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Crowdfunding Thread - 2016 - The future of gaming on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and FIG

C

Crow Pudding

Member
Tiny Metal
TINY METAL is a turn-based tactics game inspired by Nintendo's Advanced Wars Series.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/studio34/tiny-metal/description

c48e29c276e6be485147417f4f0c57b0_original.jpg
 
Y

Yoshi88

Member
I'd like to make everyone in love with economic sims like me aware of Project Automata.

Campaign started just now and you can already play a demo. Very nicely designed game AND kickstarter campaign in my eyes. Hugely reminiscent of genre-stables like Industry Giant 2 or Transport Tycoon with a sprinkle of Factorio maybe.

After some thought, i backed one of the last early bird stages. First time since 1.5 years i backed something again, after Halcyon 6 burned me a bit.

Project Automata - A World of Industry awaits
 
P

Purkake4

Banned
Yoshi88 said:
I'd like to make everyone in love with economic sims like me aware of Project Automata.

Campaign started just now and you can already play a demo. Very nicely designed game AND kickstarter campaign in my eyes. Hugely reminiscent of genre-stables like Industry Giant 2 or Transport Tycoon with a sprinkle of Factorio maybe.

After some thought, i backed one of the last early bird stages. First time since 1.5 years i backed something again, after Halcyon 6 burned me a bit.

Project Automata - A World of Industry awaits
Click to expand...
That actually seems quite interesting, a bit like Factorio and a bit like Star Ruler 2. They really have to do a good job showing the game off, because it looks like a social game at first glance.
 
Y

Yoshi88

Member
Purkake4 said:
That actually seems quite interesting, a bit like Factorio and a bit like Star Ruler 2. They really have to do a good job showing the game off, because it looks like a social game at first glance.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the clean art style could be reminiscent of some farmville/ cityville-like games. But for me personally it's also a nice gesture towards the older tycoon games, along with the terrain system ala RCT, Railroad Tycoon etc. And the clean style helps to plan complex production networks imo.

Nonetheless, they're still updating the graphics: "All of the existing Models are undergoing a complete revamp, in terms of their model overall, as well as the quality and polygon count. Some of the models have had their polygon count increased by 5 times their original!" (Kickstarter Description)

They also just revamped their campaign a bit, adding more info: Dynamic city growth, multiplayer, different biomes, weather and day/night cycles, along with handcrafted animated buildings and bustling cities are like a wet dream for lovers of eco-sims.

I'm soo rooting for this game to happen.

Oh yeah, btw.: They added some more early-bird tiers and an alpha demo is also already available while they just got greenlit on Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=768984021
 
P

Purkake4

Banned
Yoshi88 said:
Yeah, the clean art style could be reminiscent of some farmville/ cityville-like games. But for me personally it's also a nice gesture towards the older tycoon games, along with the terrain system ala RCT, Railroad Tycoon etc. And the clean style helps to plan complex production networks imo.

Nonetheless, they're still updating the graphics: "All of the existing Models are undergoing a complete revamp, in terms of their model overall, as well as the quality and polygon count. Some of the models have had their polygon count increased by 5 times their original!" (Kickstarter Description)

They also just revamped their campaign a bit, adding more info: Dynamic city growth, multiplayer, different biomes, weather and day/night cycles, along with handcrafted animated buildings and bustling cities are like a wet dream for lovers of eco-sims.

I'm soo rooting for this game to happen.

Oh yeah, btw.: They added some more early-bird tiers and an alpha demo is also already available while they just got greenlit on Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=768984021
Click to expand...
That's cool, the campaign doesn't seem to be doing too well though :(
 
S

smisk

Member
Did anyone else who reserved non-accredited shares for Psychonauts 2 get an email today? I hope someone smarter than me does an article or something explaining everything.
From what I've read of the circular, it looks like the game would have to do ~$100mm in sales for me to break even on a $500 investment, which seems unlikely. Might be worth it just to see this side of the industry and get all the sales information though.
 
R

Raitaro

Member
Bit of a side-note but maybe someone here can shine some light on this: why did the follow-up to (what I assume to be) succesful as well as succesfully funded Neverending Nightmares, i.e. Devastating Dreams, so utterly fail its campaign despite the first game's success? Was it bad luck, bad timing, or could it even have been due to the chosen protagonist (a pregnant Filipino woman - which seems interesting to me at least)?

It seems to have flown under most people's radar for some reason, like it did mine. Even the thread on gaf seems to have been extremely short-lived despite the dev, Matt Gilgenbach, offering to answer questions in the final post there.

(As someone who just found out about DD when googling to learn more about NN after watching it in the Super Best Friend's 2014 Shitstorm of Scariness, I just posted a reply to him in the DD Kickstarter thread, partly out of curiousity and partly out of sympathy. The world of indie development certainly can be a fickle place it seems. Edit: The Shitstorm video alone has nearly 200 thousand views, which is in large contrast to the barely 800+ backers for DD (and 3600+ backers for NN). I also just noticed that the campaign for it even got reported on by Eurogamer and Rock Paper Shotgun, which makes me wonder even more why it failed. Did people simply not like NN?)
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Raitaro said:
Bit of a side-note but maybe someone here can shine some light on this: why did the follow-up to (what I assume to be) succesful as well as succesfully funded Neverending Nightmares, i.e. Devastating Dreams, so utterly fail its campaign despite the first game's success? Was it bad luck, bad timing, or could it even have been due to the chosen protagonist (a pregnant Filipino woman - which seems interesting to me at least)?

It seems to have flown under most people's radar for some reason, like it did mine. Even the thread on gaf seems to have been extremely short-lived despite the dev, Matt Gilgenbach, offering to answer questions in the final post there.

(As someone who just found out about DD when googling to learn more about NN after watching it in the Super Best Friend's 2014 Shitstorm of Scariness, I just posted a reply to him in the DD Kickstarter thread, partly out of curiousity and partly out of sympathy. The world of indie development certainly can be a fickle place it seems. Edit: The Shitstorm video alone has nearly 200 thousand views, which is in large contrast to the barely 800+ backers for DD (and 3600+ backers for NN). I also just noticed that the campaign for it even got reported on by Eurogamer and Rock Paper Shotgun, which makes me wonder even more why it failed. Did people simply not like NN?)
Click to expand...

I think failures can be instructive. I think if we pretend that failures happen for no reason, we don't learn from them. So with that in mind, here are my thoughts below, which will sound harsh but I think should be a good lesson.

Neverending Nightmares was a very marginal Kickstarter campaign that was pushed over the top by a massive outpouring of press support about the developer's bad experience in the AAA industry, the commercial failure of his previous well-received game Retro/Grade and desire to work through his mental health issues by building the game. I think the sympathetic story made a big impact and got the game funded when it otherwise would not have been.

When the game released, my impression is that it didn't make a big impact--generally I saw pretty low interest from streamers, media, and regular players alike. Let's look at a few numbers to see whether that impression is well grounded: Metacritic 66; "Mostly Positive" reviews; only 54% of owners have played the game (i.e. sales inflated by bundles or KS purchases that never really had interest in the game); average playtime 2 hours 20 minutes; all-time peak players 142.

Devastating Dreams, to me, looked like a pretty straight-forward retread of NN. Yes, the theme is certainly very different. But the visual style is identical, and the general look of how the game plays out in the video available looks identical. In addition, what is the press angle going to be? "Man sad after failure of game, makes another game that also didn't really succeed, now wants to make another game". That's not an underdog redemption story, it kinda crosses the line into sad sack. I think the choice of protagonist may have been alienating to the audience as well, since the game wasn't clearly appealing to the progressive empathy art game circles and wasn't appealing to the pc master race anti-feminist guys who make youtube videos where they stick their middle finger up about censorship or pre-orders or whatever else they're angry about.

Also, NN funded as the indie, kickstarter, bundle, Ouya bubble was still inflating. Flash forward a few years later and I think the standards are way higher. There's more games to buy, no one has enough time to play them all, people are going to be more selective.

smisk said:
Did anyone else who reserved non-accredited shares for Psychonauts 2 get an email today? I hope someone smarter than me does an article or something explaining everything. From what I've read of the circular, it looks like the game would have to do ~$100mm in sales for me to break even on a $500 investment, which seems unlikely. Might be worth it just to see this side of the industry and get all the sales information though.
Click to expand...

I think you are reading this correctly based on the tables on pages 6/7. It looks to me like you will make $0.0004 per copy on the first 317,750 copies, and $0.00018 per copy after that. So it'd require 2,017,666 sales at full gross to break even.

However, this assumes that Fig takes 21% of the adjusted gross and investors take 9% and the paragraph immediately after that table says that Fig expects to be able to offer additional revenue share to investors from their cut. So probably the feasibility of breaking even depends pretty strongly on to what extent they can be held accountable for that.

The generic revenue share model on page 36 is slightly more investor-favourable, and the breakeven points on subsequent campaigns all suggest 30% of adjusted gross handed over to investors.

My guess is that they plan to turn over 30% of adjusted gross to investors but need an emergency escape hatch to keep the company afloat by retaining some of that revenue if necessary, and so legally they need to claim the 9% number in the circular?
 
W

Wozman23

Member
smisk said:
Did anyone else who reserved non-accredited shares for Psychonauts 2 get an email today? I hope someone smarter than me does an article or something explaining everything.
From what I've read of the circular, it looks like the game would have to do ~$100mm in sales for me to break even on a $500 investment, which seems unlikely. Might be worth it just to see this side of the industry and get all the sales information though.
Click to expand...

I'm curious to see how all this pans out.

When it was revealed on Fig, I wanted to invest badly because I loved the original, but the numbers and risks didn't make much sense to me then.

I think the estimator on the site was deeply flawed for various reasons, which skewed it to make an investment seem better than it was. Mainly, the default estimate for the average sale price was far too high based on the original's performance. The majority of the original's numbers were inflated by Steam and Humble sales, most of which were probably between 1 to 5 dollars. I don't see many of those sales adding up to much, and none of them are guaranteed. Plus, there are all those lost sales from dedicated, niche fans who will be getting a copy for backing it. I'd imagine that is a sizeable chunk of initial sales lost.

When I crunched what I thought were more accurate/conservative numbers representative of the original's performance I stood to make about $50 per $1000. And that's after 10 years, and assuming a platformer from 2017 would perform on par with a platformer from 2005.

Granted, I'm not privy to the world of investing, but I've got a pretty level head on my shoulders, a solid knack for common sense, and not a lot of money to waste on an unsound investment.

I wish it and the investors the best, but that's too risky for me. I'll just enjoy the game when it comes out.
 
A

Antraxx

Neo Member
More_Badass said:
All dates subject to change

2016
Antraxx
Antraxx is a multiplayer isometric, arcade-style, mech battle shooter. Mixing classic pixel art with a highly stylized modern twist using dynamic lighting, shadows, physics, positional audio and more.
Click to expand...

The campaign is already live for almost 13 days now. Its not looking good for us though.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649966326/antraxx-multiplayer-arcade-mech-shooter/

I only just got accepted to this forum after about 5 months of waiting so I just want to say thank you to whoever shared our game and added us to the list here.
 
G

GreyDaise

Neo Member
Couple more that are ending very soon (in 39 to 56 hours):

Code 7 - ends in 39 hours. Has made its goal, now working on a stretch goal to expand the length of the game. A next-gen text adventure with professional voice actors and a thrilling sci-fi story: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zeinokko/code-7-a-next-gen-text-adventure

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Chronotopia - visual novel with point-and-click elements - ends in 56 hours. Has not yet made its goal -- currently at 87%, so consider pledging if you want to play it. A dark and mature rewriting of a forgotten fairytale with many twists. Will you save Donkeyskin or doom her? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/traumendesmadchen/chronotopia-a-dark-fairytale-visual-novel

fJpdDjU.gif
 
R

RPGDave

Neo Member
A Kickstarter just launched for a game called "Back From Hell".

"Back From Hell is a CRPG Puzzle/Adventure game set in two worlds, a 15th Century Spanish hilltop town and a journey to the depths of Hell and back again. It merges classic computer role playing game mechanics with point & click adventure style exploration, challenging environmental puzzles in the vein of MYST and like Planescape: Torment the narrative is formed by the choices you make and the consequences of your deeds."

I really like the look of this one. Interesting setting and I'm a fan of point & click adventure / CRPG hybrids.
 
C

ChillyBilly

Member
Backed this one earlier tonight -

Hellhunter by Ballistic Interactive

From the Kickstarter page"

"Hellhunter is a supernatural investigative hunting RPG, where you assume the role of a freelance hunter building your career towards uncovering the ultimate terror."

ezgif.com-video-to-gif.gif~original
 
G

gabbo

Member
ChillyBilly said:
Backed this one earlier tonight -

Hellhunter by Ballistic Interactive

From the Kickstarter page"

"Hellhunter is a supernatural investigative hunting RPG, where you assume the role of a freelance hunter building your career towards uncovering the ultimate terror."

ezgif.com-video-to-gif.gif~original
Click to expand...
More and more I feel this is the Nocturne we were meant to get 17 years ago
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
I know this thread is about 2016 projects, but I was doing a scan through the 10k-100k (specifically for stuff <75k, since I track all projects above 75k) category looking for old projects that dropped off the radar. Since I was doing this for myself anyway, figured I'd cross-post here.

Here are some that jumped out at me:
Auditorium 2: Duet - $71,000 raised, due October 2012, no updates since December 2015 but developer in comments saying they're still working on it. I suspect this is a case of a dev being successful, wanting to do a sequel, and then ultimately not being able to figure out a vision for one.

Echoes of Eternea - $43,000 raised, due October 2012. No updates in two years. This is a indie team with no prior experience trying to make an Epic JRPG just like Final Fantasy VI. Whoops!

Meriwether: An American Epic - $44,000 raised, due Nov 2013. About to release, final beta in testing with backers on Humble, feedback all seems good.

90s Arcade Racer - Raised $20,000, due Nov 2013. Got a publisher, Nicalis. No updates since November 2015. Lots of people asking for refunds. Investigation suggests it's maybe dead or in publisher hell.

Xing: the Land Beyond - Raised $30,000, due Oct 2013. Still updating pretty frequently, aiming for Fall/Winter 2016, now coming to all the major VR platforms. Seems like it will come out.

Tangiers - Raised $52,000. Due Aug 2015. Updating occasionally, obvious cash crunch, no updates since May 2016. Seems like it's about 95% done, but ran out of runway at the last minute. Unknown if it'll be finished.

Candle - Raised $52,000. Due January 2015. Released this week on Steam. 86 on metacritic.

Atkmtn Presents: The Attack Pack - Two rad 2D PC games - Raised $12,000. Due May 2014. Releasing soon, now three games, and they don't look great. But it is going to happen!

Classroom Aquatic - Raised $31,000. Due Dec 2014. This is a trivia game where you play a dolphin and also you cheat at trivia. It's a VR game so the delay was kinda understandable. Last update was May and it looks like they got funding to release on Daydream stuff. Maybe still coming?

Kona - Raised $32,000. Due April 2015. 10,000 early access sales. Aiming for Q1 2017.

Ray's the Dead - Raised $51,000, was originally a PS4 launch title, then in the KS was due May 2015. Looks like they're still working on it, getting money from a Publisher, aiming for 2017 some time.

Lizard - Raised $13,000, due Mar 2015. This is an NES platformer (for NES). Looks like the game is still under dev and making progress, but no date and not done.

Sydney Hunter and the Caverns of Death - Raised $39,000. Due January 2016. NES/SNES platformer. Looks like the game is done, the SNES version is maybe 3-5 months away from done, and the NES version is after that. Still being worked on.

Quern: Undying Thoughts - $31,000 raised, expected Mar 2016, coming out next week.

Memoranda - Raised $18,000, due Dec 2015. Looks like it's coming out Dec 2016, maybe.

Super Russian Roulette - Raised $84,000, due June 2016. Frequently updating, not clear when it'll be done, but it's being shown in public pretty often.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Hey, sorry for the lack of updates the last few months. Thread fell off my list of priorities, but I'll be making it up to date by this weekend

Re: Stumpakow's post, Tangiers is the most frustrating for me on that list. I had jumped in post-campaign when the dev had opened up a limited number of slots for the beta that would be releasing soon. That was summer last year. The beta never came, updates dried up, and after some communication with the dev about a refund since the beta was long overdue, never got any more responses
 
G

gabbo

Member
After being burned by Nekro earlier in the year, Tangiers is the one troubled dev game I want to see cross the finish line. I still have faith, theyve gone long droughts without updates before
(oct 24th 2015->the may 2016 update)
 
S

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
So far the only in development project that I've backed that I'm worried about is The Mandate.

It's been 3 years, they've since sought publisher funding, and while there have been frequent updates, it seems a lot of them are about why they are cutting promised features.

I knew it was a pie in the sky project when I backed it, they were aiming to do so much, but I admired the balls for trying. Can't say I'm too broken up about it falling apart though.
 
I

Instro

Member
Stumpokapow said:
Echoes of Eternea - $43,000 raised, due October 2012. No updates in two years. This is a indie team with no prior experience trying to make an Epic JRPG just like Final Fantasy VI. Whoops!
.
Click to expand...

This one is super dead for a while now. They ran out of money and the original creator disappeared. There appears to be one person still attempting to make a game now, but he doesn't have anything to work off of.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Updated the OT

Agony - $50,406 goal, ends 10/11 (PC)
Funded
Agony shows the most terrifying vision of hell in the history of gaming. Explore the lake of fire with visually stunning graphics and take an ultimate trip into madness of horror
8.jpg
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Jupiter Hell - £60,000 goal, ends 12/13 (PC, Mac, Linux)
Jupiter Hell is a tactical roguelike game in a 90's flavored sci-fi universe. Set on the moons of Jupiter, the game pits a lone space marine against overwhelming demonic forces. Rip and tear undead, demons and unmentionable monstrosities, using classic weaponry including shotguns, chainguns, railguns and the trusty chainsaw. All to the shine of CRT monitors and the tune of heavy metal!
6qBUndc.gif
Click to expand...

Steam Hammer - $50,000 goal, ends 12/15 (PC)
Steam Hammer is the first hardcore sandbox-style RPG set in a dark and mysterious steampunk world. Experience the intensity as you try to survive on the mysterious Acribo Islands.
nlhTWZi.jpg
Click to expand...

AI War 2 - $50,000 goal, ends 12/19 (PC, Mac, Linux)
AI War II is a grand strategic RTS against an overwhelming, inhuman enemy who has conquered the galaxy. The enemy has made only a single error: underestimating you.
You must steal as much technology as you can, and take enough territory to fortify your bases and launch your attacks. But every conquest you make turns the attention of the AI ever more in your direction... so choose your targets with care.
wZuEKOT.gif
Click to expand...

Voodoo - €30,000 goal, ends 1/1/2017 (PC)
A new multiplayer experience in a fantasy primal Africa. The game that pays homage to Shadow of the Colossus
You must master the game of survival in a vast open-world where gathering resources and hunting for food are tasks that can always end in clashes with other tribes.
NJbgs2j.gif
Click to expand...

Kingdoms and Castles - $15,000 goal, ends 1/5/17 (PC, Mac, Linux)
Inspired by the SimCity series, Banished, and Stronghold, Kingdoms and Castles is a game about growing a kingdom from a tiny hamlet to a sprawling city and imposing castle.
Your kingdom must survive a living and dangerous world. Do the viking raiders make off with your villagers? Or are they stopped, full of arrows, at the castle gates?
S2F6Pab.jpg
Click to expand...
 
S

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Unknown Realm

A classic CRPG in the style of Ultima 4/5. They are also making an actual Commodore 64 version, so it's not just an 8 bit aesthetic but an actual 8 bit game.

kLlLXes.gif


Aa2JfLU.gif


U0bzk6x.gif


G7l5Sc4.gif
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Added Sunless Skies to Upcoming

Sunless Skies - February 1st
The stars are dying. The stars are the Judgements: the inventors, arbiters and enforcers of the universe's laws - but a revolution has begun, and the stars are being murdered. This is the Victorian Empire in space - the High Wilderness - a "blistering, wonderful night" among the thrones and domains of the stars. The Empress has abandoned London and led an exodus to the High Wilderness, to carve out a new British Empire.
DVkDz0vl.jpg
Click to expand...
 
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