by Jason Parker (Ragachak)
I should really figure out a regular time to do these. Unfortunately, with the nature of Kickstarters, they’re starting and stopping at all points in time, so I just have to guess and hope for the best. But that’s okay! There’s some pretty cool stuff on there, as always. One game I wanted to mention that seems like it’s not going to get funded is Hegemone Pass, it’s one I hope they try again with. It’s a Stealth JRPG with retro graphics, set in the Greek Underworld. That’s a lot to take into one thought. After going through the latest Kickstarter offerings, I also might take a peek at some tabletop RPG offerings on there as well, because honestly, there are some amazing D&D-style books coming through Kickstarter. One of these is the massively funded Grimmerspace, which his a sci-fi setting for a tabletop that frankly, looks badass. But what looks really cool that’s going down this month? Let’s take a look!
As a reminder, if you’re reading this, and have a Kickstarter game coming out, know of one, or just want to point me to one, you can drop me a DM on Twitter, leave a comment, or just email me. If you have me on Facebook, just leave me a message there.
– Roguebook: Roguebook is aiming to be the ultimate roguelike deckbuilder, and that’s a pretty tall order in this day and age. Roguebuilder is going to be a single-player roguelike deckbuilder, set in the Faeria universe. It’s also the second game from Abrakam, who created Faeria (and has the best rating for a CCG on Steam – 86%, which is pretty damn impressive). The Alpha build is available on Steam, and pledging any amount will give access to it within 24 hours. For access the day of, they have a bid of Ten Dollars, and for the major believers, 1,000 dollars lets you create a card for the game (as well as a ton of other stuff). I love games like this, though I don’t get to play them quite as often as I’d like. Progress on the backing is going pretty well, and having a playable build definitely helps, but I am admittedly confused – it says you can give any amount for access within 24 hours, but a ten dollar for today? Perhaps it’s just the wording that confuses me. At any rate, it’s a great concept, and it’s well on the way. Funded: 18,873 / 67,604 (30 Days Remaining)
– Neo-Zero: Neo-Zero has an old-school look, which is great – it takes place in a 1990s computer simulation. The designer is using mechanics/puzzles similar to what fans of the Portal games could expect, as well as music-based battles (Undertale, Dance Dance Revolution). I love good pixel-designed games, and I enjoy the story of Neo-Zero quite a lot. It’s set in the 90s, where programmers were tasked of making a simulated world for psychological experiments. As one might guess, this doesn’t go very well, and this world becomes an abusive dystopia. So Apollo, with his Oxylabs Propulsion Gun, finds himself in quite the sticky situation. I highly recommend heading to their Kickstarter to see more of this, hear about the story and check it out. Donations of 12$ (CA) will give the game (and a digital HD wallpaper) when it goes live, which is estimated at Dec. 2020. Or for the True Believers, 999$ (CA) lets people Design a Boss, and also includes all the other rewards. There are still 9 out of 10 left, but it’s great to see this game is almost funded. Funded: 1,225 / 1,347 (21 Days Remaining)
– Shadow of the Leviathan: Anyone who knows me by now, knows I love giant monsters/giant monster battles. So I saw Shadow of the Leviathan on Kickstarter and knew I had to at least point people in its general direction. It’s about fishing for Kaiju! It wants to focus on cinematic gameplay that emphasizes scale – after all, you can’t just reel in a gigantic monster. It’s going to drag you along for the ride. So what do you do? You leap on and fight for your (and its) life. Instead of having levels, the leviathans are the levels, which is an awesome concept. There are 3 days to go on the Early Bird Timed Digital Game (16 USD). After that, it will be 20 USD to acquire the game digitally when it goes live (estimated – August 2020). But what if you really have money burning a hole in your pocket? 5,000 lets you visually design a Leviathan, and 1,000 nets you naming Runa’s Boat, plus a whole heap of other things. I never got into Shadow of the Colossus (I know, I know), but this could be the one for me. Funded: 1,104 / 50,000 (25 Days Remaining)
