Promising Kickstarters

[Dark Jedi Dave]

Grim Dawn, definitely. I have a borderline unhealthy addiction to loot collecting games.

The Pebble Watch as well, that thing is making news headlines and has over $8 million with 2 week left! I'm proud to be one of the first 50 backers.

Artisian Dice. The funding is over, but I've wanted fun dice for PPRPGs for a while and ordered Bois de Rose and Jack Daniel oak dice.

[Fosterocalypse]

I backed Republique and Grim Dawn I hope they both get funded. I couldn't swing backing Nekro but I plan on picking it up when it comes out. I'm on the fence with Kitaru if anyone has checked that out. I wish Tim Schafer and Brian Fargo would spread the good word about Republique give them a little help.

[Kimberly]

Grim Dawn, definitely. I have a borderline unhealthy addiction to loot collecting games.

The Pebble Watch as well, that thing is making news headlines and has over $8 million with 2 week left! I'm proud to be one of the first 50 backers.

Artisian Dice. The funding is over, but I've wanted fun dice for PPRPGs for a while and ordered Bois de Rose and Jack Daniel oak dice.

I'm just wondering, but what exactly is the appeal of the Pebble watch? It appears to be pretty expensive, and it's not the first "smart watch" out there, so it's not a new concept. Yet they're absolutely raking in the dough. Not trying to criticize, I'm just really curious.

[starchasr27]

I just started with Kickstarter. Banner Saga was my second one. Right now, The Trading Tortoise a traveling art installation/trading post from one of my fave artists, Republique, and Grim Dawn.

[LoliSauce]

Grim Daaaaaawn! Some buddies and I are replaying Titan Quest right now, actually, so our wishes for the success of Grim Dawn are voiced almost daily. We're crazy hype for that project.

[Dark Jedi Dave]

I'm just wondering, but what exactly is the appeal of the Pebble watch? It appears to be pretty expensive, and it's not the first "smart watch" out there, so it's not a new concept. Yet they're absolutely raking in the dough. Not trying to criticize, I'm just really curious.

For me, its a smart watch that lasts 7 days instead of 24 hours, waterproof enough to swim/shower, viewing email and SMS by glancing at my watch, and the ability for me to access the SDK and create apps (find my phone, custom watch faces, GPS integration, exercise apps etc) there are a lot of opportunities.

[KTeleren]

In addition to The Banner Saga I am backing Grim Dawn, Kinetic Void, and Panzer Pets. There have been so many great projects up on Kickstarter recently its been hard to decide which to spend my extra funds on.

I somehow missed FTL and Wasteland 2 which I would have definitely backed, oh well. Those will be purchased after they are released.

[ArunawayNERD]

I really hope Kinetic Void gets funded.

If you are interested here is the link

[lamaz]

This is not on Kickstarter, but it is a game made by this independent studio called Amplitude Studios that is located in Paris, France. The game is called Endless Space. It is a turn-based strategy game set in space. Other games you might have played that are a bit like this are the Master of Orion series games. So it is a 4X(explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) game. If you haven't played a 4X game before I would describe it as a mix of Civilization and Sins of a Solar Empire.

So why am I posting it here if it isn't a Kickstarter project? Two reasons. Because they are currently gathering fan feedback through their own system called GAMES2GETHER. What this means is that they post a lot of concepts on their page and let the fans vote on the concept they feel is best for the game. Usually there is three different options for the fans to choose from, and which ever gets the most votes makes it to the game. I personally like this system a lot and hope that other developers could do something similar. The other reason is that they started a pre-order campaign to gather more funds. Pre-ordering lets you play the current alpha version(which I will talk about more later) and you will get the full game when it releases.

So about the current alpha version. I purchased this game yesterday and immediately lost a good nights sleep while playing it(a good thing in my book). This is by far the best alpha build I have ever encountered. I've only had two real problems after playing about 10 hours. The first was that I couldn't change the resolution in game. However, this was easily fixed by changing the resolution in a XML document. The other problem was music, which I like a lot, but sometimes it starts lagging. The game has many other small bugs like missing tooltips and lagging combat screens. But I feel that the alpha is playable and it has not crashed once on my computer yet - fingers crossed that my good luck continues. Some companies publish games that are much worse on release than this alpha is.

I could go on and on, but this is already a long post so go check out more information and a trailer on their site!

Notice! These are just my experiences, I'm not saying that it will work as well on your computer!

[LoliSauce]

So why am I posting it here if it isn't a Kickstarter project? Two reasons. Because they are currently gathering fan feedback through their own system called GAMES2GETHER. What this means is that they post a lot of gameplay elements on their page and let the fans vote on the concept they most want to make it to the game. Usually there is three different options for the fans to choose from, and which ever gets the most votes makes it to the game. I personally like this system a lot and hope that other developers could do something similar. The other reason is that they started a pre-order campaign to gather more funds. Pre-ordering lets you play the current alpha version(which I will talk about more later) and you will get the full game when it releases.

I apologize for putting down a cool idea, but this is kind of a dangerous concept. Leaving so much to the hands of the fans can lead to things like feature creep and conflicting design principles if not pulled off carefully. It sounds like these guys are handling it very well, from your feedback, but the concept as a whole is kind of scary to me. The fan majority usually has the best interests of the game in mind, but don't always take into account the synergy between various systems that are awesome on their own.

Best wishes to Amplitude on their project though! It seems pretty cool thus far.

[lamaz]

I apologize for putting down a cool idea, but this is kind of a dangerous concept. Leaving so much to the hands of the fans can lead to things like feature creep and conflicting design principles if not pulled off carefully. It sounds like these guys are handling it very well, from your feedback, but the concept as a whole is kind of scary to me. The fan majority usually has the best interests of the game in mind, but don't always take into account the synergy between various systems that are awesome on their own.

Best wishes to Amplitude on their project though! It seems pretty cool thus far.

The voting has been about choosing between logos, ship designs and biographies etc. So basically stuff that doesn't affect the gameplay. I understand what you mean though. But currently it seems that they have made it work quite nicely and I'm a sucker for voting

[LoliSauce]

The voting has been about choosing between logos, ship designs and biographies etc. So basically stuff that doesn't affect the gameplay. I understand what you mean though. But currently it seems that they have made it work quite nicely and I'm a sucker for voting

Nice. That solves any worries I had.

[starchasr27]

If ya'll haven't heard yet, Grim Dawn just made its funding goal! Congrats to them!

[bmacklin]

Jane Jensen's Moebius is funded with 11 days to go! If you pledge $50 you'll actually get 2 full games for the first yearly cycle, the second game being "Mystery Game X" that many think could be Gabriel Knight-related.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...-2012-2013-csg

This concept art released today looks amazing!

[kincajou]

Does jane jensen still have the ip for gabriel knight?

[bmacklin]

^ No, Activision does. But she has said they've been in discussion the past year or two. If Jane can deliver a successful game like Moebius, Activision would feel more comfortable releasing the GK rights to her.

[Skitnik]

Or if it's successful enough, they will telease their own Gabriel Knight, trying to cash on her name and past works.

[ScottMBruner]

Did anyone see how Starlight Inception pulled out in the last few minutes...?

Impressive. Nice to see the old adventure games all making it: Leisure Suit Larry, Jane Jensen, and of course, Tim. Truly an argument to be made that people are clamoring for genres that publishers aren't providing right now (because, they may rightly be a bit risky.)

[bmacklin]

Or if it's successful enough, they will telease their own Gabriel Knight, trying to cash on her name and past works.

The GK games have been available on GOG.com for some time. Activision would license the IP to Jane to do a sequel or possibly a remake of GK1. I'm not sure how everything would work. Jane's studio would probably develop and Activision would publish, or maybe they'll release the rights entirely to Jane.

[Skitnik]

Xenonauts is on Kickstarter : http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/69341191/xenonauts