classic puzzles of Moebius are very traditional, these experiments are refreshing and show that the game won’t be entirely what you might expect. In total, Moebius will span seven chapters that will slowly unravel the supernatural mystery of why historical figures are re-appearing in our modern age and how Malachi figures into it. “This is a convergent point in Malachi’s life,” said Jane. “Moebius is his origin story and is designed to be an origin story for a series.”

The first two chapters are very linear. There are a few decisions that you are allowed to make (and different dialog options), but the conclusion of each chapter is nearly identical. In addition, though you can force Malachi to make incorrect conclusions from his analysis, the story won’t advance until you correct them. While the game won’t likely be as lethal as the Sierra catalog, Jane mentioned that Malachi will find himself in lethal situations that may merit a few reloads of saved games.

It’s important to note that the version I saw was simply a preview build – in many ways, a proof of concept for her backers – and as expected, there were certainly some rough edges to be seen. The graphic style and interface have been designed by Phoenix Online Studios (Cognition) and the high-definition graphics were impressive, if a little uneven (some animations are particularly strange at this point).

Malachi will be visiting a number of locations across the world, and the Venice and Cairo on display in the preview represented their exotic locales well, though the early color palette did seem a little gaudy and saturated. It absolutely looks better than you might expect from the $400k Kickstarter investment that Pinkerton Studios acquired (Jane pointed out that the first Gabriel Knight cost over a million dollars in 1993 for comparison), and touches such as the moving water in Italy and minute changes in characters’ facial expressions are welcome.

Moebius's sound elements are also a mixed bag so far. Jensen’s husband (and frequent collaborator) Robert Holmes returns to score the game, and his haunting compositions provide a compelling noirish backdrop to the mysteries. Most of the characters are already voiced, and while Malachi’s egoism and arrogance (and UK accent) were perfectly captured by the actor who plays him, dialog and character exchanges are sometimes a bit awkward. What was meant to be a humorous exchange between Malachi and a companion, for example, came off as uncomfortably forced.

The game’s tone itself feels very uneven in the early going, blending the serious and dangerous situations Malachi quickly finds himself in with some peculiar moments of absurdity. In the first chapter, Malachi is approached by a secret government agency whose acronym of F.I.S.T. is frankly comical. I couldn’t help but think that Moebius felt very much like a very personal, classic B movie. It’s clear that Jane is being playful with concept, character, and expectation, yet she made it a point to say that she wanted players emotionally invested in Moebius, and the result is clearly the work of her singular vision. “I think it’s a great story. It’s the best one I’ve ever done,” said Jane. “It’s the layers that you uncover throughout the journey that make it really feel like a true Jane Jensen game.”

It’s certainly a challenge to juggle the expectation of gamers familiar with classic Jane Jensen games with the desire to create a new and contemporary gaming experience. Will Moebius be a retro throwback or can it contribute something truly special to the medium as part of a renaissance for adventure games? It’s too early to tell, but either way it’s obvious that this game is a labor of passion and love for the genre, as well as an opportunity to show how games can tell intriguing and complex stories. It’s good to see Jane have her crayons back.

The game does not have a release date yet but has been promised for later in this calendar year. For now, it’s simply too early to tell what the final version of Moebius will be like, but I can absolutely say I’m very much looking forward to seeing how Jane and Pinkerton Road will answer the questions and mysteries that were presented in this early sneak peek.

[G The Resurrected]

Small update about Adams Family from one of the dev's of Pinball Arcade. It's not the next big table they will be working on as the opportunity to get the licenses will not be available till 2014/2015 at the earliest. Work has been done to secure a table and they have already done preliminary tear down and digitization, similar to how they did T2 this time around. The work was done before funding was secured for the license, thus getting it out quicker than TZ and TNG. The option for AF is due to rights with another game and how the licensee from that game licensed out the likeness to make the pinball table. It sounds super complicated to deal with, but such was the way for a lot of these license deals. I was told that they went through similar issues with T2. So not only did they have to clear it with Arnolds folks but the licensee of the likeness from another property, in this case they had to deal with Midway and an expiring license to use Arnolds likeness. It really did sound like it was crazy how things lined up for T2.

In other news they will be working on bringing the newer tables from Stern (Transformers, Xmen, Avatar, Ironman, ACDC) to the game. Licensing aside they seem really happy and confident about their future. A few cool things in the pipe are them exploring accounts on console's. Thus allowing someone to purchase the tables on iOS/Android/PSN/XBL and have them on everything. They are also working on original content, which was described as a playable history of pinball machines from it's beginnings through to the mechanical era. They also just got a Xbox one dev kit from M$ last week and they already have a playable build with the enhancements from PS4 implemented. They are going to be working on higher res textures and backglass for the next few months in preparation. If they can even deliver some of this it would be great.

I look forward to my next meet up with the guys. I was hoping to have a audio interview, but alas I didn't make it to CAX this year. I missed out on speaking with Zen studios as well, who I spoke to last year at length about their plans which still haven't come about. Customization of tables and balls hasn't happened in their games yet right?

[magus]

another digital CCG funded via kickstarter has reached open beta

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1965800643/solforge-digital-trading-card-game

i've only played a game but i'm not sure what to think... it's different from the usual MTG clone but at the same time,it's maybe a little too simple

[D3RANG3D]

another digital CCG funded via kickstarter has reached open beta

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1965800643/solforge-digital-trading-card-game

i've only played a game but i'm not sure what to think... it's different from the usual MTG clone but at the same time,it's maybe a little too simple

http://store.steampowered.com/app/232450/

[magus]

yeah i had to install steam to try it

it's pretty boring... there are 4 faction for a total of 180 cards (so i guess 45 cards per faction)

- the alloyin faction is the robot/military/blue faction,they like buffs,leveling up quicky and defensive abilities
- the nekrium faction is the zombie/black faction,they have removal and cards that like to die
- the tempys faction is the strike hard/fast/red faction,they have an elemental theme and have things like phoenix and thunder dragons
- last come the uterra faction,they have beast,like swarming and some buffing capabilities too and are basicaly the green faction

your deck can consist of only one or two faction... each turn you draw 5 card and then play 2 of them,each time you play a card that card level up (up to level 3) and goes back into your deck,the other level of card usualy have spiffer artwork,bigger stat and a bigger effect (a +2/+2 buff turns into a +3/+3 buff which turns into a +4/+4 buff for example) creature go into lanes (there are 5 lane) if there is another creature in the opposing lane they battle each other,otherwise you deal damage to your opponent (everybody starts with 100 health) and that's it... some cards are interessing in that their level's have different function (the uterra faction has a fungus which starts as a 1/1 at level 1,become a 0/15 at level 2 and turns into a 40/40 at level 3) but otherwise there is very little card interaction or thought other than "play your best guy and pump him up"

the best thing about the game is that at least it seems pretty easy on the F2P side,everytime you log in for the day,play a single game or play 3 game in a row you get a rare card and enough money to buy a basic pack which contains 3 cards... so you get around 12 cards per day... you also start with two 30 cards deck containing cards from all 4 factions

hex can't come soon enough to save us from the dreck of boring F2P Kickstarted TCG

[Great Rumbler]

Here's something that will blow your mind:

Star Citizen [from the creator of Wing Commander] raised $2.1 million through Kickstarter. Since then, through the official website for the game, they've raised an additional $13.5 million.

[Great Rumbler]

Sir, You Are Being Hunted just went up on Steam Early Access Beta:

[Great Rumbler]

Race the Sun is now available.



http://flippfly.com/news/race-the-sun-is-released/

[Great Rumbler]

These shots from 90's Arcade Racer should be particularly appealing to a few people here:













http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/896834116/the-90s-arcade-racer/posts

[ferrarimanf355]

I need The '90s Arcade Racer, like, now.

[ferrarimanf355]

I'm certain that the fans understand how hard it is to get that license in the first place...

[Great Rumbler]

Hexagons!

[Phoenix Dark]

Hexagons!

Triumph, hold me

[Great Rumbler]

[Phoenix Dark]

Can you do shit while traveling, or do you just watch time tick down? I'd hope that you can check your inventory, work on your weapons (blacksmith for instance), go through some conversations with your crew etc.

[Great Rumbler]

Can you do shit while traveling, or do you just watch time tick down? I'd hope that you can check your inventory, work on your weapons (blacksmith for instance), go through some conversations with your crew etc.

This update goes into a lot of detail about what goes on during the travel/camp sections of the game:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/the-banner-saga/posts/494433

[Great Rumbler]

[Rufus]

Looks like it could be hard to tell where you're even going...

[Great Rumbler]

New Kickstarted game is out:

http://www.desura.com/games/valdis-story-abyssal-city



http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=155507013&searchtext=valdis+story

[Great Rumbler]

New Kickstarted game is out [on Steam]:



http://store.steampowered.com/app/247240/?snr=1__4__105

[Great Rumbler]

Random stuffs:

Barkley 2:


Consortium:


Defense Grid 2:


Limit Theory:


Tesla Effect:


TAKEDOWN: Red Sabre:


Worlds of Magic:


And I updated the list of released Kickstarter games.

[Great Rumbler]

Starlight Inception and Godus are on Early Access Beta now, although the latter looks decidedly dull. Maybe it'll get better eventually? Probably not!

[Great Rumbler]

Peter Molyneaux is a bad person and he should feel bad.

From the 30 minutes on the GB quicklook, hardly anything happened. You tweaked the landscape, you built houses. That's it. Apparently there's a bit more to it than that, but not much more [at least in what's currently available]. Fortunately, I knew better than to hand any of my money over to Molyneaux. Fool my once and all that.

[radioheadrule83]

The James Pond kickstarter goes live at 12 noon GMT, so in about 20 minutes. 30 days to raise whatever they need. EDIT: apologies, being lazy I hadn't read this was for funded projects only... see spoilers below if still interested:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

People probably won't be massively excited about a new James Pond, but for me - it was a fun little platformer, with a British creator, that riffed off movies and other games of the time. JP3 taking off of Sonic for example. Robocod is the one most people think of when they think of James Pond, but I have fond memories of James Pond 3 on the mega-drive... it wasn't particularly deep, but there was a lot to do, I liked the setting, the Mario World style map, some of the dynamite puzzles, rocket jump item, bosses etc.

Here's a few of their latest facebook updates in the run up to the KS launch:

https://www.facebook.com/jamespondgames?fref=ts
https://twitter.com/JamesPondGame

JP3 World Map composite

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

James Pond 3 - superplay-through
#t=288

Chris Sorrell on the campaign


Interview with Chris Sorrell about developing the original games, with small teams etc


NintendoLife interview about prospective 3DS/Wii U versions:
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/09/exclusive_3ds_and_wii_u_versions_of_new_james_pond_game_are_part_of_the_plan

[close]

[Joe Molotov]

Kickstartered game Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller finally made it to Steam. It's a four part episodic game and all four parts are already out. It's made by the team that made the King's Quest IX fangame. It's supposed to be pretty good, I have Episodes I & II from some bundle, so I'll check it out this weekend.

[Great Rumbler]

Ah, I'd totally forgotten that was a Kickstarter game [from all the way back in 2011!]. I'll add it to the OP.

[Great Rumbler]

Almost missed it due to the furor over MARLOW BRIGGS, but Takedown: Red Sabre also came out on Steam today:


http://store.steampowered.com/app/236510/

[Great Rumbler]

The Dead Linger is now on Steam Early Access Beta:


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sandswept/the-dead-linger/posts

[Great Rumbler]

The OP was getting a bit unwieldy, so I fixed it up a bit to make it easier to browse. Not that anyone cares about the effort I put into this thread.

[Rufus]

[Great Rumbler]

Thank you, Rufus, you're a good person and I consider you a close friend.

[bork]

I got an Email from the GCW-Zero guy.  He might actually be shipping mine out at some point!   

...

Never doing this shit again.  Did not back Mighty No.9 or Shantae either, especially in Mighty's case- 2015 estimated release date?  LOL.  Will buy it normally if it's good.

[Great Rumbler]

I really don't see myself backing any kind of hardware on KS. A game can be glitchy and a bit different from what was originally advertised while still being enjoyable, but hardware? Just feels like a different animal entirely.

[demi]

I got an Email from the GCW-Zero guy.  He might actually be shipping mine out at some point!   

...

Never doing this shit again.  Did not back Mighty No.9 or Shantae either, especially in Mighty's case- 2015 estimated release date?  LOL.  Will buy it normally if it's good.

How long did you expect Mighty to take in dev? They dont even have a game...

[archnemesis]

This is the only Kickstarter thread I follow. I care.

[bork]

I really don't see myself backing any kind of hardware on KS. A game can be glitchy and a bit different from what was originally advertised while still being enjoyable, but hardware? Just feels like a different animal entirely.

Never doing that again.

How long did you expect Mighty to take in dev? They dont even have a game...

I dunno, I just didn't think it would take that long.

[Great Rumbler]

I dunno, I just didn't think it would take that long.

You mean less than 15 months to develop a game from scratch?

[magus]

the alpha for hex is releasing at the end of this week so why are we still talking about the lamer KS project?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[bork]

I dunno, I just didn't think it would take that long.

You mean less than 15 months to develop a game from scratch?

It seemed to me like they were further along.  I haven't followed it much and thought that they had something playable already.  Didn't know. 

[originalz]

In all honesty at this point there's no advantage to donating to a KS campaign that's already cleared the goal, considering what a huge question mark the whole thing can turn up as and these days you don't even get much of a discount for using their system.  Just wait for the full game to come out and buy it normally or on sale.

[Great Rumbler]

Knock-Knock [from the insane people at Ice Pick Lodge] is now available on Steam.

[brob]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/huniepop/huniepop-a-dating-puzzle-rpg



 

[Great Rumbler]

Legends of Eisenwald is now available on Steam Early Access Beta:


http://store.steampowered.com/app/246760/

[Joe Molotov]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/huniepop/huniepop-a-dating-puzzle-rpg

(Image removed from quote.)

 

Fake uguu, gross.

[Great Rumbler]

I forgot to mention this earlier, but Star Command is now available [though currently only on mobile devices, other PC/Mac versions should be out soonish]. It's a pretty fun little game, a bit like FTL bit not as random and not as brutally difficult. Basically, you pick your ship and nab a captain and some crew and then head out into the universe. The first few missions are straight-forward and linear, but after about 4 or 5 the game opens up and you have more leeway to check things out on your own. Combat's slow and simple so far, but I can see that already starting to change as I get deeper into the game.

[Stoney Mason]

I forgot to mention this earlier, but Star Command is now available [though currently only on Android, I believe, other versions should be out soonish].

?

It's been out on ios for months unless I'm not understanding something.

[Great Rumbler]

I misread their page, apparently they had an update for the iOS version that's currently being processed.

[Great Rumbler]

Oddly enough, this failed Kickstarter game appeared in finished form on Steam today:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/interwave/dark-matter-1

[Great Rumbler]

Keys for early access to Grim Dawn just went out today.

[Phoenix Dark]

no free Grim Dawn keys? 

[Rufus]

Oddly enough, this failed Kickstarter game appeared in finished form on Steam today:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/interwave/dark-matter-1

"Finished"
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=700177

[Great Rumbler]

Oops!

[Bebpo]

Yeah, just read that thread.  That is weird.  Like supposedly the game is good!  Which makes sense because even I liked Nuclear Dawn and I don't play those kind of games; it was just well made. 

I mean, like some people in the thread said, all they had to do was call it DARK MATTER: EPISODE 1 on the store and change that text to "To be continued..." and like Sin Ep1 and Half-life 2 ep2 they would never need to finish it if they didn't want to/have the ability to.  Those changes would have taken 5 mins and fixed this whole issue.

[Great Rumbler]

I mean, like some people in the thread said, all they had to do was call it DARK MATTER: EPISODE 1 on the store and change that text to "To be continued..." and like Sin Ep1 and Half-life 2 ep2 they would never need to finish it if they didn't want to/have the ability to.  Those changes would have taken 5 mins and fixed this whole issue.

That, or released it as early access beta. This just seems like a way to unnecessarily upset the people most likely to support them.

[Yulwei]

Keys for early access to Grim Dawn just went out today.

Really hope this game turns out good. TQ was flawed but really fun and addictive.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Cant wait for Grim Dawn, anyone playing it already?

[cool breeze]

I got an Email from the GCW-Zero guy.  He might actually be shipping mine out at some point!   

...

Never doing this shit again.  Did not back Mighty No.9 or Shantae either, especially in Mighty's case- 2015 estimated release date?  LOL.  Will buy it normally if it's good.

I backed the GCW Zero towards the end of the campaign at the cheapest option and finally got it in the mail today.  No shipping number or heads up 

Have you been following it closely? is there a resource to get all the emulators and stuff? interface is the same as dingux.  overall it seems like a super dingoo (a320).  other than the worse-than-psp nub, the controls and comfort seem pretty nice. 

[Great Rumbler]

Sir, You Are Being Hunted is half-off right now on Steam. I decided to finally pick it up, so I'll let you guys know how it is.

[bork]

I got an Email from the GCW-Zero guy.  He might actually be shipping mine out at some point!   

...

Never doing this shit again.  Did not back Mighty No.9 or Shantae either, especially in Mighty's case- 2015 estimated release date?  LOL.  Will buy it normally if it's good.

I backed the GCW Zero towards the end of the campaign at the cheapest option and finally got it in the mail today.  No shipping number or heads up 

Have you been following it closely? is there a resource to get all the emulators and stuff? interface is the same as dingux.  overall it seems like a super dingoo (a320).  other than the worse-than-psp nub, the controls and comfort seem pretty nice.

Finally got mine yesterday.  I'm a bit disappointed in this thing, actually- the d-pad kind of sucks (it's awful for fighting games  ) and from what I have tried, it's only marginally better than what the almost nine year old PSP could do.  It's awesome that FBA runs on this thing and I can load up arcade games like Afterburner and Martial Masters...

...except that these games run like poo.  Hope something can be done to get things working better.

If you go to the main GCW-ZERO website, there's a link to the dingoocity forums with emulators and such.  Things are pretty sparse and when people ask stuff like "will there be an N64 emulator?"  The answer is "LOL NO GO BUY THIS *OTHER* RECENTLY-RELEASED HANDHELD INSTEAD."   

So Dingoo apps do run on this thing?  So far I have Final Burn, NES, SNES, Genesis, GBA, and NeoGeo Pocket emulators on mine.  I see there's also DOSBox, PCE, and some other 16-bit PC emulators, but that's really about it.  Is there anything that the Dingoo has that's not listed?