I've talked about The Mandate a couple of weeks ago, but I couldn't wait till the weekend to blog about this latest update on the Romanovs-in-space epic. Perihelion Games has released a cool new trailer for their game, featuring Brit David
Bradley doing a kickin' voice-over as Admiral Suvarov for an incredibly enticing trailer for
the in-development space epic. Now, I'm not familiar with David Bradley (I'm not a fan of Harry Potter or Doctor Who, and I'm too scared of fleshy bits to watch Game of Thrones), but apparently he's got about six miles of nerd-cred. For me, he sounds a heck of a lot like Adam Nicolson, British author of the book examining Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, Seize The Fire. (I absolutely love that book, and Nicholson's wry English consonants most recently accompanied me on a kind of creepy bus ride from Indianapolis to Chicago last summer.)
In addition to the awesome VO quality that we're going to get for this sci-fi gem, I just love the tone they establish in this game. This is going to be a game where NPCs aren't just faceless meeples that you stat-grind as a parallel leveling mechanic--they're an engaging, dynamic, and fragile element of the game. They're your friends and your resources, and nothing you do can shield them from the risk that entails. Your crew will suffer losses, and the way you manage that loss on a dramatic and tactical level is going to be a central gameplay mechanic. It is very Nelsonian in that way, which grabs me all the right ways. (Seriously, check out Seize The Fire--the author-read audio book at least.)
It also makes me think of how exciting and avant-garde Mass Effect was going to be back in the days leading up to the first game's release. In particular, there was this commercial spot that still resonates with me to this day:
The idea of having mutually exclusive, NPC-destroying, time-based decisions to make is so much fun, and we never quite got the pay off in Mass Effect that the above commercial promised. Each game had very specific set-piece decisions that would very transparently give you a choice to kill person X or Y, but it never made it a heavy, pressed-for-time, combat-based choice like you get from this 48 second commercial. The first Mass Effect came close with the Virmire decision, but that still was a very canned moment. No matter how many times your NPCs got railgunned to the face, they were immune to any real injury until the script suddenly decided they were mortal.
With The Mandate, though, they're repeatedly stressing that every time your ship's hull tears open, you're losing crew, and that loss will not only potentially kill off individual characters, but having to replace or evaluate crew will impact the character of your ship and your character. This dynamic will make it where even the most assured victories will still have weight, as you try to grab as much power as you can without losing critical crew.
Oh, man, if this game doesn't get funded to the moon and back, I will be so disappointed in you, internet.
Showing posts with label Kickstart Your Weekend. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kickstart Your Weekend. Show all posts
Monday, November 18, 2013
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Kickstart: Rayguns, Space Frontiersmen, and White Russia in Space
Kickstart Your Weekend: A series in which I
occasionally spotlight Kickstarter projects that are ending soon and
deserve a little nerd love. Also, I'll highlight some past projects as
well, as you never know when these enterprises are going to turn up
again.
Today we're getting back into regular articles, with a laser-zap back into Kickstart Your Weekend. And these three are a particularly fun selection of games for fans of very different science fiction sub-genres. We've got a miniatures wargame-powered reboot of a classic pulp sci-fi series, a PC management game with a crude frontiersman angle, and finally a space epic computer RPG with a galactic empire inspired by pre-commie Russia.
Yeah, you heard me.
Before we dig into it, though, there were several awesome Kickstarter projects that wrapped in the past few months. And while you can't pledge, I thought I'd name-drop a few of them just in case you wanted to follow their development and release.
There were several interesting movies successfully funded this summer: Bound, a Lego brickfilm with a spiritual theme and made by a brother and sister team; the brickfilm Melting Point also funded successfully, and I can't wait to see this feature's take on the wry humor the creator, Jonathan Vaughan established in his other short films; Man vs. Snake, a quirky documentary based on a man trying to reclaim a video game record from the early days of arcade games, helmed by two editors from Battlestar Galactica; MMPR funded quite well, and so they'll get a shot at making a couple of episodes to snare all the grown-up fans of the original three seasons of Power Rangers. The Devil Walks in Salem looks kind of cheesy, but its remarkable distinction is that it's adapted from an RPG--not from the rules or setting--but from an actual play session between some honest-to-goodness role-players. Even if the end result turns out clumsy, I think it'll be worth a watch for anyone who ever looked around their gaming table during a really gripping session and thought "Why can't they make movies like this?"
(And if you don't know the feeling I'm talking about, watch this episode of Wil Wheaton's Tabletop. You're welcome.)
On the sad-to-see-it fail side of things, Stephan Frost, the creator of the intriguing and beautiful Mortifera graphic novel, failed to get funding to create the animated pitch for Hell Mary--a Weird War One-type setting about a redheaded femme fatale offing Black Hand goons and Kaiser Wilhelm cronies. It could've been great, but conventional animation still proves to be a big hurdle for Kickstarter projects--you have to raise a lot of money for relatively small rewards. Plus, Frost's offered incentive for success and stretch goals were probably too quirky and off-the-wall to serve their purpose--enough funds would have seen him get a second middle name of "Bonertown" and get a tramp stamp of two unicorns in...conjunction. I know I wouldn't want to inflict that on any man or beast, unless it was part of a really weird court sentencing.
And finally, probably the coolest film project I didn't report on this summer was definitely Fire City: Interpreter of Signs. A horror-fantasy story with a noir mystery flavor and really grotesquely interesting practical effects, Fire City feels to me like the sort of film I wanted the director of Pan's Labyrinth to make--rather than a thought-lite smash 'em up full of forgettable robots and monsters and with the only interesting characters thrown into the background while cardboard cut-outs subjugated them with their plot protection. (Oh snap: that dangerously run-on sentence really tore Pacific Rim a new one, huh?) Anyways, Fire City had the advantage of already having a really creepy short that shows off the subtly disturbing characters, and let them raise twenty grand over their one hundred grand campaign goal. That, and the sentimental daughter-focused thematic behind the production really gets to me as a father, and I'm really curious to see how this world of starving demons and dealers turns out. Just make sure the kids are fast asleep before watching it--even the sounds can make your skin crawl. Check out their webpage for more tastes of their unnerving aesthetic and eerie style.
Games, glorious games. Kickstarter is always good for game-nerding-out. The Long Dark, a first-person post-apocalyptic game with an emphasis on Grylls-esque survival, just recently finished a successful campaign. I love gritty survival games that aren't afraid to punish players with hunger, disease, and sleep dynamics, and the promised tension of making meaningful survive-or-social choices is too cool. Golem Arcana, a miniatures wargame powered by a tablet app and specialized stylus for rules and stat reference, squeaked by with full funding after a personal plug from Chris Roberts. Personally I'm not too keen on a wargame with forces composed of nothing but golems, but...Chris Roberts. (Blogger, how the frak do you not have golem in your spell-check dictionary?!) Alien Uprising, a cooperative sci-fi board game where players try to hold off savage alien natives while repairing their wrecked spaceship. I didn't pledge for it, but I'll be keeping an eye out to play it at conventions. Belle of the Ball, a card game with fantastic art and a princess-party-conniving-set-collection-gimmick, almost snared me into its grip, but I was much too masculine for such sissy stuff. That, and the game mechanics didn't seem as entertaining as the card art. Then I turned around and pledged for Marrying Mr. Darcy, a Pride and Prejudice card game produced by a Wisconsin local that has players trying to court the bachelors of the Austen book. My wife didn't even talk me into it.
Whatever. I don't mind your small-mindedness. I was excited for Marrying Mr. Darcy even before they hit the stretch goal that adds undead elements to the game.
Predictably, the music-powered fantasy MMORPG Anythmn failed to meet its funding goal. Which means that for the time being if I want to combine role-playing games and trumpet-playing, I'll have to find a very tolerant LARP group in the midwest. Fairytale Games: The Battle Royale funded with more than $100,000 over their original goal. I pledged for the project and want to play the game but my enthusiasm has been severely muted since they censored Esmerelda (of Hunchback of Notre Dame) to be an alchemical assassin instead of a gypsy assassin for some vague political correctness concerns. I mean, the game is Hunger Games murder fantasy with fairly cheesecake interpretations of many of their characters--and they're afraid of using the word gypsy to describe a character for whom being a gypsy is a plot point?! Gugh, I say. Plus by the end of the campaign the list of miniatures coming my way has gotten so confusing that I'm just trying to forget the project until I actually have everything in front of me. Massive Chalice did well by pulling in a cool half million more than their initial goal, but the controversy over Double Fine's previous game has me grateful that I passed on this campaign. I'll wait and see if they can actually deliver what was promised.
The summer also had a few neat print projects funded through Kickstarter. Men vs Cosplay was a 2014 cosplay calendar that eschewed boobs for biceps. I would've pledged, but I'm a jealous nerd. Also, you may recall I'm a big mammalian fan. Kids, Eh?, a web-comic annual print book, funded with triple it's $2,000CAD goal. The author is a stay-at-home Canuck dad with a one year-old and three year-old always providing comedic fodder for his weekly strip. Check it out. And FUBAR, the zombie alternate history comic series, funded it's most successful installment yet: Mother Russia. It's about a Soviet lady sniper in Stalingrad saving a toddler from uncounted Nazi zombies. I pledged on this one hard, as even my wife wanted to see more of the viscerally violent cutie-pie story.
On the mint-y side of things, there were two projects for nerdy numismatists. First, the Futuristic Metal Coins project from Minion Games brought us a great selection of uniquely sci-fi tokens for use in board games and RPGs. Between having these shiny creds to serve as cashy money and the upcoming Firefly RPG, I think I'll be doing some gaming in the 'verse in the next year. For more fantastic gaming, Conquistador Games funded The Best Damn Metal Gaming Coins Ever! Seriously detailed, high-quality coins, many of these pieces are inspired by historical examples. They're also non-denominational, meaning that they don't have a prescribed value printed on them, so if you want to throw odd pence-shilling-crowns around in your gaming, you can.
And probably one of my favorite projects of the past three months has to be the Hollow Earth Expedition: Revelations of Mars. Hollow Earth Expedition (HEX) is an RPG by Exile Games that I've followed for a while but never got into. Built on a cinematic system based on dice pools, HEX is founded upon Jules Verne and E.R. Burroughs imagery as they populate the center of the 1930s earth with a land full of weird science, dinosaurs, and savages. If you ever watched the Aussie show Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, you're on the right track. Revelations of Mars expands that setting to the red planet, with beautifully bejeweled alien princesses and big bug aliens needing stomping in grand E.R. Burroughs fashion. Since my wife and I enjoyed John Carter (of Mars!) so much, she actually mandated that I pledge on this particular RPG campaign. Well, who am I to look an RPG mount in the mouth? I pledged to receive Revelations of Mars when it releases next year and the preceding HEX books digitally right away. Wow. I'll do an in-depth article on HEX at some point, because I don't think I've had so much fun just reading an RPG sourcebook since the Serenity RPG came out.
So that's it for catch-up, but what's out now and worthy of a nerd's radar?
Mars Attacks
What it is: Mars Attacks began life in 1962 as a trading card series. A somewhat linear series of cards featuring alien invasion, slaughter, and torture before the eventual human counter, Mars Attacks was a violent, gory romp in pulp sci-fi, with rayguns, flying saucers, and swooning women at their mercy on a lot of the cards. Now, hot on the heels of their Kickstarter successes with Kings of War, Dreadball, Loka chess, and Deadzone, Mantic Games is producing a licensed miniatures wargame adaptation of Mars Attacks. The game is a lighter treatment to wargaming than their previous projects, evoking quick violent skirmishes between Martians and human resistance without a ten pound rulebook to slow things down. Even movement and ranges are based on a coarse 3-inch grid to eschew the all-but-ubiquitous measuring tape of other games.
Why it's exciting: This game, based on a well-known classic license by a seasoned producer of wargames products, stands poised to be Mantic Games' greatest hit yet. With three weeks to go, the game is already at $438,000 pledged out of their original goal of $50,000 so there's already dozens of stretch goals, updates, and add-ons unlocked. Being an old-salt and game snob myself, I tend to turn up my nose at rules that don't let me pull out my tape measure and have fewer than five stats per model, but I can't deny that the quality miniatures in this set--and the insanely good deals attached to the campaign's success--are extremely enticing. If nothing else, I might be seduced by the promise of their plastic US soldiers and flatbed truck-turned sci-fi transport/technical.
Rimworld
What it is: Rimworld is a sci-fi colony sim game for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Players must coordinate the survivors of a crashed colony ship on a procedurally-created world rife with natural disaster and other hazards. Colonists can be directed to mine, farm, build free-form buildings and facilities, and defend the colony from raiders. The game has developed a number of dynamic, interesting features that are coordinated by an AI director that can be selected to suit your play-style--whether looking for an exploration-focused game, a life or death struggle, or a relaxing buildup experience. Right now this is a one-man project with a lot of promise, but the campaign seeks to let the creator, Tynan Sylvester, hire a dedicated artist to add nice graphics to his ambitious game.
Why it's exciting: With over $140,000CAD raised of an original goal of twenty grand and two weeks to go, Rimworld is definitely going to be a success. Creator Tynan hasn't set any stretch goals for the game, wanting to work on it organically without imposing artificial goals leading to development bloat. That's a promising, healthy attitude for a small indie game, especially since so many games that succeed on Kickstarter fall victim to development bloat (Double Fine being the flagship example of this pitfall).
Mandate
What it is: Mandate is a sci-fi PC RPG with an epic scope. Set in a galactic empire inspired by 19th century Russia, Mandate is going to place the player in command of a Mandate ship at the outbreak of a civil war, giving the captain tactical control over their crew and boarding parties and maneuvering their ship in battle as well. Apparently, the game's campaign will grow from commanding a single ship to controlling outposts and stations and building up to having a subordinate fleet of their own. It's being developed on Unity engine, which means that not only is the game going to support Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems, but they're already releasing preview modules of the game on their website for fans to sample--right now they have a build-a-ship module that allows players to customize and then destroy a flagship of their very own.
Why it's exciting: I have a few different buttons that can easily cinch my support for a Kickstarter. Sci-fi role-playing game with tactile elements? You got me. Cross-platform support planned? Nice. Preview modules of the game? Cool. Dynamic choice-based gameplay? Yes yes. Russian space empress voice-over for the intro video? Easy buddy, you've already made your sale. I'm in for this game, and I haven't been this anxious to see a Kickstarter succeed since Interstellar Marines (mentioned in a previous post here), which was another cross-platform Unity-based sci-fi game. At $135,000 right now, Mandate has a long ways to go to reach their half million goal, but they also went for a longer campaign and so have well over a month to get there.
Holy moly. Not only did I just touch base on more than twenty Kickstarter projects in one post, but this is also the third article this week, which means that it's knocking off a point from my 31 post deficit.
Today we're getting back into regular articles, with a laser-zap back into Kickstart Your Weekend. And these three are a particularly fun selection of games for fans of very different science fiction sub-genres. We've got a miniatures wargame-powered reboot of a classic pulp sci-fi series, a PC management game with a crude frontiersman angle, and finally a space epic computer RPG with a galactic empire inspired by pre-commie Russia.
Yeah, you heard me.
Before we dig into it, though, there were several awesome Kickstarter projects that wrapped in the past few months. And while you can't pledge, I thought I'd name-drop a few of them just in case you wanted to follow their development and release.
There were several interesting movies successfully funded this summer: Bound, a Lego brickfilm with a spiritual theme and made by a brother and sister team; the brickfilm Melting Point also funded successfully, and I can't wait to see this feature's take on the wry humor the creator, Jonathan Vaughan established in his other short films; Man vs. Snake, a quirky documentary based on a man trying to reclaim a video game record from the early days of arcade games, helmed by two editors from Battlestar Galactica; MMPR funded quite well, and so they'll get a shot at making a couple of episodes to snare all the grown-up fans of the original three seasons of Power Rangers. The Devil Walks in Salem looks kind of cheesy, but its remarkable distinction is that it's adapted from an RPG--not from the rules or setting--but from an actual play session between some honest-to-goodness role-players. Even if the end result turns out clumsy, I think it'll be worth a watch for anyone who ever looked around their gaming table during a really gripping session and thought "Why can't they make movies like this?"
(And if you don't know the feeling I'm talking about, watch this episode of Wil Wheaton's Tabletop. You're welcome.)
On the sad-to-see-it fail side of things, Stephan Frost, the creator of the intriguing and beautiful Mortifera graphic novel, failed to get funding to create the animated pitch for Hell Mary--a Weird War One-type setting about a redheaded femme fatale offing Black Hand goons and Kaiser Wilhelm cronies. It could've been great, but conventional animation still proves to be a big hurdle for Kickstarter projects--you have to raise a lot of money for relatively small rewards. Plus, Frost's offered incentive for success and stretch goals were probably too quirky and off-the-wall to serve their purpose--enough funds would have seen him get a second middle name of "Bonertown" and get a tramp stamp of two unicorns in...conjunction. I know I wouldn't want to inflict that on any man or beast, unless it was part of a really weird court sentencing.
And finally, probably the coolest film project I didn't report on this summer was definitely Fire City: Interpreter of Signs. A horror-fantasy story with a noir mystery flavor and really grotesquely interesting practical effects, Fire City feels to me like the sort of film I wanted the director of Pan's Labyrinth to make--rather than a thought-lite smash 'em up full of forgettable robots and monsters and with the only interesting characters thrown into the background while cardboard cut-outs subjugated them with their plot protection. (Oh snap: that dangerously run-on sentence really tore Pacific Rim a new one, huh?) Anyways, Fire City had the advantage of already having a really creepy short that shows off the subtly disturbing characters, and let them raise twenty grand over their one hundred grand campaign goal. That, and the sentimental daughter-focused thematic behind the production really gets to me as a father, and I'm really curious to see how this world of starving demons and dealers turns out. Just make sure the kids are fast asleep before watching it--even the sounds can make your skin crawl. Check out their webpage for more tastes of their unnerving aesthetic and eerie style.
Games, glorious games. Kickstarter is always good for game-nerding-out. The Long Dark, a first-person post-apocalyptic game with an emphasis on Grylls-esque survival, just recently finished a successful campaign. I love gritty survival games that aren't afraid to punish players with hunger, disease, and sleep dynamics, and the promised tension of making meaningful survive-or-social choices is too cool. Golem Arcana, a miniatures wargame powered by a tablet app and specialized stylus for rules and stat reference, squeaked by with full funding after a personal plug from Chris Roberts. Personally I'm not too keen on a wargame with forces composed of nothing but golems, but...Chris Roberts. (Blogger, how the frak do you not have golem in your spell-check dictionary?!) Alien Uprising, a cooperative sci-fi board game where players try to hold off savage alien natives while repairing their wrecked spaceship. I didn't pledge for it, but I'll be keeping an eye out to play it at conventions. Belle of the Ball, a card game with fantastic art and a princess-party-conniving-set-collection-gimmick, almost snared me into its grip, but I was much too masculine for such sissy stuff. That, and the game mechanics didn't seem as entertaining as the card art. Then I turned around and pledged for Marrying Mr. Darcy, a Pride and Prejudice card game produced by a Wisconsin local that has players trying to court the bachelors of the Austen book. My wife didn't even talk me into it.
Whatever. I don't mind your small-mindedness. I was excited for Marrying Mr. Darcy even before they hit the stretch goal that adds undead elements to the game.
Predictably, the music-powered fantasy MMORPG Anythmn failed to meet its funding goal. Which means that for the time being if I want to combine role-playing games and trumpet-playing, I'll have to find a very tolerant LARP group in the midwest. Fairytale Games: The Battle Royale funded with more than $100,000 over their original goal. I pledged for the project and want to play the game but my enthusiasm has been severely muted since they censored Esmerelda (of Hunchback of Notre Dame) to be an alchemical assassin instead of a gypsy assassin for some vague political correctness concerns. I mean, the game is Hunger Games murder fantasy with fairly cheesecake interpretations of many of their characters--and they're afraid of using the word gypsy to describe a character for whom being a gypsy is a plot point?! Gugh, I say. Plus by the end of the campaign the list of miniatures coming my way has gotten so confusing that I'm just trying to forget the project until I actually have everything in front of me. Massive Chalice did well by pulling in a cool half million more than their initial goal, but the controversy over Double Fine's previous game has me grateful that I passed on this campaign. I'll wait and see if they can actually deliver what was promised.
 |
| Projects I backed during the past three months |
The summer also had a few neat print projects funded through Kickstarter. Men vs Cosplay was a 2014 cosplay calendar that eschewed boobs for biceps. I would've pledged, but I'm a jealous nerd. Also, you may recall I'm a big mammalian fan. Kids, Eh?, a web-comic annual print book, funded with triple it's $2,000CAD goal. The author is a stay-at-home Canuck dad with a one year-old and three year-old always providing comedic fodder for his weekly strip. Check it out. And FUBAR, the zombie alternate history comic series, funded it's most successful installment yet: Mother Russia. It's about a Soviet lady sniper in Stalingrad saving a toddler from uncounted Nazi zombies. I pledged on this one hard, as even my wife wanted to see more of the viscerally violent cutie-pie story.
On the mint-y side of things, there were two projects for nerdy numismatists. First, the Futuristic Metal Coins project from Minion Games brought us a great selection of uniquely sci-fi tokens for use in board games and RPGs. Between having these shiny creds to serve as cashy money and the upcoming Firefly RPG, I think I'll be doing some gaming in the 'verse in the next year. For more fantastic gaming, Conquistador Games funded The Best Damn Metal Gaming Coins Ever! Seriously detailed, high-quality coins, many of these pieces are inspired by historical examples. They're also non-denominational, meaning that they don't have a prescribed value printed on them, so if you want to throw odd pence-shilling-crowns around in your gaming, you can.
And probably one of my favorite projects of the past three months has to be the Hollow Earth Expedition: Revelations of Mars. Hollow Earth Expedition (HEX) is an RPG by Exile Games that I've followed for a while but never got into. Built on a cinematic system based on dice pools, HEX is founded upon Jules Verne and E.R. Burroughs imagery as they populate the center of the 1930s earth with a land full of weird science, dinosaurs, and savages. If you ever watched the Aussie show Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, you're on the right track. Revelations of Mars expands that setting to the red planet, with beautifully bejeweled alien princesses and big bug aliens needing stomping in grand E.R. Burroughs fashion. Since my wife and I enjoyed John Carter (of Mars!) so much, she actually mandated that I pledge on this particular RPG campaign. Well, who am I to look an RPG mount in the mouth? I pledged to receive Revelations of Mars when it releases next year and the preceding HEX books digitally right away. Wow. I'll do an in-depth article on HEX at some point, because I don't think I've had so much fun just reading an RPG sourcebook since the Serenity RPG came out.
So that's it for catch-up, but what's out now and worthy of a nerd's radar?
Mars Attacks
Why it's exciting: This game, based on a well-known classic license by a seasoned producer of wargames products, stands poised to be Mantic Games' greatest hit yet. With three weeks to go, the game is already at $438,000 pledged out of their original goal of $50,000 so there's already dozens of stretch goals, updates, and add-ons unlocked. Being an old-salt and game snob myself, I tend to turn up my nose at rules that don't let me pull out my tape measure and have fewer than five stats per model, but I can't deny that the quality miniatures in this set--and the insanely good deals attached to the campaign's success--are extremely enticing. If nothing else, I might be seduced by the promise of their plastic US soldiers and flatbed truck-turned sci-fi transport/technical.
Rimworld
Why it's exciting: With over $140,000CAD raised of an original goal of twenty grand and two weeks to go, Rimworld is definitely going to be a success. Creator Tynan hasn't set any stretch goals for the game, wanting to work on it organically without imposing artificial goals leading to development bloat. That's a promising, healthy attitude for a small indie game, especially since so many games that succeed on Kickstarter fall victim to development bloat (Double Fine being the flagship example of this pitfall).
Mandate
Why it's exciting: I have a few different buttons that can easily cinch my support for a Kickstarter. Sci-fi role-playing game with tactile elements? You got me. Cross-platform support planned? Nice. Preview modules of the game? Cool. Dynamic choice-based gameplay? Yes yes. Russian space empress voice-over for the intro video? Easy buddy, you've already made your sale. I'm in for this game, and I haven't been this anxious to see a Kickstarter succeed since Interstellar Marines (mentioned in a previous post here), which was another cross-platform Unity-based sci-fi game. At $135,000 right now, Mandate has a long ways to go to reach their half million goal, but they also went for a longer campaign and so have well over a month to get there.
Holy moly. Not only did I just touch base on more than twenty Kickstarter projects in one post, but this is also the third article this week, which means that it's knocking off a point from my 31 post deficit.
Friday, June 21, 2013
A Pregnant Pause in the Blog Sprint
Man, I take a week off and quite a lot of things happen. We had CliffyB proving he's the popped collar of the gaming industry, E3, more dismal Xbox One news followed by a surprise reversal, a couple of interesting new Kickstarter projects, and Free RPG Day this past week. Now, since I'm a little behind, I'm going to try to cover all these things briefly in one post, so I won't forget to mention them.
On the running Xbox One debacle, there's some mixed news. Specifically, on the questions of DRM, Xbox had been looking more and more arrogant and defensive. Enter E3 and Angry Joe, from the Angry Joe Show.
If you check out Angry Joe's (remarkably diplomatic with a low cuss-count) interview with Larry Hryb (Xbox's Major Nelson), you get a real good view of the sarcastic, patronizing, and disrespectful way Xbox is handling the concerns of consumers:
"Xbox One is the future. Do you want to come with me to the future?"
"I'm not a lawyer--are you a lawyer?"
"You're not on the development team, are you?"
And so forth in response to Joe's questions on the key concerns of the Xbox One's DRM policies. It's really worrisome, and the fact that convivial Major Nelson is shilling so hard for Xbox that he becomes this abrasive makes it all the more shocking to me. I mean, Angry Joe may be known for curse-filled rants and ripping apart bad games, but I think he's a teddy bear overall, and he's surprisingly forgiving of a lot of video games and their companies (I really think he drank Bioware's Kool-Aid on the Mass Effect 3 "extended ending"), and his interviews are really polite and respectful. Even when he's asking hard questions like he did of Major Nelson. Plus, Joe hasn't even gotten around to the really big implications of the Xbox plan. They are:
1) Microsoft's goal is to price control the console game market through trust-like activity between Xbox and game publishers. If Microsoft can make consumers swallow their DRM pill and anti-ownership assault on consumers, then age will be the only practical factor in determining the cost of a game. As it is, when a AAA game tanks, second-hand retailers get a surplus of returns that drive down not only the cost of used games but the new products as well. If they can cut out that consumer-based check on game quality, then Microsoft and Developers could form a closed loop for pricing their games so that you'd never be able to find a good deal for a game, no matter how bad it is. Heck, if price control wasn't the point of this policy, it'd be pretty silly of Microsoft to invest in developing their own re-vamped digital distribution system when they could've saved a lot of money by porting other services like Desura or Steam to their box. But by keeping it all in their hands, they control the prices of their games, and the only reason to lower prices would be to stay competitive with Sony and Nintendo. Maybe.
2) The daily check-in policy, while trumped up as an anti-piracy measure, is almost certainly a method to farm customer usage information. Let's just think about this for a second--there are a lot of ways to accomplish what Xbox claims to be trying to do: combat piracy through online verification. A daily online check-in is not necessary. Most simply, you could make it where installing a game from the disc itself requires an online handshake that flags that game as the 'active' version of the game, and deactivate any other installs from that game CD. So why have the daily online policy? To upload a cache of your Xbox's activity. Now, I'm not talking about some conspiracy theory where Xbox is interested in stealing your identity or anything, but the Xbox's TV and game-playing activity for millions of users would be tremendously valuable marketing demographics they could easily sell to advertisers, publishers, whoever. And don't bet the farm that Xbox would ever pass those new profits on to consumers through cheaper prices.
Then the heavens lifted and Microsoft's collective voice boomed from their emerald fortress: they would reverse their DRM and online policies, including their region lock, apparently. First of all, let that be a lesson to all you corporate apologists out there: us entitled raging nerds can make a difference. Maybe. Personally, I think it's just as likely that Microsoft backed down through a combination of investor pressure and the dire predictions of lawyers that they were going to get caught with their briefs down.
More importantly, however, look at Larry Hryb's comments, quoted above, just one week before the whole company reversed course. Granted he's a paid cheer-leader for Microsoft, but that kind of arrogance behind the project doesn't just go away. The certainty that these draconian measures are the "future of gaming" doesn't just go away. And the dishonest implication that this would be a difficult policy to reverse hints at a more insidious truth: if Microsoft decides that it's worth it, after the bad PR dies down and the first few waves of Xbox Ones have been purchased, to try to quietly reinstitute these or similar measures on a captive audience, they'll try. The way they're pulling back their vaunted Family Sharing Plan--which was generating some excited buzz--smacks of a bargaining chip to give customers when the other shoe drops.
And if you need anymore reason to retroactively hate Microsoft for what they almost did or might try to do again, here's some chaw in your maw: Cliff Bleszinski, the popped collar of the gaming industry, jumped in to defend Microsoft's plan to prune-squeeze gamers. CliffyB, as the wannabe Situation is known, is the creative "mind" behind the Gears of War franchise, and he recently stepped down from Epic Games to basically not shut up about his stupid cult-of-the-game-developer ideals. Now that Microsoft has about-faced despite hiseloquent erroneous defense of their plans, he's sounding off that these developments will be bad for the industry and the consumer, predicting: "More studios WILL close and you'll see more PC and mobile games" Dun-dun-DUN!!! Wow, Cliffy, thanks for that realization, and thanks for trying to pin long-standing consumer patterns on consumers' reactions from last week. Cliff Bleszinski: don't be that guy. Also, don't be on the same issue as him. And if you're in the same region as him, check out the real estate market elsewhere.
Kickstart: Fanciful Bloodsport, Musical Mystics, & Frigid Freaks
Fairytale Games
What it is: Fairytale Games is a character-based card game of survival, exploration, and battles to the death. Set in a world run by the evil trinity of the Dark Queen, the Queen of Hearts, and the Snow Queen, the three tyrants secure their rule by persecuting any upstarts, especially those associated with the Enchanted Forest. Their method of persecution? A public bloodsport set in the wilderness of their kingdoms, pitting all sorts of classic fairytale figures like the Beast, Red Riding Hood, Alice, Pinocchio and 36 more in a Hunger Games sort of scenario.
Why it's exciting: The game promises to be a unique take on a lot of familiar figures, turning Pinocchio, for instance, into a tortured sort of Frankenstein's monster, and making the damsels into hardened survivalists that would make the originators of these violent fairytales proud (because most of the original fairytales are way more violent than Disney's sterilized versions). The mechanics involve laying out cards in a freely expanding grid as you explore the world, recruiting or killing off other survivors, finishing quests, and gaining items. And since it promises to support 1 to 10 players it is a rare game indeed that both features solo play and stabbing up to 9 buddies in the back in the course of one game. Very fun. They're nearly funded, and the stretch goals will potentially unlock a huge number of extra cards for backers--including a zombie version, or miniatures at the very highest stretch goal. I'm not a huge card gamer, but this set looks more like a dynamic battle game than a shuffle-fest, so I'm already in on it.
Anthymn
What it is: Anthymn is a typical Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game (MMORPG), where players take on the roles of heroes in a fantasy land in the midst of turmoil. Except all the players are mages in this game. And all magic is tied to music. So spells are actually uniquely composed tunes, and battles are actually special effects duels of music and fire. Players choose a faction based not only on gameplay style, but on musical play style--picking from classical, electronic, tribal, or other styles that have a specific look, culture, and magical power associated with them.
Why it's exciting: This Kickstarter campaign is not looking healthy. With less than two weeks to go, they are at less than $30,000 of their $600,000 goal. Which is a real shame, as this game shows a lot more imagination and guile than almost any other game being crowdfunded right now--they promise a rich, dynamic, player-created soundscape where players trade and teach others their battle-songs, and the core mechanics of the game sound like they will educate people on the basics of musical theory. Even if you aren't going to back this project, you should really consider spreading the word so they have good exposure and support should the worst happen. But seriously, back this. Where else can you be this frakkin' cool playing a trumpet? (Four years of band camp will tell you: nowhere--unless you count that football game where you finished half-time with the Braveheart speech and a trumpet blast)
Frozen State
What it is: Take a bunch of Russians in a necessarily wintry setting, add in some critters from John Carpenter's The Thing, throw in a global apocalypse and old school Fallout-style gameplay, and you have Frozen State, the best thing to come out of Moscow since Sean Connery. Created by Snow Arc, the computer game features an older style of RPG campaign, where you pick one of three preset characters and run them through an RPG where you battle the elements in addition to hostile survivors and things-with-too-many-mouths/limbs/bumpy-bits. The game will involve a non-linear campaign where seeking out resources and loot in devastated Siberia is a constant lure.
Why it's exciting: I really like the wintry setting, and the fact that survival will be a central element is cool. They're talking about making a meaningful day/night cycle where going out at night is dangerous due to weather and the creatures drawn out by darkness, which sounds atmospheric and crunchy. I haven't pulled the trigger on this one yet, though, as its funding is in British Pounds, and I've yet to back a pounds-based project. But with all the cool goodies they've got and the fact they're shooting for a Windows/Mac/Linux release, this might be the time to do it.
Free RPG Day
Last Saturday was Free RPG Day 2013. An annual observance since 2007, it's a chance for RPG publishers and retailers to team up to give players free demos, supplements, and teasers of their games in an effort to spread awareness of their games and promote the hobby in general. This year Pathfinder, Battletech, Star Wars, Cosmic Patrol, and more all got their free on at your Friendly Local Game Shop (FLGS). Make sure to keep an eye out for freebies next year, and support your FLGS. It's a great way to browse other systems and maybe add a few new games to your hit-list.
So what have I been doing while all this stuff was going down?
Getting daddied up.
Again.
Once more my irresistible procrastinator genes have so infected my offspring that my son cruised past his due date. So once more we got to schedule our son's birthday, essentially, by going in to the hospital to get induced. Man, you do not sleep well once your pregnant wife gets to her due date. Throughout the later stages of the pregnancy you start to look at her like a damp, full grocery bag--any sudden movement could tear out her bottom and wreck a whole lot of perishables. But once you hit that final week to deadline and go past it, things take on new severity. Like when Sylvester the Cat drinks the nitroglycerine in the old 1940s cartoon, every movement is sudden death. Needless to say, it's hard to sleep in that kind of environment. (And adding a second boy under 3 years old to our household probably won't help!)
Then, the next day, you go through a weirdly calm morning of getting things ready, shipping the kid off to the grandparents, and then try to have a nice brunch before going in to the hospital for the scheduled horror show. Few things in life are quite so unpleasant as trying to eat with a woman who's pregnant with a child other than their first. Something about that first birth and the 20 or so hospital staff touring her monstrous hoo-hah gives a woman the impression that everyone wants to hear about what's going on with their sensitives forever. For at least one year per kid, everything is mucous, membranes, and fluids, and any time you try to gracefully bow out of the all-access experience, you're instead rewarded with an eye and earful of something you'd rather believe was only the province of R-rated movies. There is no escape.
The build up is kind of mesmerizingly complex, but also tediously long, and you don't really feel like much of what's happening relates to what's about to occur. The little lady is thrown into a flattering hospital ensemble, hooked up to machines, and set on display in the middle of a sci-fi creche. It's like the Disney Alien Encounter, except the lights are on, nothing is sanitary, and the grotesque monstrosity in the middle of the room is the one doing most of the screaming.
On the running Xbox One debacle, there's some mixed news. Specifically, on the questions of DRM, Xbox had been looking more and more arrogant and defensive. Enter E3 and Angry Joe, from the Angry Joe Show.
If you check out Angry Joe's (remarkably diplomatic with a low cuss-count) interview with Larry Hryb (Xbox's Major Nelson), you get a real good view of the sarcastic, patronizing, and disrespectful way Xbox is handling the concerns of consumers:
"Xbox One is the future. Do you want to come with me to the future?"
"I'm not a lawyer--are you a lawyer?"
"You're not on the development team, are you?"
And so forth in response to Joe's questions on the key concerns of the Xbox One's DRM policies. It's really worrisome, and the fact that convivial Major Nelson is shilling so hard for Xbox that he becomes this abrasive makes it all the more shocking to me. I mean, Angry Joe may be known for curse-filled rants and ripping apart bad games, but I think he's a teddy bear overall, and he's surprisingly forgiving of a lot of video games and their companies (I really think he drank Bioware's Kool-Aid on the Mass Effect 3 "extended ending"), and his interviews are really polite and respectful. Even when he's asking hard questions like he did of Major Nelson. Plus, Joe hasn't even gotten around to the really big implications of the Xbox plan. They are:
1) Microsoft's goal is to price control the console game market through trust-like activity between Xbox and game publishers. If Microsoft can make consumers swallow their DRM pill and anti-ownership assault on consumers, then age will be the only practical factor in determining the cost of a game. As it is, when a AAA game tanks, second-hand retailers get a surplus of returns that drive down not only the cost of used games but the new products as well. If they can cut out that consumer-based check on game quality, then Microsoft and Developers could form a closed loop for pricing their games so that you'd never be able to find a good deal for a game, no matter how bad it is. Heck, if price control wasn't the point of this policy, it'd be pretty silly of Microsoft to invest in developing their own re-vamped digital distribution system when they could've saved a lot of money by porting other services like Desura or Steam to their box. But by keeping it all in their hands, they control the prices of their games, and the only reason to lower prices would be to stay competitive with Sony and Nintendo. Maybe.
2) The daily check-in policy, while trumped up as an anti-piracy measure, is almost certainly a method to farm customer usage information. Let's just think about this for a second--there are a lot of ways to accomplish what Xbox claims to be trying to do: combat piracy through online verification. A daily online check-in is not necessary. Most simply, you could make it where installing a game from the disc itself requires an online handshake that flags that game as the 'active' version of the game, and deactivate any other installs from that game CD. So why have the daily online policy? To upload a cache of your Xbox's activity. Now, I'm not talking about some conspiracy theory where Xbox is interested in stealing your identity or anything, but the Xbox's TV and game-playing activity for millions of users would be tremendously valuable marketing demographics they could easily sell to advertisers, publishers, whoever. And don't bet the farm that Xbox would ever pass those new profits on to consumers through cheaper prices.
Then the heavens lifted and Microsoft's collective voice boomed from their emerald fortress: they would reverse their DRM and online policies, including their region lock, apparently. First of all, let that be a lesson to all you corporate apologists out there: us entitled raging nerds can make a difference. Maybe. Personally, I think it's just as likely that Microsoft backed down through a combination of investor pressure and the dire predictions of lawyers that they were going to get caught with their briefs down.
And if you need anymore reason to retroactively hate Microsoft for what they almost did or might try to do again, here's some chaw in your maw: Cliff Bleszinski, the popped collar of the gaming industry, jumped in to defend Microsoft's plan to prune-squeeze gamers. CliffyB, as the wannabe Situation is known, is the creative "mind" behind the Gears of War franchise, and he recently stepped down from Epic Games to basically not shut up about his stupid cult-of-the-game-developer ideals. Now that Microsoft has about-faced despite his
Kickstart: Fanciful Bloodsport, Musical Mystics, & Frigid Freaks
Fairytale Games
Why it's exciting: The game promises to be a unique take on a lot of familiar figures, turning Pinocchio, for instance, into a tortured sort of Frankenstein's monster, and making the damsels into hardened survivalists that would make the originators of these violent fairytales proud (because most of the original fairytales are way more violent than Disney's sterilized versions). The mechanics involve laying out cards in a freely expanding grid as you explore the world, recruiting or killing off other survivors, finishing quests, and gaining items. And since it promises to support 1 to 10 players it is a rare game indeed that both features solo play and stabbing up to 9 buddies in the back in the course of one game. Very fun. They're nearly funded, and the stretch goals will potentially unlock a huge number of extra cards for backers--including a zombie version, or miniatures at the very highest stretch goal. I'm not a huge card gamer, but this set looks more like a dynamic battle game than a shuffle-fest, so I'm already in on it.
Anthymn
Why it's exciting: This Kickstarter campaign is not looking healthy. With less than two weeks to go, they are at less than $30,000 of their $600,000 goal. Which is a real shame, as this game shows a lot more imagination and guile than almost any other game being crowdfunded right now--they promise a rich, dynamic, player-created soundscape where players trade and teach others their battle-songs, and the core mechanics of the game sound like they will educate people on the basics of musical theory. Even if you aren't going to back this project, you should really consider spreading the word so they have good exposure and support should the worst happen. But seriously, back this. Where else can you be this frakkin' cool playing a trumpet? (Four years of band camp will tell you: nowhere--unless you count that football game where you finished half-time with the Braveheart speech and a trumpet blast)
Frozen State
Why it's exciting: I really like the wintry setting, and the fact that survival will be a central element is cool. They're talking about making a meaningful day/night cycle where going out at night is dangerous due to weather and the creatures drawn out by darkness, which sounds atmospheric and crunchy. I haven't pulled the trigger on this one yet, though, as its funding is in British Pounds, and I've yet to back a pounds-based project. But with all the cool goodies they've got and the fact they're shooting for a Windows/Mac/Linux release, this might be the time to do it.
Free RPG Day
Last Saturday was Free RPG Day 2013. An annual observance since 2007, it's a chance for RPG publishers and retailers to team up to give players free demos, supplements, and teasers of their games in an effort to spread awareness of their games and promote the hobby in general. This year Pathfinder, Battletech, Star Wars, Cosmic Patrol, and more all got their free on at your Friendly Local Game Shop (FLGS). Make sure to keep an eye out for freebies next year, and support your FLGS. It's a great way to browse other systems and maybe add a few new games to your hit-list.
So what have I been doing while all this stuff was going down?
Getting daddied up.
Again.
Once more my irresistible procrastinator genes have so infected my offspring that my son cruised past his due date. So once more we got to schedule our son's birthday, essentially, by going in to the hospital to get induced. Man, you do not sleep well once your pregnant wife gets to her due date. Throughout the later stages of the pregnancy you start to look at her like a damp, full grocery bag--any sudden movement could tear out her bottom and wreck a whole lot of perishables. But once you hit that final week to deadline and go past it, things take on new severity. Like when Sylvester the Cat drinks the nitroglycerine in the old 1940s cartoon, every movement is sudden death. Needless to say, it's hard to sleep in that kind of environment. (And adding a second boy under 3 years old to our household probably won't help!)
Then, the next day, you go through a weirdly calm morning of getting things ready, shipping the kid off to the grandparents, and then try to have a nice brunch before going in to the hospital for the scheduled horror show. Few things in life are quite so unpleasant as trying to eat with a woman who's pregnant with a child other than their first. Something about that first birth and the 20 or so hospital staff touring her monstrous hoo-hah gives a woman the impression that everyone wants to hear about what's going on with their sensitives forever. For at least one year per kid, everything is mucous, membranes, and fluids, and any time you try to gracefully bow out of the all-access experience, you're instead rewarded with an eye and earful of something you'd rather believe was only the province of R-rated movies. There is no escape.
The build up is kind of mesmerizingly complex, but also tediously long, and you don't really feel like much of what's happening relates to what's about to occur. The little lady is thrown into a flattering hospital ensemble, hooked up to machines, and set on display in the middle of a sci-fi creche. It's like the Disney Alien Encounter, except the lights are on, nothing is sanitary, and the grotesque monstrosity in the middle of the room is the one doing most of the screaming.
And the main event--whew. First, there's a whole lot of doctors and nurses taking the Livingston tour of your baby's den, and then when he comes out, you're suddenly surprised that your huge wife was able to hold, feed, and pass the little Roswell alien. It's like Mary Poppins' hand-bag, except when it starts, everything improbable is going in, and then when something comes out it's totally different--though no less improbable.
So that's been my week. That, and spending the past week fending my two year-old away from the fascinating newborn. On the hospital ride home, he calmly tried to convince us that the new addition would be more comfortable back in mom's belly. But since she nixed that plan, he's stuck with a little brother. Poor guy.
So that's been my week. That, and spending the past week fending my two year-old away from the fascinating newborn. On the hospital ride home, he calmly tried to convince us that the new addition would be more comfortable back in mom's belly. But since she nixed that plan, he's stuck with a little brother. Poor guy.
Friday, June 7, 2013
Kickstart: Lost Moon Men and Marines in Training
Kickstart Your Weekend: A series in which I occasionally spotlight Kickstarter projects that are ending soon and deserve a little nerd love. Also, I'll highlight some past projects as well, as you never know when these enterprises are going to turn up again.
Tonight I'm plodding along, continuing the blog sprint and vaguely entertaining the idea of keeping it going until post number 150. That's not terribly likely, as my wife is going to evict her 9-month old parasite any day now, but there is a chance I'll be able to keep the momentum going even then.
Speaking of momentum, Deadzone ended up pulling in a grand total of $1,216,482 in pledges this past week. That's nearly 300 grand more than Mantic Games' previous best Kickstarter campaign, and a full 100 grand more than I was predicting they'd pull in. Their final hours pulled in several hard plastic sets for backers to add-on to their pledges, and that probably really helped boost the final results of the campaign. Most Mantic models are resin or a trending new resin-plastic mix. As a model material, resin holds small details sharply and cleanly, but resin can be more difficult to glue and harder to convert due to being a bit more brittle and prone to cleavage. (Not that kind, silly mammal.) By offering a few optional sets of plastic models for the game's core units, Mantic gives players a chance to have more ambitious control in constructing their models. And if there's one thing wargaming armchair generals love--it's ambitious control. That and smack-talking their opponents.
Ryan Sohmer's second children's book, The Bear--A First Time Parent's Continuing Journey finished at a healthy $54,381 out of an original goal of $40,000. It doesn't compare to the success of the first campaign, but I can't fault anything with the second book on that score. I think the more muted success of book two speaks to how cogent and complete the first book was--there's simply not as much demand for something more. Still, the art for these books is beautiful, and I received my book from the first campaign promptly and in great condition, and you can't beat the wry observations and tear-jerk imagery of each and every page. Total dad-bait.
Dino-hunting survival game The Stomping Land ended at $114,060 blowing their 20 grand goal out of the water and securing extra funds for hiring extra part-time designers to expand the game environment. I was on the fence on pledging to this one--the gameplay really excited me, but I was kind of hoping for them to show more interest in Mac support as well as PC. As it is, though, I'm sure I'll get it sometime next year to play on my Star Citizen gaming PC--sitting in my high-tech simpit while running a caveman avatar around in a loincloth. Anachronism, your name is me.
The superhero-vs-mastermind board game Guardians Chronicles is poised to break 60 grand tonight, with a little over a week to go in their campaign. They slowed down a lot in the middle of the campaign, perhaps more so than is usual, but with the fact that they're picking up steam and about to unlock a dice stretch goal, I still think their ultimate stretch goal of $100,000 is within reach. More importantly, until June 13 they have a trivia-based game giveaway contest in which the grand prize is a complimentary $160 pledge level for the Kickstarter campaign. Check that out here. They've also posted full rules for the game and enough art that you can play a small demo of the game with your own miniatures/markers/old Tic-Tac cases as proxies for their characters.
Okay, so that's it for Kickstarter updates. So what's new this week? Well, not a whole lot. So today I'll share another two promising-but-failed Kickstart projects.
Shackleton Crater
What it is: Shackleton Crater wanted to be a near-future strategy computer game where players struggled to manage and create the first colonies on the moon's surface. No cover system, no alien invaders, and no secret uprising. A strategy game without violence, where survival and thriving would be challenging enough to keep players entertained. Building pre-fab modules inspired by real NASA concepts and designs, players would scour the moon's rugged surface for materials, conduct research, and hide from cosmic storms and the like. The game environment was based on the actual surface of the moon, and one of their listed stretch goals proposed that the game feature the entire frakkin' surface of the moon. That's a lot of solitary playground, yo.
What happened: I enjoy a good dose of violence in my entertainment. Most zombie games make me giggle rather than cringe at face-smashing finishing moves and the obligatory chomp-chomp-chomp deaths of helpless characters. But I also enjoy a harmonious game, too, where excellence doesn't have to come at the end of a gun or at someone else's expense. Challenge can go hand in hand with a relaxing experience. And I think that's what appealed to me about Shackleton Crater--I envisioned a game that was smart and well-balanced enough to provide a challenging experience, but while also being totally wholesome. And I suppose it's that last part that made it a tough sell. The game community as a collective doesn't want another Oregon Trail--not unless you make the final stretch of the journey a cannibalism simulator or you give players the option to raid trading outposts instead of, y'know, trading. About halfway through their campaign and at less than ten percent of their base funding goal, creators Joe Got Game cancelled the project, promising that they'd keep moving forward with development. Unfortunately, no news has surfaced for the past two months.
Interstellar Marines
What it is: Interstellar Marines has been in indie development hell for years. A science-fiction first person shooter being developed by Zero Point Software, they apparently started out with a mainstream publisher and partners but got cut off as their realistic, visceral approach to their setting seemed not enough Halo or Call of Duty. Since then, however, they've ingeniously switched their game code over to the versatile and inexpensive Unity Engine, which has allowed them to do something really neat for their game by making portions of the game playable on their website through your browser. It's a fun teaser of what they have envisioned, and it also enables the developers to actively troubleshoot and play balance their game one feature at a time.
What happened: The project had a decent start but quickly slowed down. It crawled along, and I think a lot of potential backers (myself included) were a little gun-shy to jump into such an ambitious game being developed for so long. All gamers have been collectively Duke Nukem Forever'd, and we're all scared of it happening again. But the game itself looks great, and I love that the premise for the prologue to their series was going to put players in the middle of a series of harrowing wargames as futuristic soldiers prepare for first contact with alien species. Which is pretty much never good. Their Kickstarter video was great too--it started off with a droll speech about the first interstellar beacon test, and then cut to the developers talking about their game in a sort of 12 Monkeys stream of hallucinations. Doesn't make sense? Well, it was funny anyways.
Tonight I'm plodding along, continuing the blog sprint and vaguely entertaining the idea of keeping it going until post number 150. That's not terribly likely, as my wife is going to evict her 9-month old parasite any day now, but there is a chance I'll be able to keep the momentum going even then.
Speaking of momentum, Deadzone ended up pulling in a grand total of $1,216,482 in pledges this past week. That's nearly 300 grand more than Mantic Games' previous best Kickstarter campaign, and a full 100 grand more than I was predicting they'd pull in. Their final hours pulled in several hard plastic sets for backers to add-on to their pledges, and that probably really helped boost the final results of the campaign. Most Mantic models are resin or a trending new resin-plastic mix. As a model material, resin holds small details sharply and cleanly, but resin can be more difficult to glue and harder to convert due to being a bit more brittle and prone to cleavage. (Not that kind, silly mammal.) By offering a few optional sets of plastic models for the game's core units, Mantic gives players a chance to have more ambitious control in constructing their models. And if there's one thing wargaming armchair generals love--it's ambitious control. That and smack-talking their opponents.
Ryan Sohmer's second children's book, The Bear--A First Time Parent's Continuing Journey finished at a healthy $54,381 out of an original goal of $40,000. It doesn't compare to the success of the first campaign, but I can't fault anything with the second book on that score. I think the more muted success of book two speaks to how cogent and complete the first book was--there's simply not as much demand for something more. Still, the art for these books is beautiful, and I received my book from the first campaign promptly and in great condition, and you can't beat the wry observations and tear-jerk imagery of each and every page. Total dad-bait.
Dino-hunting survival game The Stomping Land ended at $114,060 blowing their 20 grand goal out of the water and securing extra funds for hiring extra part-time designers to expand the game environment. I was on the fence on pledging to this one--the gameplay really excited me, but I was kind of hoping for them to show more interest in Mac support as well as PC. As it is, though, I'm sure I'll get it sometime next year to play on my Star Citizen gaming PC--sitting in my high-tech simpit while running a caveman avatar around in a loincloth. Anachronism, your name is me.
The superhero-vs-mastermind board game Guardians Chronicles is poised to break 60 grand tonight, with a little over a week to go in their campaign. They slowed down a lot in the middle of the campaign, perhaps more so than is usual, but with the fact that they're picking up steam and about to unlock a dice stretch goal, I still think their ultimate stretch goal of $100,000 is within reach. More importantly, until June 13 they have a trivia-based game giveaway contest in which the grand prize is a complimentary $160 pledge level for the Kickstarter campaign. Check that out here. They've also posted full rules for the game and enough art that you can play a small demo of the game with your own miniatures/markers/old Tic-Tac cases as proxies for their characters.
Okay, so that's it for Kickstarter updates. So what's new this week? Well, not a whole lot. So today I'll share another two promising-but-failed Kickstart projects.
Shackleton Crater
What happened: I enjoy a good dose of violence in my entertainment. Most zombie games make me giggle rather than cringe at face-smashing finishing moves and the obligatory chomp-chomp-chomp deaths of helpless characters. But I also enjoy a harmonious game, too, where excellence doesn't have to come at the end of a gun or at someone else's expense. Challenge can go hand in hand with a relaxing experience. And I think that's what appealed to me about Shackleton Crater--I envisioned a game that was smart and well-balanced enough to provide a challenging experience, but while also being totally wholesome. And I suppose it's that last part that made it a tough sell. The game community as a collective doesn't want another Oregon Trail--not unless you make the final stretch of the journey a cannibalism simulator or you give players the option to raid trading outposts instead of, y'know, trading. About halfway through their campaign and at less than ten percent of their base funding goal, creators Joe Got Game cancelled the project, promising that they'd keep moving forward with development. Unfortunately, no news has surfaced for the past two months.
Interstellar Marines
What happened: The project had a decent start but quickly slowed down. It crawled along, and I think a lot of potential backers (myself included) were a little gun-shy to jump into such an ambitious game being developed for so long. All gamers have been collectively Duke Nukem Forever'd, and we're all scared of it happening again. But the game itself looks great, and I love that the premise for the prologue to their series was going to put players in the middle of a series of harrowing wargames as futuristic soldiers prepare for first contact with alien species. Which is pretty much never good. Their Kickstarter video was great too--it started off with a droll speech about the first interstellar beacon test, and then cut to the developers talking about their game in a sort of 12 Monkeys stream of hallucinations. Doesn't make sense? Well, it was funny anyways.
Friday, May 31, 2013
Kickstart: Legos, Epic Tactics, and a Derelict
Kickstart Your Weekend: A series in which I occasionally
spotlight Kickstarter projects that are ending soon and deserve a little
nerd love. Also, I'll highlight some past projects as well, as you
never know when these enterprises are going to turn up again.
Before I get started with today's post proper, I just want to say a few words about the past month.
Thank you. Today marks 31 consecutive days of blog posts, and accordingly it has been the single greatest month in terms of traffic in the history of the blog. In fact, it more than doubled my previous record-setting month in page-hits. I really appreciate the regular traffic, and I'd like to continue to build on this momentum. At the same time, all those hits are still really quite modest--modest enough that I'm not going to share exact numbers just yet. And it required a heck of a lot of work to get there. I mean, I've written a novella's worth of words in the past month--somewhere between fifty and seventy thousand words, I estimate. Now, I'm still working my tail off, but this is a little butt-kick to all you guys who haven't followed or strong-armed your friends to do so (which is pretty much all of you): we can do better. I'd love to see the next month increase the traffic on site even further, and little things you do help with that a lot. In particular, the best two days of traffic in May were when I shared a link to my blog on the Angry Joe Show's comments section, and when a reader shared my C2E2 post on their Facebook page. Both days pulled in more than double the average number of hits I got on most other days. This stuff works, so try it out.
With that out of the way, let's review the status of some past Kickstarter highlights. Browncoats: Independence War finished up solidly, bringing in over $21,000 with an original goal of $16,000. I believe that means all producer-level backers get added to the Companion Registry. Not sure how useful that will be, though, since the Companions Guild won't be created until the socio-environmental collapse of earth-that-is. I wouldn't hold my breath, producers. (No, not really.)
The screaming warrior schoolgirls and man-boys of OVA: the Anime RPG are doing quite well. With over $75,000 right now, it looks like this weekend they will be unlocking their stretch goal for custom dice. Nerds love dice. So you'll definitely be getting a new set of dice with your pledge of $30 or more. If not, there's always the $15 digital level for us cheap-skates. Or, more accurately, those of us who have already blown way too much dough on other projects. But they've still got more than two weeks left, so I bet the project will end up with two hundred grand at this rate. Guardians Chronicles is doing well, too, even if they aren't rising as quickly now as earlier in their campaign. But with their Facebook page getting closer to 1,000 likes, they'll be adding their bald claw-sporting-berserker-not-Wolverine named Rage to those pledging $50 or more. I think they still have a decent chance of unlocking their hundred grand stretch goal in two weeks, so people pledging for the full set have a good chance of getting a lot of exciting goodies, including the Night Squad team, added to their sets automatically.
Deadzone is ending this weekend, and they're a cinch to become Mantic's best Kickstarter campaign, in my opinion. They're over three-quarters of a million dollars in pledges, and I bet they'll end up well over the million dollar mark before the weekend is over. As it is, they've got a Buy One Get One Free deal on their booster bundles, and a similar deal for their individual boosters. And since war-gamers love getting into these sorts of games in a big way, I expect a lot of people will be buying into this game at the last minute. I know I'm thinking about getting some Enforcers as Cerberus troops in addition to Blasto. We'll see what other surprise stretch goals the campaign yields. I strongly suggest you check in on the campaign before it ends on June 2.
Melting Point
What it is: Melting Point is a thirty minute 'brick film' being developed by Jonathan Vaughan. A brick film is a stop-motion animated film made using Lego toys to tell your story. If you don't know what stop-motion animation is, you're probably my younger brother-in-law making me feel like Old Man Winter again. Stop-motion is when you use still photography to take pictures of models, toys, or puppets in minutely changing poses to animate them moving around. And Melting Point is going to be a riff on a cop action flick, in which the leading Lego man is trying to bring down a psychotic pyro melting their Lego world.
Why it's exciting: Way back in the 90s, my brother and I used to love messing around with my parents' VHS video camera. There was no better way to burn through tapes than scratching them up filming our lame gags and then watching them ten minutes later on our tv. One of my great aspirations as a stupid seven year-old was to take myEwok Robin Hood Prince of Thieves forest village set and
film my GI Joe action figures in really bad stop-motion battles with
each other. And they were bad--like I would forget to pause the frame
and accidentally film my repositioning the figures and then I'd
stop the recording bad. Fortunately, those aspirations didn't last long.
Even more fortunately, Jonathan Vaughan is going to the trouble of
doing a Lego stop-motion video that looks well-written, funny, and
really sharply composed. His previous short, Zombie: Genesis, shows a lot of wry humor and talent, and I can't wait to see what he does with Melting Point. His initial support has been good for the first few days, but film projects tend to slow down a lot more than other Kickstarter campaigns, so please visit his campaign and spread the word about it in support of a really ambitious little brick film. Here's his Zombie: Genesis short, followed by the sequel, Zombie: Exodus:
Massive Chalice
What it is: Massive Chalice is a computer game coming out of Double Fine Productions, an indie game studio that funded an adventure game last year that seemed to break open the floodgates for high profile video games going to Kickstarter for funding. The game's action itself revolves around the old-school tactics genre, with players commanding a squad of heroes in defense of the realm. But the meta-game itself that extends beyond the combat and links the action sequences together is a choice-based strategy game. The player takes on the role of an immortal king or queen, building support and employing heroes in their service while also marrying them off to create political families. It looks like a bit of Fire Emblem and Ogre Battle 64.
Why it's exciting: I love cross-genre games. I love tactical games. And I love games that force players to make difficult, subjective choices and deal with the consequences. And I love having the passage of large amounts of time be a factor in strategic game-play. Massive Chalice looks like it's lined up to do just that.
Now I'm going to highlight a project that I was super excited for but that didn't receive the support it needed. There have been several projects that I loved that failed, but I think this one deserves the most post-KS support.
Blackspace
What it is: Blackspace is a unique take on the tower defense strategy genre. For the uninitiated, tower defense is a type of game where the player controls a fixed set of assets that are then attacked by successive waves of enemies. Traditionally, the player builds a series of towers along an approach to a castle or headquarters while orcs or undead storm down the road. In Blackspace, however, this straightforward formula is something altogether different. In this game, the player controls a versatile mining craft tasked with harvesting asteroids for valuable resources. Flying freely around the asteroid in full 3D physics crunchiness, the player gathers resources and tears up the deformable rock surface with mining warheads, and then uses the resources to call in structures to establish a mining facility and defenses on the planetoid.
What happened: I love a good tower defense. Even in traditional strategy games, some of my favorite moments are when I arrange for 'Helm's Deep moments' by setting up heavy defensive positions and waiting for the enemy to charge into my fire. The ambitiously beautiful setting and awesome physics of Blackspace also enticed me. And Blackspace really breaks the mold of tower defense games by making the main landing vessel a veritable bomber in its own right. But unfortunately, the campaign never even raised half of its funding goal of $350,000. Granted, this was before games like Star Citizen and Project Eternity (both earning millions in pledges) showed how massively popular Kickstarter games could be, but I still will never get over the way this beautiful and slick-looking game got overlooked by most Kickstarter patrons. Maybe it was the fact that the game didn't have a super-polished trailer, or that there wasn't much interest in a genre-bending tower defense game, but this is one project I'd really like to see power back up and take off. Follow their website and see what happens when they finish their pre-alpha demo.
Before I get started with today's post proper, I just want to say a few words about the past month.
Thank you. Today marks 31 consecutive days of blog posts, and accordingly it has been the single greatest month in terms of traffic in the history of the blog. In fact, it more than doubled my previous record-setting month in page-hits. I really appreciate the regular traffic, and I'd like to continue to build on this momentum. At the same time, all those hits are still really quite modest--modest enough that I'm not going to share exact numbers just yet. And it required a heck of a lot of work to get there. I mean, I've written a novella's worth of words in the past month--somewhere between fifty and seventy thousand words, I estimate. Now, I'm still working my tail off, but this is a little butt-kick to all you guys who haven't followed or strong-armed your friends to do so (which is pretty much all of you): we can do better. I'd love to see the next month increase the traffic on site even further, and little things you do help with that a lot. In particular, the best two days of traffic in May were when I shared a link to my blog on the Angry Joe Show's comments section, and when a reader shared my C2E2 post on their Facebook page. Both days pulled in more than double the average number of hits I got on most other days. This stuff works, so try it out.
With that out of the way, let's review the status of some past Kickstarter highlights. Browncoats: Independence War finished up solidly, bringing in over $21,000 with an original goal of $16,000. I believe that means all producer-level backers get added to the Companion Registry. Not sure how useful that will be, though, since the Companions Guild won't be created until the socio-environmental collapse of earth-that-is. I wouldn't hold my breath, producers. (No, not really.)
The screaming warrior schoolgirls and man-boys of OVA: the Anime RPG are doing quite well. With over $75,000 right now, it looks like this weekend they will be unlocking their stretch goal for custom dice. Nerds love dice. So you'll definitely be getting a new set of dice with your pledge of $30 or more. If not, there's always the $15 digital level for us cheap-skates. Or, more accurately, those of us who have already blown way too much dough on other projects. But they've still got more than two weeks left, so I bet the project will end up with two hundred grand at this rate. Guardians Chronicles is doing well, too, even if they aren't rising as quickly now as earlier in their campaign. But with their Facebook page getting closer to 1,000 likes, they'll be adding their bald claw-sporting-berserker-not-Wolverine named Rage to those pledging $50 or more. I think they still have a decent chance of unlocking their hundred grand stretch goal in two weeks, so people pledging for the full set have a good chance of getting a lot of exciting goodies, including the Night Squad team, added to their sets automatically.
Deadzone is ending this weekend, and they're a cinch to become Mantic's best Kickstarter campaign, in my opinion. They're over three-quarters of a million dollars in pledges, and I bet they'll end up well over the million dollar mark before the weekend is over. As it is, they've got a Buy One Get One Free deal on their booster bundles, and a similar deal for their individual boosters. And since war-gamers love getting into these sorts of games in a big way, I expect a lot of people will be buying into this game at the last minute. I know I'm thinking about getting some Enforcers as Cerberus troops in addition to Blasto. We'll see what other surprise stretch goals the campaign yields. I strongly suggest you check in on the campaign before it ends on June 2.
Melting Point
Why it's exciting: Way back in the 90s, my brother and I used to love messing around with my parents' VHS video camera. There was no better way to burn through tapes than scratching them up filming our lame gags and then watching them ten minutes later on our tv. One of my great aspirations as a stupid seven year-old was to take my
Massive Chalice
Why it's exciting: I love cross-genre games. I love tactical games. And I love games that force players to make difficult, subjective choices and deal with the consequences. And I love having the passage of large amounts of time be a factor in strategic game-play. Massive Chalice looks like it's lined up to do just that.
Now I'm going to highlight a project that I was super excited for but that didn't receive the support it needed. There have been several projects that I loved that failed, but I think this one deserves the most post-KS support.
Blackspace
What happened: I love a good tower defense. Even in traditional strategy games, some of my favorite moments are when I arrange for 'Helm's Deep moments' by setting up heavy defensive positions and waiting for the enemy to charge into my fire. The ambitiously beautiful setting and awesome physics of Blackspace also enticed me. And Blackspace really breaks the mold of tower defense games by making the main landing vessel a veritable bomber in its own right. But unfortunately, the campaign never even raised half of its funding goal of $350,000. Granted, this was before games like Star Citizen and Project Eternity (both earning millions in pledges) showed how massively popular Kickstarter games could be, but I still will never get over the way this beautiful and slick-looking game got overlooked by most Kickstarter patrons. Maybe it was the fact that the game didn't have a super-polished trailer, or that there wasn't much interest in a genre-bending tower defense game, but this is one project I'd really like to see power back up and take off. Follow their website and see what happens when they finish their pre-alpha demo.
Friday, May 24, 2013
Kickstart Your Weekend: Mighty Morphin' Weekend!
Kickstart Your Weekend: A series in which I occasionally
spotlight Kickstarter projects that are ending soon and deserve a little
nerd love. Also, I'll highlight some past projects as well, as you
never know when these enterprises are going to turn up again.
Another busy week for Kickstarter nerds. While I said from the start that Kickstart Your Weekend wouldn't be a weekly feature, it sure is shaping up that way. This week we've got updates on past projects and a new set of highlights. Next week I anticipate doing a highlights selection of past projects, and after that it looks like there may be a lull in truly exciting Kickstarter projects, though you never know when a new campaign might pop up. Kind of like pseudo-nazi societies in science-fiction, they turn up whenever things get stale. And, if you're lucky, they're worth the effort to vanquish them rather than becoming just another clumsy cash-in for some bland action scenes and ham-fisted morality tale (I'm looking at you, Stargate SG-1's Eurondans).
Sorry about that, back to Kickstarter stuff...
Jagged Alliance: Flashback--which I was most worried about over the past week--finished its campaign well, just squeaking by to collect its first stretch goal. I'd waited on this one until the last minute, but in the end the promise of Mac support plus the fun skin packs they were previewing helped secure my moneys. They also have a slacker backer program in the works at their main site, which will give users the chance to belatedly pre-order now that the Kickstarter campaign is finished.The steampunk air skirmisher Guns of Icarus: Adventure Mode funded at just over two hundred grand with outside supporters included, punting their MMO dreams a little further down the development gridiron. You can keep following their puffs of white steam and black smoke over at the Guns of Icarus site. Robotech RPG Tactics blew through stretch goal after stretch goal to claim a massive 1.442 million dollars, making it one of the most successful projects in the board game category on Kickstarter. Anime mecha fans should pop on over to Palladium Books to check out their RPG products and watch for the release of Robotech RPG Tactics in early 2014.
Bear: A First Time Parent's Continuing Journey is doing solidly well and is on track to get funded in twelve days. Browncoats: Independence War just achieved full funding with 3 days to go, so I'd say they'll hit a stretch goal or two. And keep in mind that unless you back and get a download or DVD of the movie, it probably won't be available to see outside of con and special event screenings. So something to ponder, that. Finally, Deadzone is over $500,000 pledged with 9 days left, meaning it is almost guaranteed to be Mantic Games' most successful KS campaign yet. Seriously, don't forget about them and their enkindled Chovar model.
So with the past campaigns' roundups out of the way, I've got another set of three projects for you, this time featuring a second edition for a successful RPG, a superhero board/miniatures game mash-up, and a dark revival of a Saturday morning dynasty as a web series. Woot woot.
OVA: The Anime Role-playing Game
What it is: OVA is an RPG tailored and streamlined to put players in anime-style adventures quickly and with a minimum of effort. Written by Clay Gardner, OVA (Open Versatile Anime) was originally published in 2005 and though it was a very small release, the unique and straightforward approach to the genre was fairly well-received. Eight years later, a wiser and more seasoned Clay Gardner is returning to his first effort with an eye to refine and deepen the rules and throw a hefty amount of artist glamour over the whole effort. The most interesting aspect of the game is the elegantly simple character creation process, which is supposed to take only a matter of minutes if you want. You design only the remarkable aspects of your character--there are no specified stats, no core abilities you need to define whether or not they're important to the character concept. If they're very good or very bad at something, that is what defines them, and that is what shows up on the character sheet. It's a novel approach and perfectly fits the anime genre, where mundane activities and attributes are hand-waved as a matter of course.
Why it's exciting: I'm a fan of GURPS, a point I've belabored on this blog several times already. But I have also said just as often that I'm a sucker for great art and for eccentric game mechanics. And OVA has both in spades. Mr. Gardner has also put up a couple of character books on his campaign's main page. I love character books--they're a combination of character background, detailed character sheet and illustration, and a summary of the core rules that apply to playing that character. It's a great play aid for learning the system, looks terribly attractive, and is useful for convention purposes for getting players into the game quickly. They're already fully funded and past a long list of stretch goals that include a mobile app to support the game. So OVA has definitely secured my pledge. And, as I said in my GM Tips post last week, a well-constructed system with a narrow focus trumps the best generic system in its realm of specialization, and OVA has me really excited to play some bright frenetic anime action. And, due to come out by the end of the year, I hopefully won't have to wait long.
Guardians Chronicles
What it is: Guardians Chronicles is an ambitious board game coming from Iello Games. In it, players take up dice, cards, miniatures, and play heroes assaulting the lair of the mastermind Professor Skarov. One player takes control of the villain and his base full of henchmen, trying to hold off the heroes while they vie to foil each other and score the most headlines by the game's end. The characters are all original heroes inspired by classic heroic paragons and villainous archetypes. And by that I mean they're totally defensible and creative designs that are obviously inspired by Dr. Strange, Captain America, Iron Man, and so forth. The play mechanics involve each hero wielding a small hand of cards to upgrade their hero with abilities and stat boosts on a turn-by-turn basis, battling robots, ninjas, and supervillains on their way.
Why it's exciting: Iello Games has already produced some very well-received, albeit more shallow, board games in the past. King of Tokyo in particular got a lot of great reviews over the past year. Guardians Chronicles looks like a colorful super-powered riff on the asymmetrical gameplay of Descent, with up to four players ganging up on a powerful mastermind controlling multiple characters of lesser ability. I love the artwork, and now that the game is fully funded with 24 days to go, I bet we'll see all or most of the stretch goals they've laid out funded before the end, which will unlock a dozen heroes and villains and bonus henchman for the larger pledges. I haven't pledged to them yet myself, but the colorful characters and action-packed game mechanics have me tempted.
MMPR
What it is: When you consider all the iterations as one, the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers has been one of the longest running shows for kids. And that goes back to my generation, with the show premiering on Fox Kids in 1993. Twenty years later, the Power Rangers are still doing their thing. Still appealing to the same age demographic with the same pratfalls, bad comedy, and cheesy but kinetic action sequences. We all grew up, but the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers didn't. That's where MMPR comes in. A fan tribute web series, MMPR aims to bring our Saturday morning fondest memories into a contemporary light with a post-apocalyptic, more serious tone. Their campaign aims to fund the fan-series pilot episode to the series, plus any further episodes they might get via stretch goals.
Why it's exciting: Honestly, I want to see some of the action for this show before I get too excited, but that little teaser and the synopsis has got me perked up. A post-heroic, blasted setting that is somehow the result of evil being defeated in the past also strikes me as an interesting and unexpected angle to take. And I was always a dork for the Green Ranger, which means I'm fairly hooked by the plot conceit of a new generation of Rangers looking for Tommy, who's now in hiding. If MMPR can just give me a little bit of that old spark I used to feel when I'd watch the Green Dragon Zord rise up out of the water without making me feel like a dork? I'd get on board. Heck, who am I kidding--I've watched old episodes of Fraggle Rock on my own in the past few years--I'm not afraid of feeling like a dork.
Another busy week for Kickstarter nerds. While I said from the start that Kickstart Your Weekend wouldn't be a weekly feature, it sure is shaping up that way. This week we've got updates on past projects and a new set of highlights. Next week I anticipate doing a highlights selection of past projects, and after that it looks like there may be a lull in truly exciting Kickstarter projects, though you never know when a new campaign might pop up. Kind of like pseudo-nazi societies in science-fiction, they turn up whenever things get stale. And, if you're lucky, they're worth the effort to vanquish them rather than becoming just another clumsy cash-in for some bland action scenes and ham-fisted morality tale (I'm looking at you, Stargate SG-1's Eurondans).
Sorry about that, back to Kickstarter stuff...
Jagged Alliance: Flashback--which I was most worried about over the past week--finished its campaign well, just squeaking by to collect its first stretch goal. I'd waited on this one until the last minute, but in the end the promise of Mac support plus the fun skin packs they were previewing helped secure my moneys. They also have a slacker backer program in the works at their main site, which will give users the chance to belatedly pre-order now that the Kickstarter campaign is finished.The steampunk air skirmisher Guns of Icarus: Adventure Mode funded at just over two hundred grand with outside supporters included, punting their MMO dreams a little further down the development gridiron. You can keep following their puffs of white steam and black smoke over at the Guns of Icarus site. Robotech RPG Tactics blew through stretch goal after stretch goal to claim a massive 1.442 million dollars, making it one of the most successful projects in the board game category on Kickstarter. Anime mecha fans should pop on over to Palladium Books to check out their RPG products and watch for the release of Robotech RPG Tactics in early 2014.
Bear: A First Time Parent's Continuing Journey is doing solidly well and is on track to get funded in twelve days. Browncoats: Independence War just achieved full funding with 3 days to go, so I'd say they'll hit a stretch goal or two. And keep in mind that unless you back and get a download or DVD of the movie, it probably won't be available to see outside of con and special event screenings. So something to ponder, that. Finally, Deadzone is over $500,000 pledged with 9 days left, meaning it is almost guaranteed to be Mantic Games' most successful KS campaign yet. Seriously, don't forget about them and their enkindled Chovar model.
So with the past campaigns' roundups out of the way, I've got another set of three projects for you, this time featuring a second edition for a successful RPG, a superhero board/miniatures game mash-up, and a dark revival of a Saturday morning dynasty as a web series. Woot woot.
OVA: The Anime Role-playing Game
 |
| The art looks beautiful and perfectly evokes classic anime tropes. |
Why it's exciting: I'm a fan of GURPS, a point I've belabored on this blog several times already. But I have also said just as often that I'm a sucker for great art and for eccentric game mechanics. And OVA has both in spades. Mr. Gardner has also put up a couple of character books on his campaign's main page. I love character books--they're a combination of character background, detailed character sheet and illustration, and a summary of the core rules that apply to playing that character. It's a great play aid for learning the system, looks terribly attractive, and is useful for convention purposes for getting players into the game quickly. They're already fully funded and past a long list of stretch goals that include a mobile app to support the game. So OVA has definitely secured my pledge. And, as I said in my GM Tips post last week, a well-constructed system with a narrow focus trumps the best generic system in its realm of specialization, and OVA has me really excited to play some bright frenetic anime action. And, due to come out by the end of the year, I hopefully won't have to wait long.
Guardians Chronicles
Why it's exciting: Iello Games has already produced some very well-received, albeit more shallow, board games in the past. King of Tokyo in particular got a lot of great reviews over the past year. Guardians Chronicles looks like a colorful super-powered riff on the asymmetrical gameplay of Descent, with up to four players ganging up on a powerful mastermind controlling multiple characters of lesser ability. I love the artwork, and now that the game is fully funded with 24 days to go, I bet we'll see all or most of the stretch goals they've laid out funded before the end, which will unlock a dozen heroes and villains and bonus henchman for the larger pledges. I haven't pledged to them yet myself, but the colorful characters and action-packed game mechanics have me tempted.
MMPR
Why it's exciting: Honestly, I want to see some of the action for this show before I get too excited, but that little teaser and the synopsis has got me perked up. A post-heroic, blasted setting that is somehow the result of evil being defeated in the past also strikes me as an interesting and unexpected angle to take. And I was always a dork for the Green Ranger, which means I'm fairly hooked by the plot conceit of a new generation of Rangers looking for Tommy, who's now in hiding. If MMPR can just give me a little bit of that old spark I used to feel when I'd watch the Green Dragon Zord rise up out of the water without making me feel like a dork? I'd get on board. Heck, who am I kidding--I've watched old episodes of Fraggle Rock on my own in the past few years--I'm not afraid of feeling like a dork.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Kickstart Your Weekend: Aliens, Cuddles, and Dino-hunters
Kickstart Your Weekend: A series in which I occasionally
spotlight Kickstarter projects that are ending soon and deserve a little
nerd love. Also, I'll highlight some past projects as well, as you
never know when these enterprises are going to turn up again.
It's another Kickstart Your Weekend! Yes yes. Note that this won't necessarily be a weekly installment on the blog, but there are a number of interesting projects I'll touch on this week and next week. After that, I plan on trying to get a weekly shout-out only to brand new and nerd-interesting projects so you'll have a good amount of time to follow and possibly pledge your support.
So it's been an interesting week for the projects I highlighted last weekend. Bifrost's campaign continues to stagnate as there's a complete lack of feedback and support from Bill Willingham, the project creator and author. Recently he is supposed to have said that Bifrost will happen regardless of the Kickstarter's success, which--while it was probably meant as a reassurance to fans of the project idea--couldn't have done the campaign any favors. The KS campaign is all but certain to fail, and I'm not that broken up about it. If there's one thing I hate as a KS backer it's feeling emasculated by the indifference of a professional creator who doesn't really need the campaign to be successful but wanted to try it anyways. It's like asking your wife to make dinner for when you get home, only to forget and pick up Chicago dogs on the way--only less endearingly eccentric, right? Sure, both funding options might be valid for you, but once you announced one intention the other should be off the table.
Robotech RPG Tactics has been doing solidly well over the past week, and it looks like with 3 days remaining they're going to get awfully close to (pinky to mouth) one million dollars. Guns of Icarus: Adventure Mode has pretty much plateaued, it would seem, and I doubt they will be able to get enough steam to reach two hundred grand, let alone the $500,000 stretch goal they would need to fund all of the MMO elements they have in mind. Still, they've definitely kicked the ball down-field, and I bet the next expansion they fund will put a broadside into their steampunk MMO aspirations. (Is that enough mixed metaphors for you? Because I could bolt another one or two on there.) Jagged Alliance: Flashback has rallied a little bit over the past week, thanks to a mention from the hugely successful Kickstarter for Project Eternity. The merc tactics game still has more than one hundred grand to raise in 3 days, though, so it's still far from a cinch. If you're on the fence about pledging, do it--do it nao.
So that's the followup to last week's stuff, now on to three new project highlights.
Deadzone
What it is: Deadzone is the latest game on Kickstarter from Mantic Games. Set in their science fiction setting known as Warpath, Deadzone is a skirmish-level miniatures wargame with a specific setting and focus that edges it towards being a board game. Players assume a squad-sized team of soldiers and pit them against each other in claustrophobic urban environments, making it somewhat similar in appeal to the anime-style miniature wargame Infinity. Now Mantic Games is a fairly new UK company led by several ex-Games Workshop employees, so I identify them as the anti-GW. It's a distinction I really like, as I've become somewhat zealous in my criticism of GW over the years, and it also means that their miniatures tend to shoot for "like Games Workshop, but better." Whether they're successful or not is a matter of taste, but their miniatures are undeniably less expensive with more realistic proportions (slightly smaller) and tend not to have stupid skulls hanging off every accessory (seriously, I have an old GW model with 30 skulls decorating his clothes and equipment). There are now six factions available as part of the Deadzone campaign: the elite human Enforcers, the disenfranchised human-alien conglomerate Rebels, the necroform-like Plague, the totally-not-Space-Ork faction known as the Marauders, the warrior-Vulcan faction the Asterians, and the space-dwarf Forge Fathers. For a sci-fi wargame that just began in earnest two years ago, Deadzone promises to bring Warpath into triple-a variety and large-scale support for players of lots of different persuasions.
Why it's exciting: First of all, Deadzone is well past its base funding goal, so all funds that they'll be making in the next two weeks of their campaign will go towards stretch goals, unlocks, and free add-ons. Secondly, since this is Mantic's fourth Kickstarter project, they've proven themselves reliable in delivering their supporters great models in a reasonable turn-around. I myself pledged for their sci-fi sports wargame Dreadball, and I gotta say the components are fun and the goodies keep coming--in fact I literally got some of their second-phase models in the mail today. The setting also supports a lot more diversity for play styles and aesthetics than their main competitor, in my opinion. Plus, a recent stretch goal unlocked an alien miniature that bears a striking resemblance to a famous Spectre known for having a lover in every port and a pistol in every tentacle. Pledge for this already!
Bear - A First Time Parent's Continuing Journey
What it is: Alright, so this one isn't so much nerdy as sappy, but the first Bear book was one of the first Kickstarter projects to draw me into the site and really get me excited about some of the unique projects getting funded this way. Created by Ryan Sohmer, Bear - A First Time Parent's Continuing Journey features full-page painted illustrations in a large-format book. Every page has a few proverbs or observations on the surprises and lessons of becoming a parent, and the illustrations themselves depict adorable animal parents and kids in various typical family moments--throwing a hissy on the floor, rocking a baby to sleep, trying to teach your boy to hop a tree branch. You know, the usual.
Why it's exciting: Like Deadzone's Mantic Games, Bear's creator Ryan Sohmer is a proven entity. I pledged for the first volume of Bear, and I have to say that every page just oozes genuine parental affection. Cute paintings, and with narrations that vary from humorously wry to tear-jerking sincere, there's a lot to love in this project. With over two weeks to go and already 75% of the way to their base funding goal, this campaign is certain to be successful. And for those of you who missed out on the first volume, the rewards for this campaign can be used to get a copy of that book as well as the sequel. I recommend the book very highly, it's one of those kids' books that is full of illustrations kids will love and insights parents cherish. That also means it's the kind of book you keep on the top shelf at home or otherwise out of reach so your son doesn't pull it down on the floor and trample it in his enthusiasm.
What it is: This ambitious little PC game is trying to tell a story that is totally different from anything else I know, and it is trying to do so in a completely novel gameplay style, too. Created by Alex Fundora, Stomping Land is a primitive hunting/survival/crafting game. You play a prehistoric bow-armed hunter in a land populated by diverse herds of dinosaurs. Hunting smaller dinosaurs for meat, the second your bow drops a prey animal you're racing against larger predators--like Tyrannosaurs--who will happily come in and enjoy your hard-earned kill. But you can also lay traps, snares, and lures to try to foil these mega-opportunists and get away with your dead, flaccid handiwork cleanly. If only it were so easy to protect one's childhood heroes from being ravaged by opportunistic reboots. Sigh. There's also going to be some sort of tribal coop element to Stomping Land as well, but the details on that haven't been spilled yet.
Why it's exciting: This game looks to incorporate two or three genres with a consistent, visceral gameplay experience. But, despite the ambitiousness of that statement, the tribal dynamics and prehistoric setting mean that the game itself should still be small enough for an indie developer to manage. The idea of stalking small prey dinosaurs, killing them, and then skulking away as scavengers swoop in just sounds like a lot of fun, and certainly not the sort of over-powered player experience the big game makers are interested in producing. And like Deadzone, this one has already met its modest base goal. As a PC game, however, the next two stretch goals are very important--Alex Fundora will hire dedicated full-time talent to help flesh out the world. Considering how nice the pre-alpha looks, it's amazing to think what a full-time developer could do with this unique setting. Let's throw some money at them and find out.
It's another Kickstart Your Weekend! Yes yes. Note that this won't necessarily be a weekly installment on the blog, but there are a number of interesting projects I'll touch on this week and next week. After that, I plan on trying to get a weekly shout-out only to brand new and nerd-interesting projects so you'll have a good amount of time to follow and possibly pledge your support.
So it's been an interesting week for the projects I highlighted last weekend. Bifrost's campaign continues to stagnate as there's a complete lack of feedback and support from Bill Willingham, the project creator and author. Recently he is supposed to have said that Bifrost will happen regardless of the Kickstarter's success, which--while it was probably meant as a reassurance to fans of the project idea--couldn't have done the campaign any favors. The KS campaign is all but certain to fail, and I'm not that broken up about it. If there's one thing I hate as a KS backer it's feeling emasculated by the indifference of a professional creator who doesn't really need the campaign to be successful but wanted to try it anyways. It's like asking your wife to make dinner for when you get home, only to forget and pick up Chicago dogs on the way--only less endearingly eccentric, right? Sure, both funding options might be valid for you, but once you announced one intention the other should be off the table.
Robotech RPG Tactics has been doing solidly well over the past week, and it looks like with 3 days remaining they're going to get awfully close to (pinky to mouth) one million dollars. Guns of Icarus: Adventure Mode has pretty much plateaued, it would seem, and I doubt they will be able to get enough steam to reach two hundred grand, let alone the $500,000 stretch goal they would need to fund all of the MMO elements they have in mind. Still, they've definitely kicked the ball down-field, and I bet the next expansion they fund will put a broadside into their steampunk MMO aspirations. (Is that enough mixed metaphors for you? Because I could bolt another one or two on there.) Jagged Alliance: Flashback has rallied a little bit over the past week, thanks to a mention from the hugely successful Kickstarter for Project Eternity. The merc tactics game still has more than one hundred grand to raise in 3 days, though, so it's still far from a cinch. If you're on the fence about pledging, do it--do it nao.
So that's the followup to last week's stuff, now on to three new project highlights.
Deadzone
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| Deadzone Enforcers fighting off huge Plague forms. |
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| This one will not attempt diplomacy... enkindle this! |
Bear - A First Time Parent's Continuing Journey
Why it's exciting: Like Deadzone's Mantic Games, Bear's creator Ryan Sohmer is a proven entity. I pledged for the first volume of Bear, and I have to say that every page just oozes genuine parental affection. Cute paintings, and with narrations that vary from humorously wry to tear-jerking sincere, there's a lot to love in this project. With over two weeks to go and already 75% of the way to their base funding goal, this campaign is certain to be successful. And for those of you who missed out on the first volume, the rewards for this campaign can be used to get a copy of that book as well as the sequel. I recommend the book very highly, it's one of those kids' books that is full of illustrations kids will love and insights parents cherish. That also means it's the kind of book you keep on the top shelf at home or otherwise out of reach so your son doesn't pull it down on the floor and trample it in his enthusiasm.
 |
| Smell that? Are we downwind of those brachiasauruses? |
Why it's exciting: This game looks to incorporate two or three genres with a consistent, visceral gameplay experience. But, despite the ambitiousness of that statement, the tribal dynamics and prehistoric setting mean that the game itself should still be small enough for an indie developer to manage. The idea of stalking small prey dinosaurs, killing them, and then skulking away as scavengers swoop in just sounds like a lot of fun, and certainly not the sort of over-powered player experience the big game makers are interested in producing. And like Deadzone, this one has already met its modest base goal. As a PC game, however, the next two stretch goals are very important--Alex Fundora will hire dedicated full-time talent to help flesh out the world. Considering how nice the pre-alpha looks, it's amazing to think what a full-time developer could do with this unique setting. Let's throw some money at them and find out.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Kickstart Your Weekend #1
Kickstart Your Weekend: A series in which I occasionally spotlight Kickstarter projects that are ending soon and deserve a little nerd love. Also, I'll highlight some past projects as well, as you never know when these enterprises are going to turn up again.
Continuing with my blogging sprint, once more I'm keeping up a daily pace of updates for this blog. Rest assured that I will be slowing down, but I'm going to keep this up for at least a few more days, at which point the pace of updates will no longer be in my hands (more on that later). But as it is, right now I am once more sacrificing a Saturday afternoon on the altar of blogspot. That's right, I'm home alone with my wife at work and my son at the old folks' home, and what do I do first? I play a few compulsory rounds of Halo 4, followed by reading like six comic books--Marvel, of course. After that, though, I give myself a big helping of blog homework. That's because there ain't no Saturdays for the wicked.*
Today I'm introducing a new article series: Kickstart Your Weekend. Now, I've missed a lot of opportunities to drum up support for past projects, and I already flogged for one Kickstarter project earlier this week. But there are several other nerd-worthy projects ending quite soon and countless more to come in the future, so I think I'll do an occasional post to summarize my interest in these projects and why they might appeal to you. I'll also resurrect some prior projects, successful and unsuccessful, highlighting the course of their campaigns and what form they might take in the future. There have been some really exciting potential products that have surfaced only because of Kickstarter, and for a lot of these I'd like to keep an eye out to see if they make a return in some form. And you might, too.
What's Kickstarter?
First of all, you're my mother-in-law. Because I'm pretty sure she's the only person left in the internet-literate world that doesn't know what Kickstarter is by now. It's okay to admit it, there's nothing wrong with being my mother-in-law. Alright, fine. I'll humor you with my take on Kickstarter (and similar sites, like Indiegogo).
Kickstarter is the most well-known crowdfunding website out there. Crowdfunding is basically a way to blur the line between investment and pre-ordering products. People make a campaign page on Kickstarter, which explains a project they want to fund with a set goal for funds raised within the project's finite run time. Most campaigns run for one month. During this time, people can donate money freely to the campaign to help push them towards their goal, and they can apply their pledges to specific reward tiers the campaign manager sets up ahead of time--sort of like a PBS pledge drive, though with a heck of a lot more naiveté from the pledgers, which is saying a lot.
Now, if a Kickstarter campaign fails to reach its original goal, none of the pledges are charged and everyone goes home sad but with their money in their pockets. Except the people who ran the campaign, they just go home sad. The base goal is meant to be the minimum funds to start a project, paying the bare essentials to get the products or services initiated. Most campaigns include stretch goals--additional perks or upgrades to their product if the campaign hits additional goals. In any case, the bottom line for most Kickstarter pledgers is getting the rewards associated with the campaign, and for those running the campaign it's about securing the funding minus the costs of the reward and building a following for the first run of their product.
There are a lot of different projects on Kickstarter, but the ones of interest to the Nerdery are games, movies, and books. Games in particular are exciting for Kickstarter projects, as the stretch goal format is usually geared to give extras and freebies to well-invested pledgers as the campaign blasts through its base goal. If it blasts through its base goal, that is.
Bifrost
What it is: Bifrost is going to be an illustrated novel featuring modern day fantastic heroes that draw on the Norse myth of Ragnarok. It will be written by Bill Willingham, a long-time writer for DC, and the illustrations done by Frank Cho, a fantastic artist who's written his own strip, Liberty Meadows, and is a frequent bulwark to Marvel comics. The story itself is going to be a highly fantastic one, with talking chimps (everyone knows Frank Cho is comics' monkey-boy, he's always trying to work them in if they aren't there already), werewolves, and more monsters probably pulled from the nine realms of Norse mythology. The main protagonist, Mary Fimbul, is the inheritor of access to the Bifrost and the nine realms it connects. The story sounds promising with a lot of character that makes me think of Mignola's Hellboy stories--full of noir sensibilities and fabled savvy. The artwork itself is going to be black and white woodcut style, which is a more obscure method amongst modern illustrators, but if you've seen Cho's inks before you know his stark monochrome compositions can be fantastic.
Why it's exciting: It's Frank Cho, man! Seriously, if the name, the story, and the art sample doesn't sell you to at least put down a little money on this project...well, I just don't know you. Sure, the minimum pledge for receiving a copy of the book is a little high at $60, but you're talking about a deluxe hardcover novel with 20+ Frank Cho illustrations, and a quirky story that is being created by two comic book veterans who have never before bridged the Marvel-DC gap to work together. This project isn't in the best position to finish, needing to raise over $10,000 in the next 7 days, but if it does make it, I really want to follow the story. Myself, I'm still on the fence as to whether or not to pledge--but I've starred it and will follow its development in any case.
Robotech RPG Tactics
What it is: Robotech is a long-standing anime classic. Starting way back in 1985, it's been a part of a massive saga of shows and movies since then. And when cable networks like Cartoon Network have perennially showed reruns of the original series, it inevitably pulls in a new generation of fans. Robotech is a sci-fi show full of melodrama and social commentary on world wars, told amidst a backdrop of massive spaceships and hotshot pilots manning space fighters that transform into robots. I'm not the most savvy fan, but I loved the first season when I was a kid. Now, a part of Robotech's success there's been a fairly popular RPG by Palladium Books, and this Kickstarter project is about expanding the popular RPG into a sort of miniatures game/RPG bridge. While RPGs typically involve each player other than the GM controlling only one character directly, Robotech RPG Tactics is going to put players in command of squads of units to help simulate the skirmishes that elevated the show so much. The units are multi-part plastic models ranging from 40mm-70mm tall that look like a ton of fun to paint, and the $80 base boxed set is going to have 30+ miniatures in it in addition to the rules, dice, and cards included to play the game.
Why it's exciting: This game is already funded many times over (having raised more than $660,000 out of their startup goal of $70,000), and they've still got 9 days to go. As a miniatures game, this is exactly what indecisive backers want to see--as they continue to exceed their original goal, Palladium is adding extra miniatures to the boxed set and expanding the initial line of models available. I myself haven't pledged for them because I have hundreds of minis still waiting to be painted. (Seriously, there's a reason why miniatures hobbyists are called plastic addicts.) But if you're a fan of big robots, crisp game mechanics--they have a gameplay video up on their campaign page--check it out while you can and help build on those Kickstarter extras.
Guns of Icarus Online - Adventure Mode
What it is: Guns of Icarus Online is an interesting game. Set in a world of steampunk airships (if you don't know the genre, just think Jules Verne plus a lot of high schoolers' doodles), the focus is on crew cooperation as you navigate slow, clumsy dirigibles through smoke and clouds to blast away at enemy crews and airships. This game was originally part of a campaign last year that funded the bare bones skirmish version of the game that people are playing and loving right now. Now, this new Kickstarter project--Adventure Mode--is about expanding that core gameplay into something that they can eventually grow into a full-fledged MMO. The creators, Muse Games, want to make an ambitious, persistent world where players guide the fortunes of six factions and their balance of power. Where customizing your character and walking your character around ports and towns you help support are just as much of a game factor as manning a gun turret or applying a spanner to a busted engine. That takes a lot more than the $165,000 they've raised between their two Kickstarter campaigns so far, so they're building up the tools to reach that point with staged content. Adventure Mode will add an AI Director, which will be in charge of adding non-player combatants to the game to help flesh out that key aspect of the game that forms the backbone of an MMO.
Why it's exciting: This is another project that has already hit its primary goal, but it's also clearly stated that the ultimate funding goal--what's needed to fund Guns of Icarus from a limited skirmish game into a full-fledged MMO, is going to take $500,000 in pledges. Now, they aren't going to get there with this campaign, but at the rate they're going Muse Games will be able to fund enough tools to start cracking on the economic and political elements of the game that will be their next big hurdle. And from what I've heard, the beta that is available to play right now is tons of fun already, so you have a good idea of what you're getting. Again, not one that I'm personally pledging, as I've already sold my soul to Chris Roberts, but when the full MMO of Guns of Icarus is released, I may need to check it out.
Jagged Alliance Flashback
What it is: Jagged Alliance is a classic tactical strategy game for the PC from 1994. In the same vein of squad micro-managing and base building as X-Com, Jagged Alliance pits players in command of a group of mercenaries fighting over an island against blah blah blah. The plot is all very Schwarzenegger meets Captain Planet, in a 1990s-let's-pit-nuclear-power-against-trees-kind of way. The point is, the game had several successful sequels, was well-reviewed, and now the Danes at Full Control are trying to bring back the game. The biggest problem? The tactical genre is dead (hmmm...where have I heard that before?), and that's kind of borne out by the fact the recent X-Com remake boiled down the gameplay into a shallow arcade experience that infuriated a lot of old-school fans. But that isn't stopping Full Control--they're forging ahead with a prequel to the original Jagged Alliance game, giving it the same depth and difficulty of the original plus with overhauled graphics and more sophisticated mechanics.
Why it's exciting: First and foremost, I love challenging tactical games. I'm following two X-Com remake projects right now, in fact. So to say that I'm eager to see Jagged Alliance: Flashback is an understatement. I've also heard that the original games were kick-yourself-in-the-teeth hard, and that sort of talk gives me the nerdlies. Unfortunately, Flashback has 11 days to go and is not quite halfway to its goal of $350,000. Kickstarter campaigns typically surge in the final week, and I hope that happens for this project, as the cross-nostalgia of playing a throwback to classic tactical computer games, plus an old-school Soviet cold war plot, plus deep gameplay that only holds your hand so it can suicide jump you off a cliff--it could be something special. Check it out.
*And money don't grow on trees. I got bills to pay, got mouths to feed, and there ain't nothin' in this world for free....
Guess what I'm listening to?
Continuing with my blogging sprint, once more I'm keeping up a daily pace of updates for this blog. Rest assured that I will be slowing down, but I'm going to keep this up for at least a few more days, at which point the pace of updates will no longer be in my hands (more on that later). But as it is, right now I am once more sacrificing a Saturday afternoon on the altar of blogspot. That's right, I'm home alone with my wife at work and my son at the old folks' home, and what do I do first? I play a few compulsory rounds of Halo 4, followed by reading like six comic books--Marvel, of course. After that, though, I give myself a big helping of blog homework. That's because there ain't no Saturdays for the wicked.*
Today I'm introducing a new article series: Kickstart Your Weekend. Now, I've missed a lot of opportunities to drum up support for past projects, and I already flogged for one Kickstarter project earlier this week. But there are several other nerd-worthy projects ending quite soon and countless more to come in the future, so I think I'll do an occasional post to summarize my interest in these projects and why they might appeal to you. I'll also resurrect some prior projects, successful and unsuccessful, highlighting the course of their campaigns and what form they might take in the future. There have been some really exciting potential products that have surfaced only because of Kickstarter, and for a lot of these I'd like to keep an eye out to see if they make a return in some form. And you might, too.
What's Kickstarter?
First of all, you're my mother-in-law. Because I'm pretty sure she's the only person left in the internet-literate world that doesn't know what Kickstarter is by now. It's okay to admit it, there's nothing wrong with being my mother-in-law. Alright, fine. I'll humor you with my take on Kickstarter (and similar sites, like Indiegogo).
Kickstarter is the most well-known crowdfunding website out there. Crowdfunding is basically a way to blur the line between investment and pre-ordering products. People make a campaign page on Kickstarter, which explains a project they want to fund with a set goal for funds raised within the project's finite run time. Most campaigns run for one month. During this time, people can donate money freely to the campaign to help push them towards their goal, and they can apply their pledges to specific reward tiers the campaign manager sets up ahead of time--sort of like a PBS pledge drive, though with a heck of a lot more naiveté from the pledgers, which is saying a lot.
Now, if a Kickstarter campaign fails to reach its original goal, none of the pledges are charged and everyone goes home sad but with their money in their pockets. Except the people who ran the campaign, they just go home sad. The base goal is meant to be the minimum funds to start a project, paying the bare essentials to get the products or services initiated. Most campaigns include stretch goals--additional perks or upgrades to their product if the campaign hits additional goals. In any case, the bottom line for most Kickstarter pledgers is getting the rewards associated with the campaign, and for those running the campaign it's about securing the funding minus the costs of the reward and building a following for the first run of their product.
There are a lot of different projects on Kickstarter, but the ones of interest to the Nerdery are games, movies, and books. Games in particular are exciting for Kickstarter projects, as the stretch goal format is usually geared to give extras and freebies to well-invested pledgers as the campaign blasts through its base goal. If it blasts through its base goal, that is.
Bifrost
 |
| Bifrost's Mary Fimbul |
Why it's exciting: It's Frank Cho, man! Seriously, if the name, the story, and the art sample doesn't sell you to at least put down a little money on this project...well, I just don't know you. Sure, the minimum pledge for receiving a copy of the book is a little high at $60, but you're talking about a deluxe hardcover novel with 20+ Frank Cho illustrations, and a quirky story that is being created by two comic book veterans who have never before bridged the Marvel-DC gap to work together. This project isn't in the best position to finish, needing to raise over $10,000 in the next 7 days, but if it does make it, I really want to follow the story. Myself, I'm still on the fence as to whether or not to pledge--but I've starred it and will follow its development in any case.
Robotech RPG Tactics
 |
| Already funded, with lots of bonus add-ons coming in. |
Why it's exciting: This game is already funded many times over (having raised more than $660,000 out of their startup goal of $70,000), and they've still got 9 days to go. As a miniatures game, this is exactly what indecisive backers want to see--as they continue to exceed their original goal, Palladium is adding extra miniatures to the boxed set and expanding the initial line of models available. I myself haven't pledged for them because I have hundreds of minis still waiting to be painted. (Seriously, there's a reason why miniatures hobbyists are called plastic addicts.) But if you're a fan of big robots, crisp game mechanics--they have a gameplay video up on their campaign page--check it out while you can and help build on those Kickstarter extras.
Guns of Icarus Online - Adventure Mode
 |
| Building on the basic multiplayer formula |
Why it's exciting: This is another project that has already hit its primary goal, but it's also clearly stated that the ultimate funding goal--what's needed to fund Guns of Icarus from a limited skirmish game into a full-fledged MMO, is going to take $500,000 in pledges. Now, they aren't going to get there with this campaign, but at the rate they're going Muse Games will be able to fund enough tools to start cracking on the economic and political elements of the game that will be their next big hurdle. And from what I've heard, the beta that is available to play right now is tons of fun already, so you have a good idea of what you're getting. Again, not one that I'm personally pledging, as I've already sold my soul to Chris Roberts, but when the full MMO of Guns of Icarus is released, I may need to check it out.
Jagged Alliance Flashback
 |
| Kickin' it Soviet-style |
Why it's exciting: First and foremost, I love challenging tactical games. I'm following two X-Com remake projects right now, in fact. So to say that I'm eager to see Jagged Alliance: Flashback is an understatement. I've also heard that the original games were kick-yourself-in-the-teeth hard, and that sort of talk gives me the nerdlies. Unfortunately, Flashback has 11 days to go and is not quite halfway to its goal of $350,000. Kickstarter campaigns typically surge in the final week, and I hope that happens for this project, as the cross-nostalgia of playing a throwback to classic tactical computer games, plus an old-school Soviet cold war plot, plus deep gameplay that only holds your hand so it can suicide jump you off a cliff--it could be something special. Check it out.
*And money don't grow on trees. I got bills to pay, got mouths to feed, and there ain't nothin' in this world for free....
Guess what I'm listening to?
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