Kickstarter Roundup – April
Kickstarter has unfortunately a back and forth reputation on whether or not a project that you fund will ever come to fruition or if it will be any good. We have some some disasters come out of Kickstarter like Mighty No. 9, Night Trap Revamped, Godus, Star Citizen and even the Ouya. But we also have seen some real gems come out of Kickstarter like Shovel Knight, Hyper Light Drifter, Divinity: Original Sin, Darkest Dungeon, SuperHOT and Wasteland 2.
Here at WTMG we still believe that Kickstarter is a great thing and will continue to provide some outstanding gaming experience. Sometimes it’s hard to sift through the duds so we are here to bring to light some projects that we think show great potential each month. So here are some new standouts from April!
BackBone
My first pick actually only started a couple days ago, but looks like a combination of Zootopia and a noir P.I. movie.
“Backbone is a pixel art cinematic adventure with stealth and action elements. As private investigator Howard Lotor, you are set to solve detective cases, interrogate witnesses, explore the intriguing and dangerous world around you, and sneak your way to safety using smell-based stealth mechanics.
Backbone combines the visual and social contrasts of film noir with anthropomorphic animals, retro-futuristic technologies, and dystopian fiction. Crawl through the dark alleys of pixelated Vancouver, and experience the impactful storyline focused on themeways ms of power and prejudice.”
Solar Warden
I have never been a huge fan of just plan space exploration type games, but Solar Warden caught my eye. It combines space shooting and real-time strategy together with an interesting mechanic called the “Telepresence”. Using the “Telepresence” you can control your main fleet and set up attacks and strategies and then assume control of any ship to engage in combat. A big bonus is that it will offer a full Co-op campaign and it’s being made by the same guys who gave us MechWarrior: Living Legends.
“Solar Warden is a Space Shooter / Real-Time Strategy hybrid indie title from the developers behind MechWarrior: Living Legends. Command the Solar Warden space fleet from the real-time strategy overlay; the Planetary Defense Interface (PDI) into battle or choose to assume immediate control of any of your fleet directly with the “Telepresence” technology and combat the Silicoid menace up close!
Solar Warden takes inspiration from games like Descent, Freelancer, XCOM, and EVERSPACE – aiming to capture this similar spirit of action, exploration, and solid campaign gameplay, while bringing in new features to provide a unique experience not previously explored in this genre.”
Faeland
Faeland immediately grabbed my intention because it looks like an awesome mix of Zelda and Castlevania. That already sells it for me personally.
“Faeland is a Metroidvania Action Adventure RPG video-game in pixel art style, inspired by the nostalgic 8-Bit classics, with a modern charm for all generations.
In Faeland as the player, you can freely explore the open world, traveling from one town to another, talk to friendly NPCs, learn about the game’s lore and get useful tips, commerce valuable items to improve your economics, buy new equipment and consumables and do quests to acquire useful loot while progressing in the main story. Some of the areas you need to traverse are challenging forests, caves, dungeons, castles and more. You also have to acquire new abilities and special items to gain access to previously inaccessible areas and paths. The combat style is customized through your equipped weapons, choose from knives, daggers, swords, axes, spears and bows, all with different attack animations, speeds, strengths and effects.”
Dolmen
Taking inspiration from Dead Space and Dark Souls (Um, yes please!), Dolmen looks like an epic action-adventure RPG. It may be a little stiff with some animations, but I see some great potential in this title.
“Cosmic Horror and Sci-Fi are two ways to talk about Dolmen. It is a third person action game with RPG elements but with a lovecraftian plot that calls players to find what’s behind the darkest secret of the universe!
A forgotten planet called Revion Prime will be the place where the action takes part. And it won’t be easy: Adaptation and exploration will be your main weapons as you craft new items and equipments from your enemies’ carcasses! Every step can be your last one!”
The Good Life
The Good Life caught my eye by offering something new and quite frankly, strange. But what do you expect when it is being co-developed by SWERY? The actual premise seems very mundane: You’re a photographer who must use her skills to pay her bills. As you progress things do start taking a more mysterious turn.
“The Good Life is a debt repayment daily life RPG co-developed by SWERY’s White Owls Inc. and a development team led by Yukio Futatsugi, the creator of Panzer Dragoon and Phantom Dust.
The Good Life is a Daily Life Simulator x SWERISM
You like bizarre and mysterious things?
You like unique and memorable characters?
You want to enjoy a game that offers a lot of freedom, but you also want to enjoy a good story?
Think that’s too much to ask for? Not in The Good Life! This game is made for you!”
Keep An Eye On – Pantropy
Pantropy is my “Keep An Eye On” pick mainly because the title says “Reboot” and that is a red flag that the first obviously failed. However, I’m keeping an eye on this one because it seems like PlanetSide 2 but with a heavy focus on building mechs!
“You join one of two player factions, the interplanetary mining corporations Andell or Itokawa, competing for domination against each other and one hostile NPC faction near the center of the map.
While relatively safe in the starting area (don’t expect any spawn kills), it becomes more dangerous as you venture into enemy territory with the goal to capture strategic objects like power plants and mining facilities and to push forward towards the enemy control tower. The game is set on a huge 64 km2 (39 sq. Miles) handcrafted map, with an NPC faction of fearsome biomechanical creatures controlled by a rogue AI native to the planet Lethaea at the center of it.”
With this being our first Kickstarter article, moving forward we will do a little recap of how they games performed and if they ended up hitting their budget goal or any milestones. Did we miss one that’s on your radar? Let us know in the comments!