GameLaunched went live last week and so far is featuring only 4 projects, but surely more will follow in the next days.
This International Crowdfunding for games platform, as they define themselves, has the following differentiating traits:
- All game genres: all kinds of videogames platforms as well as traditional tabletop games are supported.
- International funding: submissions from around the world are accepted, with automatic currency exchange and PayPal support.
- Marketplace: successfully funded games, once fully developed, will have the option to be sold directly from this site.
- Fixed funding: project submitters will get the raised funds only if the total goal is reached.
- Launchcrew: those projects chosen to be prominently featured will benefit from the advice of a team of gaming experts, writers and personalities to try to reach their goals.
- XP and Leaderboards: contributors will earn XP points for pledging to campaigns as well as spreading the word on social networks. These points will be redeemable for games and merchandise from the site's marketplace.
Among the aforementioned current projects, there's one interesting Linux game: Ostrich Island: Escape from Paradise, developed by MeDungeon Games. It's a unique mix of adventure, platformer and RPG, and suitable for all ages.
Their goal is set at a modest $3,000 which will be used to create additional game assets, to purchase a full Unity3D license (to improve game appearance) and to finish the multiplayer implementation. You can even download a demo from the game's site to give it a try before pledging.
Sources:
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
We need to know if it's Windows, Mac and Linux. Saying PC in this day and age is not good enough if you are only on one OS.
also, they seem to have a consistent problem with possessive pronouns.
"We do not allow any games with nudity or sexual behavior"
censorship is always bad, but on general terms like "nudity" it's ridiculous.
Duke Nukem 3D could not have been funded on this site.
so indies bypass the restrictions of a publisher to serve the gamer directly, just to be chastised by the funding platform.