Welcome to The Funding Crowd! Two weeks after issue #18, we are back with an issue #19 loaded with content. So please make sure you're comfortably sit, silence your cell phones, cancel any appointments you had for the rest of the day, and be prepared for a heavy dose of the purest Linux crowdfunding.
What happened during our absence? Are they primarily good or bad news? Well, it all depends on how you look at it: while objectively there were more failed campaigns than successful ones, many of the games that couldn't get enough funds are going to be finished and released nonetheless, so it's all up to you to decide whether the harvest from the last 15 days is an overall positive one or not:
The Losers
· Unfortunately many interesting campaigns ended recently withouth reaching a significant percentage of their respective funding goal and what's worse, without a single word from their creators about their futures. BiT: Evolution, Project Starborn, Poltergeist, Beyond Black Space, and Urban War Defense fall into this category.
· Constant C wasn't able to obtain much support either, and its developers haven't officially said anything after the end of the campaign. However since the game is already available for Windows and they said the Linux and Mac versions were coming soon, we must expect them to be released regardless.
· In contrast, the Pocket Rumble Kickstarter achieved almost 50% of its $16k goal so one can safely say that there is some real interest in it. Sadly the developers haven't said anything regarding the game either.
The Optimistic Losers
· Both Antithesis, Reality... and Ambrov X campaigns were canceled when it became obvious they were not going to reach their goals. Both development teams are now turning their attention to private investments, an area in which they either expect to obtain more success or have already succeeded, as is the case with Antithesis, Reality....
· Another campaign that was canceled recently is CO-OP. They had raised almost C$17k but they were being criticized for having set a ludicrous $1 funding goal. So they decided to cancel the campaign and launch a new one with a more realistic C$35k goal. Unfortunately things are not going as well as with the first campaign so the creators may end regretting their decision after all...
· Dungeons: The Eye of Draconus has become another victim of OUYA's #Freethegames fund controversies. According to its creators, their project was removed from the fund without apparent reason or prior notice. However, some regard as shady practices the fact that the father of one member of the team donated his life savings to the project, which accounted for many times its supposed $10k funding goal. Anyway, the game will still be finished although not for OUYA.
· And finally, here's a few more games that failed their funding efforts but will be completed nonetheless: System Lords, which will be released on 19th October no matter what; DARKWATER CHRONICLES - CHAPTER 1: In Search of BigFoot and OBSUDO, whose creators will continue working on them; and U55 - END OF THE LINE, which could only raise 60% of their goal but on the other hand has been quickly greenlit on Steam and its creators have announced that development will continue. They didn't say anything about the stretch goal-dependant Linux support, though.
The Winners
· Awesomenauts: Starstorm DLC had become a winner way before its campaign ended, and it closed at a nearly 275% mark. The extra funds will allow for a new map, more characters, more music, a second announcer, match customization, and match recording and replaying capabilities. Further stretch goals could be achieved thanks to PayPal pledges.
· Coincidentally, match replayability (along with some tier rewards upgrades) is the only stretch goal unlocked for Chromancer. Its campaign ended happily last week and they are also trying to exceed their funding mark via PayPal.
· AdventurOS was long ago added to our winners list, but it continued gaining adepts until achieving a 210% funding mark. By doing this the game will be enchanced with a co-op mode, time of day effects, multilanguage translations, and a challenge mode. Unfortunately the creators haven't provided an estimate of its release date so for now we can only wait... and vote the game on Greenlight.
· Another successful project that can be supported on Greenlight is Icebound, the ice-age steampunk visual novel that got funded practically over the buzzer thanks to an exceptional last day in pledges. Although you can no longer support it and secure a copy, you can always give a go at its demo to get a taste of it.
· Octopus City Blues was another early winner and all the suspense that remained was how many stretch goals would be achieved at the end. And the answer is five: expanded Dream Worlds, OUYA and mobile versions, more animated cutscenes, minigames for the protagonist to play in the Arcade, and more interesting but non-plot-essential content, such as a large tentacle exploding and covering the place in Octoblood. Further contributions raised through PayPal could eventually unlock further stretch goals.
· In contrast, Tetrapulse had to wait until the very last days to claim victory, but all's well that ends well as they say. The necessary $15k were reached and so the game will see the light of day, although we'll have to wait till next year to see it.
· And finally, Stronghold 2D (which added Linux support during its campaign), Choice: Texas (a quite interesting game we didn't talk about here), and The Moaning Words (partly thanks to an outstanding $5k worth day) were successfully funded since our last column.
Let's now take a look at the ongoing projects, those that will inevitably fall into one of the three previous categories once their respective campigns are over. As usual, Speedster assesses for us their whereabouts and their chances of success:
· Caribbean Island: A Pirate Adventure is a point-and-click adventure inspired by (need we say it?) the old classic Monkey Island games. The flexible funding model was chosen because the entire campaign is basically for stretch goals, "making the game more awesome" rather than essential to make the game exist at all. The DRM-free Linux download is going for $15, so it is not a big monetary risk for other devoted fans of Monkey Island.
· Hot Tin Roof: The Cat That Wore A Fedora is a noir side-scrolling adventure platformer starring Private Investigator Emma Jones and her partner Franky the fedora-wearing cat who must investigate a series of murders. Clearly this game is going to be an interesting mashup of various influences. The character art-style is blocky like certain other Lego-inspired modern hits, and also in common with the team's previous game starring Emma, Jones On Fire. The gameplay features a special revolver which holds up to 4 different non-lethal bullets, with the various types of ammo being discovered as powerups throughout the game; players must load their ammo wisely in order to solve levels. Hot Tin Roof has already earned a spot on our winners list as it's successfully funded and it's got less than three days remaining. It has also earned coverage in the documentary "Game Loading: Rise Of The Indies" which was recently funded by another Kickstarter project. For those who have not yet tired of Noir-themed puzzle platformers with feline sidekicks clogging the Steam catalog, here is your chance to vote for Hot Tin Roof.
· Neverending Nightmares is a horror-infused stealth game inspired by living through the nightmare of dealing with mental illness. After the financial disaster of his previous game Retro/Grade, Matt Gilgenbach needs this campaign to be able to stay indie and make the game of his dreams -- which happens to be very much on the nightmare side of dreams, with art hand-drawn in black, white, and blood red. Fans of Amnesia: The Dark Descent should consider pledging to help put Matt's nightmares to good use; this campaign has earned a respectable $68k of pledges, but that is only 70% of the base goal, so plenty more horror fans are needed in the final days.
· Mighty No. 9 is a side-scrolling action game headed up by Keiji Inafune. I guess there must still be some hard-core Mega Man fans out there, helping make Mighty No. 9 a Kicktraq-chart-topping *smash* *hit*. The funding rate remained over $30k every day of last week, which counts as a "mid-project slump" compared to the early days of earning multiple $100k per day. No need to worry about the normally ambitious $1.35M goal for cross-platform support, with that stretch goal now in the rear-view mirror along with the $2.2M stretch goal for console platforms. Given overall project momentum, the $2.75M milestone for an online co-op mode could be within reach for the final spike of funds when the campaign ends in just three days.
· Epic Space Online is a cross-platform space MMO which is already in beta, and is running a campaign for adding huge ships to the game: carriers and destroyers. Both will be manned by teams of players working together. The base goal has already been met, probably with a lot of help by current players of the beta who consider this top-down 2D shooter/sandbox MMO/space trading game to be worthy of getting some cool expansions. The first stretch goal, to add escape pods for crew members on a failing ship, has already been reached. The next stretch goal will provide specialties for players crewing a ship (an engineer can boost hull repair, a weapons specialist improves hit rate) and these specialties can be leveled up. Epic Space Online would appreciate Greenlight votes from interested spacers.
· Penguemic Word Domination is worthy to become a winner based on its title alone. This vocabulary-mastering game created by a bunch of Linux enthusiasts and starring an army of penguins has to be a terrific way to study for an upcoming SAT/MCAT/LSAT/GRE verbal exam, so keep that in mind if you or anyone you know still needs to take one of those tests... or if you simply want to help our beloved penguins achieve Word Domination. The Penguin Army faces enemies who attack with a superpower related to a specific difficult word, and the player's task will be to counter the attack using the available allied unit and spell cards -- which are also words, but only one of them is the appropriate response. In order to prevent rapid-fire guessing, the cards have a cool-down time before they can be used again. Whenever a region is conquered the defeated creatures become allies, and they can be used in subsequent battles, in a pure Monkey Island sword-fighting insults fashion. Pledging stands at 88% with little over two days to go, so the penguins and their allies need to get busy.
· Alteil Horizons is an online card game with potential to be the most successful project yet in its genre. Alteil is a sequel to a previous online card game which had a dedicated fan base -- when the previous game was shut down, some of those fans bought the rights to lay the groundwork for a worthy sequel. They have recruited leading artists with resumes from Zelda and Final Fantasy, and are developing the game in HTML 5 for cross-platform support. Funding progress slowed down a lot after the first few days, so it looks like a big end push will be required in order to hit the $100k target.
· 0 A.D. is a free and open-source RTS game of ancient warfare. It's already present in many distros repositories and GOL has covered its development ever since its inception. 0 A.D. has been available for everyone to play for many years but there's still a lot of work to be done before calling it 'finished', which this fund-gathering campaign is intended to remedy. The full goal of $150k seems far out of reach, but flexible funding allows any level of pledges to further development of this open-source gem, and we're confident the $19k collected so far will be put to good use.
· Future of Past is an action adventure mixed in with a bit of logic and RPG elements. It is set in a fantasy world, with choice of goblin, human child, or elf as the main character who must defeat a future evil by changing the past. The alpha footage video shows off some really nice scenes and decent animation, quite impressive for the first project for this new game developer. The campaign has flexible funding, and we're sure they could use some Linux alpha testers if anybody is impressed enough to donate $10 for the privilege.
· Luna's Wandering Stars is mainly a 2D puzzle game, but features realistic gravitational physics and can be a fun way to learn about planets, asteroids, black holes and other astronomic objects. In it you play as the not-so-scientifically-accurate Luna, the Goddess of the Moons, and you'll have to help Pluto regain its planetary status by helping the other planets in the Solar System. The project creators may have been a bit distracted by the recent Colorado flooding, but even natural disasters couldn't prevent their project to become a new winner just a couple of days ago. This base goal even includes built-in level editor and online sharing, features that are always welcome and help grow a community around a game.
· The Fall is a mix of action platforming and adventure gaming all put together in a story-driven exploration of an alien world. The main character for this game is ARID, the AI embedded in an astronaut's suit, who must help rescue its currently unconscious human. The Fall has potential for being our first winner from the new batch of Canadian Kickstarter projects, despite having Linux support as a 170% stretch goal, since it managed to reach 100% in funding in the first week. The mid-project funding slump hit last week however, so potential Linux backers must keep tabs on The Fall as another cliffhanger campaign -- it may or may not end up supporting Linux.
It's time for the new -or relatively new, in some cases- projects that may be of your interest. We begin as usual with the big fishes, and among them this week we have found a pair of known faces that are trying the crowdfunding adventure for a second time in their pursue of success. We're talking about them first:
Taxi Journey has returned to Kickstarter for a second attempt at getting funded. We talked about this game when its first campaign was launched but we'll refresh your memories by saying it's a puzzle adventure with distinctive visuals inspired from games like LIMBO or Machinarium, but above all with a high emotional charge. It's the story of a peculiar taxi driver and his little passenger, both with some uncanny abilities such as literally catching sounds or reflections. This time around they are aiming for a substantially lower goal of $130k, although a Linux version won't happen unless $140k are raised. Unfortunately all the odds are again against its success, save for a miracle happening in the second half of the campaign.
The second Biggie comeback of the week is The Solar Games, which has been relaunched on Indiegogo with a much lower goal yet a broader scope, and a detailed stretch goal plan. While in its first attempt the game was going to be a pure kart racing game, this time around it's been branched out into The Solar Games: Racing and The Solar Games: Battle. The former will inherit all the features that were supposed to go to the initial game, and the latter will be more like a kart battle arena. The flexible base goal for this campaign is $9.25k, and all the funds up to around $100k will go towards releasing the Battle game earlier and with more features. Judging by the pledges so far it looks like the funding goal will be easily overtaken, but the Racing mode will have to wait.
And now we present you the 5 Biggies of theweek fortnight:
Our first new Biggie is Neo's Land, a fantasy open-world MMORPG with a strong focus on involving the community into the content creation for the game and its development. This will be achieved e.g. with open community sessions between players and developers that are taking place right now during its campaign. The game includes some interesting features such as land ownership, player driven economy (for instance a player could decide to make a living by creating and running a transport company to move around other players' stuff), or even dungeon ownership! That's right you can build your own dungeon, attract some creatures to dwell in it, and let other players enter it -- only for you to get their riches if they die. :P
This is one of the many Canadian projects that have recently poured into Kickstarter, and it's asking for C$100k. With less than two weeks to go only 15% of that figure has been raised so, much to our regret as it's got some darn good ideas, it doesn't look like it's going to make it.
Who here was born and old enough to play videogames back in the early 90's? Then you'll surely remember James Pond, one of the most successful platformer videogame series, Mario and Sonic notwithstanding. Well then, those of you who have ever wished it came back can celebrate as Pond is Back! That's right, Underwater F.I.5.H Agent, Bubble 07, with Licence to Gill is determined to make a comeback and only £100k stand on its way -- a little more for a Linux version (a minimum of £115k, but probably more). The people behind this project want to bring the game back just like it was, with all its retro features and no modern nonsense. However, this is yet another underfunded campaign with only 14% gathered in its first week. It's not yet impossible to succeed, but definitely more backers are needed to build up momentum for the decisive final days.
Third Biggie of the week and third campaign aiming at a 100k goal, although it's US dollars this time: Soccer Legends. Judging by its title it could seem a sports game, but instead it's a blend of turn-based strategy and RPG, in the form of a soccer -football for us in the Old World- manager. Think Blood Bowl meets 90's anime series. Actually the Blood Bowl comparison it's not trivial as they are also producing a board edition of the game, available to those pledging $140 and upwards. Regarding the computer game, it will offer a multiplayer mode and two singleplayer game modes: an endless Team Mode in which the player acts as the team manager, and a Legend Mode to play an entire player career from the bottom to stardom. It's built using Unity3D and will be available for Linux on launch, but sadly it also shares with the two previous projects the fact of not being on the road to success: only 16% has been pledged in almost a third of the campaign, so the remaining 3 weeks will need to be extremely abundant on pledges to compensate the bad start.
Time for another RPG with Citizens of Earth, although this is by no means your regular medieval fantasy game with brave knights and horrible monsters. Here instead you'll get to play as a modern day Vice President of the World who goes around recruiting literally anybody for his party. Because in this game everybody can be a hero, and there are no useless NPCs. In contrast to many other indie games this one doesn't use manga-like visuals or a retro pixel art style; instead it's got western cartoony looks, a very convenient choice for poking fun at the modern western world. It's being developed by the same people that brought us Waveform and you can find more info about it in this recent article on GOL. Let's talk about money, shall we? How much do you think it needs to get funded? $100k, you say? That's right, although it's actually C$100k as they are a company based on Vancouver. Unfortunately once again, this project isn't currently trending to a successful figure so let's hope the recently released -Windows-only- demo helps raise awareness and more people gets interested in this game in the following days.
Ironically, our #1 Biggie is the one with the highest goal -C$200k- yet is the only campaign with enough momentum to reach it. We're talking about The Long Dark, a first-person survival game set in a post-apocalyptic Northern wilderness. In it you'll play as William Mackenzie, a postal service employee whose airplane crashes after seeing some mysterious lights in the sky. As Mackenzie, you'll have to carry out the usual survival routines of hunting for supplies, crafting equipment and weapons, but you'll also be immersed in a mature story and will be faced with deep moral choices that will affect the lives of others. As we said, this campaign is so far doing quite well and everything points to its success. So here's another game we'll have to thank Unity3D for, as it will be available for Linux and DRM-free. The early bird C$15 rewards are all gone so you'll have to cough up C$20 to grab a copy.
Just like with the Biggies, a former Hidden Gem has been recently relaunched so we briefly mention it before getting on with the full-fledged Top 16 list:
Harvest is an old friend of The Funding Crowd which became a winner on its first campaign on Kickstarter. Now its creators have launched a second campaign on Indiegogo with the aim of funding more content for the game: basically, the former Kickstarter's stretch goals. They are asking for $7.5k, but any contribution level will do as this is a flexible funding campaign.
Soul Power is a physics-based 2D platformer starring a ghost in its afterlife. Whey you're already dead you've got nothing to fear, but that doesn't mean the game is going to be a walk in the park. For starters you don't know how did you get there, so you'll have to find out by meeting other ghosts and physically entering their respective subconsciousness, à la Psychonauts. And then there'll be a scoring system for the most OCD-inclined of players to achieve a perfect score in each level. What can be seen of the game hint to some rather minimalistic looks, but an intriguing concept and story. You can help it get the extra bump it needs to become a reality for as little as a single Canadian dollar, so there's no excuse not to back it!
Destiny Fails Us is a visual novel/otome game, based on the homonymous web-based manga. In such cases the existing fandom is usually enough to top the funding goal, but that didn't happen in this particular occasion. However the current pledges amount to two thirds of the necessary amount and there's still more than half of the campaign to go, so we're sure it will become a success sooner than later. What's the game about? It's the story of a teenage girl who should game less and study more, and her struggle between keeping in with her loved ones and indulging with her own needs and desires. The pledge level entitling to a copy of the game is set at a standard enough $10, but before backing it you can get a taste of the game with its demo.
Blood Alloy is this issue's customary retro pixel-art Metroidvania. All the main features of the genre are present here: a wide range of weaponry at the player's disposal, tons of upgrades and power-ups, non-lineal levels, exploration, and lots of secrets. This particular one is the story of an amnesiac young female who wakes up, finds most of her body cybernetically modified, and escapes her containment pod in order to discover her identity and story. It needs $50k to be released for Windows, Mac... and OUYA, but don't worry because they haven't signed up for the ill-fated #FreeTheGames thing. :P Linux support depends on achieving a quite reasonable $52k stretch goal, although pledges need to increase a lot in the second half of the campaign for either of these goals to have a chance of being reached.
If you're an seasoned player of free Flash-based online games, you sooner of later must have learnt about the infamous insect exterminator Reemus and his attempts at becoming a renowned hero. Well then, after the first instalment of his ballads its creators have decided to crowdfund The Ballads of Reemus 2. This game will include all the previously published chapters of the saga and finally finish it as it deserves. It won't be just another Flash game as the developer is switching to the Visionaire adventure engine (used e.g. in the Deponia series), and a Linux version will be released once the engine porting tools are made available. So veterans of the saga and newbies alike, get prepared to help Reemus and his loyal sidekick Liam the purple bear to achieve fame and glory once and for all! Your C$15 pledge will get you a copy of the game and it will put it one step nearer to its completion.
Adrift is a cooperative mix of tower defense and SHMUP. Up to six players can join their forces to defend a drifting colony -one of several spatial Noah's Arks sent by the last inhabitants of a dying Earth- from all kinds of perils and hazards it encounters. Considering the setup it can be truly said to be a sort of reverse-TD game, in the sense that it's you who's moving towards the enemies and not the other way round, but Galilean Relativity aside its gameplay include many of the usual features of the genre: building defenses and fighting wave after wave of enemies. To provide some variety there are three different classes of ships to choose from, each one with its unique set of weapons and skill trees, and many distinct events you'll encounter such as boss fights, derelict ships with survivors asking for help, and the like. Even though it's an attractive project enough only 10% of the prefixed $40k goal has been gathered in the first half of the campaign, so your contribution will be appreciated for sure, even if it's for one of the remaining $10 early bird copy-of-the-game rewards.
Here comes another cooperative game, although of a radically different nature: Contagion is a co-op survival horror FPS game, built upon Valve's Source engine and opportunely scheduled for release this Halloween. The game is currently on closed beta stage and this Kickstarter campaign will mainly serve to pay for license fees, server costs and to begin growing a community around the game. So what does it have to offer to prospective players? For one a strong focus on team work and rational usage of ammunition, so trigger-happy and lone hero type of players have no place here. Then there are many different game modes, and of course the ability to play as a Zed and to lead your own undead mob to assault fortified positions. The game is already on Steam ready to be launched on Early Access, so it will have full Steamworks support for those of you who enjoy achievements and trading cards. The creators are asking for $50k, and they are just on the track of getting them by the end of the campaign. It seems that Linux support will come no matter what, although they might leave it for later unless the $75k stretch goal is met, something unlikely at this point. We'll se how it all develops in the end, and in the meantime you can grab a digital copy of the game with Early Access on Steam for $15.
Opening the Top10 we've got Drop, a beatiful side-scrolling action adventure conceived as a love letter to Mega Man X and Super Metroid, and as an awesome present for the creator's daughter. It's the story of Tay, a young girl and her robot guardian who must together explore and conquer the eight flying fortresses that control the population, in the hopes of saving her missing father. The player can make alternate use of both characters to overcome different obstacles or to defeat certain enemies, and will earn upgrades when defeating each of the eight bosses. The current animation is a little choppy but as the creator states they will be drastically improved in the final version of the game. Unfortunately we may have to wait a long time before we can get the full Drop experience as this campaign is hardly going to succeed: less than two weeks remaining and only 4% of the required funds have been raised. However, and especially since he commited himself to release a Linux version of the game, we'd like to encourage you to show your support to him. The more backers he gets, the more inclined he'll be to continue developing the game.
Cedaria: Blackout is a steampunk-themed adventure RPG with a focus on exploration and, let's say, diplomacy rather than brute force. There'll always be a pacific way to resolve conflicts, but sometimes your choices and stances will leave no other option than combat. Part of the creative team comes from the Middle East and the game is somewhat influenced by the History of the region. It's the story of a prosperous land that becomes suddenly engulfed in chaos and the menace of civil war when its main source of energy breaks down. Several factions seek to control the few remaining resources and of course each clan has its own ideals and political agendas. You'll play as wayfarer who returns to the homeland only to find it as a shadow of what it once was, and who'll try to prevent the war and reunite the country again. The game will support both single and multiplayer modes, the latter offering new ways to overcome challenges and to solve situations that will make it worthwhile to replay it again with friends once beaten in singleplayer mode. Sadly this project follows the same trend as most of the previous ones, and it will be a huge surprise if it gets funded at the end of the campaign.
Terminus is like the illegitimate child of Sim City and Alpha Centauri, a traditional city-building game set in an inhospitable alien world that nonetheless could be humankind's last hope of survival. As you could read in a recent article here on GOL the player takes the role of the highest authority of the colony, who must take all the decisions regarding the construction of new facilities, the exploration of the planet to gather new resources, or the resolution of crises and disasters that will inevitably ensue. The procedurally generated planets and events will ensure new challenges each playthrough, and the possibility of saving the random seed that resulted in a particular configuration will enable players to restart a game and try a new approach with the same initial conditions, just to compare strategies. What else could a strategy nerd desire?
This is a Canadian-based project that's making its second crowdfunding attempt after a previous unsuccessful campaign on Indiegogo last February. Among its new features, the one that concerns us the most is unconditional Linux support. Just for that you should go and pledge: C$5 will get you a copy of the final game, and with C$10 you can also obtain a copy of the soundtrack. Unfortunately we're not sure the Linux community alone will be able to lead this campaign to success: much more new backers are needed in the remaining 3 weeks so make sure you mention this project to any fans of the genre you know, regardless of their desktop platform of choice.
Lords of Xulima, an isometric and turn-based RPG whose announcement was duly covered by GOL earlier this year, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to ensure its completion with as many features as possible. The main goal of this project is to bring back the depth, complexity, and challenge from the classics of the genre and put on top of them a modern and intuitive interface to help immerse the player in the lost continent of Xulima, the land of the gods. High-resolution, hand-painted 2D graphics and a custom engine provide the game with its unique looks rich with lighting and atmospheric effects. In turn, the game system tries to encourage strategy and intelligent choices by the player, as careless and hasty actions and decisions will inevitably entail negative consequences.
After many doubtful campaigns this one is definitely going to suceed, although the extense and detailed stretch goal plan suggests the creators would like to raise way more than the basic $10k goal. Whatever the final figure, the game will be released for Linux as early as next January so don't miss the oportunity to secure a digital copy of the game -and a Steam key in case it gets greenlit- for $15.
From a fixed funding Indiegogo campaign to a flexible funding one: Long Night is a survival horror game in a third-person perspective, an approach rarely used in this genre recently. The action takes place in the 90's at a summer camp in the woods. A group of teenager friends spend their last summer together there before entering adult life and definitely leaving childhood behind. Some of their most intimate fears and anguishes take physical form and start to haunt them. You play as one of the four teenagers who must overcome his own terrors as well as his friends' ones, while learning about the other's personalities and backgrounds. Exploration, riddles to solve, boss fights, and some references and Easter eggs from the horror world all await you in this game, which is being developed using the Unity3D engine and thus will be available on Linux for sure. As we said the $35k funding goal is a flexible one, and thankfully so as it doesn't look like it's going to be fulfilled. At least let's hope the creators obtain as much funds as they can in order to further develop the game.
At the bottom of our Top5 is Neo-Victorian Skirmish Squad, an adventure RPG revolving around Battle Dice, some ancient and powerful weapons that the students of the John Brummel University will have to employ, train, upgrade and even combine with each other in order to efficiently battle hordes of invading monsters. This peculiar combat mechanic is designed to please both the casual gamer and the hardcore RPG enthusiast alike, with its apparent simplicity yet actually deep and wide range of tactical variations it allows. Secret collectable items, a beastiary to complete, and an achievement system all help to ensure replayability value once the game is beaten for the first time.
The creators officially announced Linux support many days after the campaign had began, and this delay coupled with our erratic publishing schedule finally resulted in ours presenting you this project only one week before the end of the campaign. More than half of the funds need to be raised in that time, but having a relatively low $7.5k goal makes it still an entirely feasible enterprise. That's why your support is highly needed: a copy of the game is reserved for pledges from $15 upwards, but you may consider pledging at the beta access tier as it's only $20.
Take a random character from Thomas Was Alone, put it in a flattened out version of the Frozen Synapse world, and add in some Monaco and Commandos gameplay. The result should look very similar to Light, a 2D tactical stealth and hacking game. The creators are still working on the backstory of the game, so let's just focus on the gameplay and features instead: it's primarily a stealth game, so indiscriminate use of weapons is strongly unrecommended. It will include multiple mission types such as bank robberies, silent assassinations, information stealing, evidence planting, and many more. If the Kickstarter is successful, they plan on working on it non-stop and having it ready for release by next February. If it's not, as it will most probably be the case, they will be forced to do contract work to survive (we only hope it's of a more pacific nature than that in the game :P) and the game's final quality and release date will undoubtedly suffer as a consequence.
The bronze medal goes to Steam Squad, a turn-based strategy wargame set in an alternate history WWI. Now this is one of our soft spots here at The Funding Crowd and we couldn't help but getting excited about this game when we read about it on GOL, even if it's an oversimplified and historically inaccurate version of The Great War as is the case. In this alternate universe History has taken some different paths along the centuries and has resulted in a world dominated by three superpowers at the beginning of the 20th century: Tianxia, Britain, and the Holy Roman Empire. These three nations are the only relevant ones that take part in the Great War of 1914. From there, six single player campaigns will unfold in which you'll be able to defend the interests of each one of the three superpowers. In every mission you'll get to command a small squad of unseasoned soldiers in the very frontlines where the fiercest combats take place. Just as in real life, a great loss of lives is to be expected. However, judging by the current in-game footage, it seems that the game is opting for a more easygoing approach rather than trying to replicate the true horrors of war, so we expect it to be enjoyable by everyone.
Luckily for a change this project is already sitting at a 70% mark after only one third of its campaign has gone by. So after briefly congratulating ourselves for an upcoming WWI-ish Linux game we must turn our attention to the stretch goals, which would allow for an additional playable faction or even an entirely new campaign with yet another playable nation. If you pledge as little as $10, besides securing a copy of the game, you'll also help the success of this campaign come true.
In second place is Sunless Sea, another soon-to-end campaign that only recently did take a stance regarding Linux support and so we didn't talk you about it until now. What is it? It's a 2D top-down survival exploration game set in the universe of the Fallen London browser game. As a captain of your own steamship you'll get to explore the dangerous and dark underground oceans confines of this Victorian gothic world, and decide your fate through your actions and decisions. Recruit your crew and obtain fame and glory by defeating legendary monsters; or maybe you prefer the less risky life of a trader in fine silks? Whatever you decide you'll have to manage fuel and supplies, as well as upgrading the ship stats in order to prevail in the inescapable combats you'll have to face.
And what about Linux support, you ask? Well... this is a somewhat tricky question because even though the game is being built with Unity3D, the developers are not that familiar with our OS and so aren't willing to officially commit to it. Luckily they haven't resorted to any disproportionate stretch goal nonsense as a way to dismiss the question, and instead they've promised to release an unsupported alpha build followed by an experimental beta version on completion. Additional good news is that the project is already a winner as it hit the base goal some days ago, so you can pledge with full confidence that you'll obtain a playable Linux build and the developer's determination to maintain it.
Finally, the best among the best, our #1 Hidden Gem award goes to Hyper Light Drifter! It's a 2D action RPG that has so far captivated more than 13,000 people with its colourful and immersive pixel art visuals, and has been catapulted to a flabberghasting 1,200% funding mark in just the first half of the campaign. Despite its retro look it's a modern game in spirit, something like Bastion meets Legend of Dungeon. It's got fast real-time combat, hightly intelligent enemies, a vast and interconnected world to explore, and some easy to pick up yet difficult to master mechanics, ranging from melée to ranged weapons, deffensive energy shields, or evasive dashing techniques. The game, which appeared recently on GOL, will have its scope greatly expanded thanks to the massive backing response, as most of the initially planned stretch goals have been utterly destroyed: new areas, new bosses, new regular monsters, new gear, an extended cinamatic intro and expanded cutscenes, a full soundtrack, New Game+, co-op and competitive modes, PS4 and Vita ports, and many more that we're either not listing or that will no doubt be achieved in the following days.
Before the campaign ends you can snatch a copy of the game for $10. Needless to say that you should if only because afterwards the same reward will cost $15.
And that was all for today, folks! See you next week (any day next week, we're not going to make promises) when we come back with more interesting projects for your consideration. In the meantime don't forget to check our crowdfunding wiki if you want to keep updated about the lastest crowdfunded Linux games. Bye! ;)
. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
What happened during our absence? Are they primarily good or bad news? Well, it all depends on how you look at it: while objectively there were more failed campaigns than successful ones, many of the games that couldn't get enough funds are going to be finished and released nonetheless, so it's all up to you to decide whether the harvest from the last 15 days is an overall positive one or not:
The Losers
· Unfortunately many interesting campaigns ended recently withouth reaching a significant percentage of their respective funding goal and what's worse, without a single word from their creators about their futures. BiT: Evolution, Project Starborn, Poltergeist, Beyond Black Space, and Urban War Defense fall into this category.
· Constant C wasn't able to obtain much support either, and its developers haven't officially said anything after the end of the campaign. However since the game is already available for Windows and they said the Linux and Mac versions were coming soon, we must expect them to be released regardless.
· In contrast, the Pocket Rumble Kickstarter achieved almost 50% of its $16k goal so one can safely say that there is some real interest in it. Sadly the developers haven't said anything regarding the game either.
The Optimistic Losers
· Both Antithesis, Reality... and Ambrov X campaigns were canceled when it became obvious they were not going to reach their goals. Both development teams are now turning their attention to private investments, an area in which they either expect to obtain more success or have already succeeded, as is the case with Antithesis, Reality....
· Another campaign that was canceled recently is CO-OP. They had raised almost C$17k but they were being criticized for having set a ludicrous $1 funding goal. So they decided to cancel the campaign and launch a new one with a more realistic C$35k goal. Unfortunately things are not going as well as with the first campaign so the creators may end regretting their decision after all...
· Dungeons: The Eye of Draconus has become another victim of OUYA's #Freethegames fund controversies. According to its creators, their project was removed from the fund without apparent reason or prior notice. However, some regard as shady practices the fact that the father of one member of the team donated his life savings to the project, which accounted for many times its supposed $10k funding goal. Anyway, the game will still be finished although not for OUYA.
· And finally, here's a few more games that failed their funding efforts but will be completed nonetheless: System Lords, which will be released on 19th October no matter what; DARKWATER CHRONICLES - CHAPTER 1: In Search of BigFoot and OBSUDO, whose creators will continue working on them; and U55 - END OF THE LINE, which could only raise 60% of their goal but on the other hand has been quickly greenlit on Steam and its creators have announced that development will continue. They didn't say anything about the stretch goal-dependant Linux support, though.
The Winners
· Awesomenauts: Starstorm DLC had become a winner way before its campaign ended, and it closed at a nearly 275% mark. The extra funds will allow for a new map, more characters, more music, a second announcer, match customization, and match recording and replaying capabilities. Further stretch goals could be achieved thanks to PayPal pledges.
· Coincidentally, match replayability (along with some tier rewards upgrades) is the only stretch goal unlocked for Chromancer. Its campaign ended happily last week and they are also trying to exceed their funding mark via PayPal.
· AdventurOS was long ago added to our winners list, but it continued gaining adepts until achieving a 210% funding mark. By doing this the game will be enchanced with a co-op mode, time of day effects, multilanguage translations, and a challenge mode. Unfortunately the creators haven't provided an estimate of its release date so for now we can only wait... and vote the game on Greenlight.
· Another successful project that can be supported on Greenlight is Icebound, the ice-age steampunk visual novel that got funded practically over the buzzer thanks to an exceptional last day in pledges. Although you can no longer support it and secure a copy, you can always give a go at its demo to get a taste of it.
· Octopus City Blues was another early winner and all the suspense that remained was how many stretch goals would be achieved at the end. And the answer is five: expanded Dream Worlds, OUYA and mobile versions, more animated cutscenes, minigames for the protagonist to play in the Arcade, and more interesting but non-plot-essential content, such as a large tentacle exploding and covering the place in Octoblood. Further contributions raised through PayPal could eventually unlock further stretch goals.
· In contrast, Tetrapulse had to wait until the very last days to claim victory, but all's well that ends well as they say. The necessary $15k were reached and so the game will see the light of day, although we'll have to wait till next year to see it.
· And finally, Stronghold 2D (which added Linux support during its campaign), Choice: Texas (a quite interesting game we didn't talk about here), and The Moaning Words (partly thanks to an outstanding $5k worth day) were successfully funded since our last column.
Let's now take a look at the ongoing projects, those that will inevitably fall into one of the three previous categories once their respective campigns are over. As usual, Speedster assesses for us their whereabouts and their chances of success:
· Caribbean Island: A Pirate Adventure is a point-and-click adventure inspired by (need we say it?) the old classic Monkey Island games. The flexible funding model was chosen because the entire campaign is basically for stretch goals, "making the game more awesome" rather than essential to make the game exist at all. The DRM-free Linux download is going for $15, so it is not a big monetary risk for other devoted fans of Monkey Island.
· Hot Tin Roof: The Cat That Wore A Fedora is a noir side-scrolling adventure platformer starring Private Investigator Emma Jones and her partner Franky the fedora-wearing cat who must investigate a series of murders. Clearly this game is going to be an interesting mashup of various influences. The character art-style is blocky like certain other Lego-inspired modern hits, and also in common with the team's previous game starring Emma, Jones On Fire. The gameplay features a special revolver which holds up to 4 different non-lethal bullets, with the various types of ammo being discovered as powerups throughout the game; players must load their ammo wisely in order to solve levels. Hot Tin Roof has already earned a spot on our winners list as it's successfully funded and it's got less than three days remaining. It has also earned coverage in the documentary "Game Loading: Rise Of The Indies" which was recently funded by another Kickstarter project. For those who have not yet tired of Noir-themed puzzle platformers with feline sidekicks clogging the Steam catalog, here is your chance to vote for Hot Tin Roof.
· Neverending Nightmares is a horror-infused stealth game inspired by living through the nightmare of dealing with mental illness. After the financial disaster of his previous game Retro/Grade, Matt Gilgenbach needs this campaign to be able to stay indie and make the game of his dreams -- which happens to be very much on the nightmare side of dreams, with art hand-drawn in black, white, and blood red. Fans of Amnesia: The Dark Descent should consider pledging to help put Matt's nightmares to good use; this campaign has earned a respectable $68k of pledges, but that is only 70% of the base goal, so plenty more horror fans are needed in the final days.
· Mighty No. 9 is a side-scrolling action game headed up by Keiji Inafune. I guess there must still be some hard-core Mega Man fans out there, helping make Mighty No. 9 a Kicktraq-chart-topping *smash* *hit*. The funding rate remained over $30k every day of last week, which counts as a "mid-project slump" compared to the early days of earning multiple $100k per day. No need to worry about the normally ambitious $1.35M goal for cross-platform support, with that stretch goal now in the rear-view mirror along with the $2.2M stretch goal for console platforms. Given overall project momentum, the $2.75M milestone for an online co-op mode could be within reach for the final spike of funds when the campaign ends in just three days.
· Epic Space Online is a cross-platform space MMO which is already in beta, and is running a campaign for adding huge ships to the game: carriers and destroyers. Both will be manned by teams of players working together. The base goal has already been met, probably with a lot of help by current players of the beta who consider this top-down 2D shooter/sandbox MMO/space trading game to be worthy of getting some cool expansions. The first stretch goal, to add escape pods for crew members on a failing ship, has already been reached. The next stretch goal will provide specialties for players crewing a ship (an engineer can boost hull repair, a weapons specialist improves hit rate) and these specialties can be leveled up. Epic Space Online would appreciate Greenlight votes from interested spacers.
· Penguemic Word Domination is worthy to become a winner based on its title alone. This vocabulary-mastering game created by a bunch of Linux enthusiasts and starring an army of penguins has to be a terrific way to study for an upcoming SAT/MCAT/LSAT/GRE verbal exam, so keep that in mind if you or anyone you know still needs to take one of those tests... or if you simply want to help our beloved penguins achieve Word Domination. The Penguin Army faces enemies who attack with a superpower related to a specific difficult word, and the player's task will be to counter the attack using the available allied unit and spell cards -- which are also words, but only one of them is the appropriate response. In order to prevent rapid-fire guessing, the cards have a cool-down time before they can be used again. Whenever a region is conquered the defeated creatures become allies, and they can be used in subsequent battles, in a pure Monkey Island sword-fighting insults fashion. Pledging stands at 88% with little over two days to go, so the penguins and their allies need to get busy.
· Alteil Horizons is an online card game with potential to be the most successful project yet in its genre. Alteil is a sequel to a previous online card game which had a dedicated fan base -- when the previous game was shut down, some of those fans bought the rights to lay the groundwork for a worthy sequel. They have recruited leading artists with resumes from Zelda and Final Fantasy, and are developing the game in HTML 5 for cross-platform support. Funding progress slowed down a lot after the first few days, so it looks like a big end push will be required in order to hit the $100k target.
· 0 A.D. is a free and open-source RTS game of ancient warfare. It's already present in many distros repositories and GOL has covered its development ever since its inception. 0 A.D. has been available for everyone to play for many years but there's still a lot of work to be done before calling it 'finished', which this fund-gathering campaign is intended to remedy. The full goal of $150k seems far out of reach, but flexible funding allows any level of pledges to further development of this open-source gem, and we're confident the $19k collected so far will be put to good use.
· Future of Past is an action adventure mixed in with a bit of logic and RPG elements. It is set in a fantasy world, with choice of goblin, human child, or elf as the main character who must defeat a future evil by changing the past. The alpha footage video shows off some really nice scenes and decent animation, quite impressive for the first project for this new game developer. The campaign has flexible funding, and we're sure they could use some Linux alpha testers if anybody is impressed enough to donate $10 for the privilege.
· Luna's Wandering Stars is mainly a 2D puzzle game, but features realistic gravitational physics and can be a fun way to learn about planets, asteroids, black holes and other astronomic objects. In it you play as the not-so-scientifically-accurate Luna, the Goddess of the Moons, and you'll have to help Pluto regain its planetary status by helping the other planets in the Solar System. The project creators may have been a bit distracted by the recent Colorado flooding, but even natural disasters couldn't prevent their project to become a new winner just a couple of days ago. This base goal even includes built-in level editor and online sharing, features that are always welcome and help grow a community around a game.
· The Fall is a mix of action platforming and adventure gaming all put together in a story-driven exploration of an alien world. The main character for this game is ARID, the AI embedded in an astronaut's suit, who must help rescue its currently unconscious human. The Fall has potential for being our first winner from the new batch of Canadian Kickstarter projects, despite having Linux support as a 170% stretch goal, since it managed to reach 100% in funding in the first week. The mid-project funding slump hit last week however, so potential Linux backers must keep tabs on The Fall as another cliffhanger campaign -- it may or may not end up supporting Linux.
It's time for the new -or relatively new, in some cases- projects that may be of your interest. We begin as usual with the big fishes, and among them this week we have found a pair of known faces that are trying the crowdfunding adventure for a second time in their pursue of success. We're talking about them first:
Taxi Journey has returned to Kickstarter for a second attempt at getting funded. We talked about this game when its first campaign was launched but we'll refresh your memories by saying it's a puzzle adventure with distinctive visuals inspired from games like LIMBO or Machinarium, but above all with a high emotional charge. It's the story of a peculiar taxi driver and his little passenger, both with some uncanny abilities such as literally catching sounds or reflections. This time around they are aiming for a substantially lower goal of $130k, although a Linux version won't happen unless $140k are raised. Unfortunately all the odds are again against its success, save for a miracle happening in the second half of the campaign.
The second Biggie comeback of the week is The Solar Games, which has been relaunched on Indiegogo with a much lower goal yet a broader scope, and a detailed stretch goal plan. While in its first attempt the game was going to be a pure kart racing game, this time around it's been branched out into The Solar Games: Racing and The Solar Games: Battle. The former will inherit all the features that were supposed to go to the initial game, and the latter will be more like a kart battle arena. The flexible base goal for this campaign is $9.25k, and all the funds up to around $100k will go towards releasing the Battle game earlier and with more features. Judging by the pledges so far it looks like the funding goal will be easily overtaken, but the Racing mode will have to wait.
And now we present you the 5 Biggies of the
Our first new Biggie is Neo's Land, a fantasy open-world MMORPG with a strong focus on involving the community into the content creation for the game and its development. This will be achieved e.g. with open community sessions between players and developers that are taking place right now during its campaign. The game includes some interesting features such as land ownership, player driven economy (for instance a player could decide to make a living by creating and running a transport company to move around other players' stuff), or even dungeon ownership! That's right you can build your own dungeon, attract some creatures to dwell in it, and let other players enter it -- only for you to get their riches if they die. :P
This is one of the many Canadian projects that have recently poured into Kickstarter, and it's asking for C$100k. With less than two weeks to go only 15% of that figure has been raised so, much to our regret as it's got some darn good ideas, it doesn't look like it's going to make it.
Who here was born and old enough to play videogames back in the early 90's? Then you'll surely remember James Pond, one of the most successful platformer videogame series, Mario and Sonic notwithstanding. Well then, those of you who have ever wished it came back can celebrate as Pond is Back! That's right, Underwater F.I.5.H Agent, Bubble 07, with Licence to Gill is determined to make a comeback and only £100k stand on its way -- a little more for a Linux version (a minimum of £115k, but probably more). The people behind this project want to bring the game back just like it was, with all its retro features and no modern nonsense. However, this is yet another underfunded campaign with only 14% gathered in its first week. It's not yet impossible to succeed, but definitely more backers are needed to build up momentum for the decisive final days.
Third Biggie of the week and third campaign aiming at a 100k goal, although it's US dollars this time: Soccer Legends. Judging by its title it could seem a sports game, but instead it's a blend of turn-based strategy and RPG, in the form of a soccer -football for us in the Old World- manager. Think Blood Bowl meets 90's anime series. Actually the Blood Bowl comparison it's not trivial as they are also producing a board edition of the game, available to those pledging $140 and upwards. Regarding the computer game, it will offer a multiplayer mode and two singleplayer game modes: an endless Team Mode in which the player acts as the team manager, and a Legend Mode to play an entire player career from the bottom to stardom. It's built using Unity3D and will be available for Linux on launch, but sadly it also shares with the two previous projects the fact of not being on the road to success: only 16% has been pledged in almost a third of the campaign, so the remaining 3 weeks will need to be extremely abundant on pledges to compensate the bad start.
Time for another RPG with Citizens of Earth, although this is by no means your regular medieval fantasy game with brave knights and horrible monsters. Here instead you'll get to play as a modern day Vice President of the World who goes around recruiting literally anybody for his party. Because in this game everybody can be a hero, and there are no useless NPCs. In contrast to many other indie games this one doesn't use manga-like visuals or a retro pixel art style; instead it's got western cartoony looks, a very convenient choice for poking fun at the modern western world. It's being developed by the same people that brought us Waveform and you can find more info about it in this recent article on GOL. Let's talk about money, shall we? How much do you think it needs to get funded? $100k, you say? That's right, although it's actually C$100k as they are a company based on Vancouver. Unfortunately once again, this project isn't currently trending to a successful figure so let's hope the recently released -Windows-only- demo helps raise awareness and more people gets interested in this game in the following days.
Ironically, our #1 Biggie is the one with the highest goal -C$200k- yet is the only campaign with enough momentum to reach it. We're talking about The Long Dark, a first-person survival game set in a post-apocalyptic Northern wilderness. In it you'll play as William Mackenzie, a postal service employee whose airplane crashes after seeing some mysterious lights in the sky. As Mackenzie, you'll have to carry out the usual survival routines of hunting for supplies, crafting equipment and weapons, but you'll also be immersed in a mature story and will be faced with deep moral choices that will affect the lives of others. As we said, this campaign is so far doing quite well and everything points to its success. So here's another game we'll have to thank Unity3D for, as it will be available for Linux and DRM-free. The early bird C$15 rewards are all gone so you'll have to cough up C$20 to grab a copy.
Just like with the Biggies, a former Hidden Gem has been recently relaunched so we briefly mention it before getting on with the full-fledged Top 16 list:
Harvest is an old friend of The Funding Crowd which became a winner on its first campaign on Kickstarter. Now its creators have launched a second campaign on Indiegogo with the aim of funding more content for the game: basically, the former Kickstarter's stretch goals. They are asking for $7.5k, but any contribution level will do as this is a flexible funding campaign.
Soul Power is a physics-based 2D platformer starring a ghost in its afterlife. Whey you're already dead you've got nothing to fear, but that doesn't mean the game is going to be a walk in the park. For starters you don't know how did you get there, so you'll have to find out by meeting other ghosts and physically entering their respective subconsciousness, à la Psychonauts. And then there'll be a scoring system for the most OCD-inclined of players to achieve a perfect score in each level. What can be seen of the game hint to some rather minimalistic looks, but an intriguing concept and story. You can help it get the extra bump it needs to become a reality for as little as a single Canadian dollar, so there's no excuse not to back it!
Destiny Fails Us is a visual novel/otome game, based on the homonymous web-based manga. In such cases the existing fandom is usually enough to top the funding goal, but that didn't happen in this particular occasion. However the current pledges amount to two thirds of the necessary amount and there's still more than half of the campaign to go, so we're sure it will become a success sooner than later. What's the game about? It's the story of a teenage girl who should game less and study more, and her struggle between keeping in with her loved ones and indulging with her own needs and desires. The pledge level entitling to a copy of the game is set at a standard enough $10, but before backing it you can get a taste of the game with its demo.
Blood Alloy is this issue's customary retro pixel-art Metroidvania. All the main features of the genre are present here: a wide range of weaponry at the player's disposal, tons of upgrades and power-ups, non-lineal levels, exploration, and lots of secrets. This particular one is the story of an amnesiac young female who wakes up, finds most of her body cybernetically modified, and escapes her containment pod in order to discover her identity and story. It needs $50k to be released for Windows, Mac... and OUYA, but don't worry because they haven't signed up for the ill-fated #FreeTheGames thing. :P Linux support depends on achieving a quite reasonable $52k stretch goal, although pledges need to increase a lot in the second half of the campaign for either of these goals to have a chance of being reached.
If you're an seasoned player of free Flash-based online games, you sooner of later must have learnt about the infamous insect exterminator Reemus and his attempts at becoming a renowned hero. Well then, after the first instalment of his ballads its creators have decided to crowdfund The Ballads of Reemus 2. This game will include all the previously published chapters of the saga and finally finish it as it deserves. It won't be just another Flash game as the developer is switching to the Visionaire adventure engine (used e.g. in the Deponia series), and a Linux version will be released once the engine porting tools are made available. So veterans of the saga and newbies alike, get prepared to help Reemus and his loyal sidekick Liam the purple bear to achieve fame and glory once and for all! Your C$15 pledge will get you a copy of the game and it will put it one step nearer to its completion.
Adrift is a cooperative mix of tower defense and SHMUP. Up to six players can join their forces to defend a drifting colony -one of several spatial Noah's Arks sent by the last inhabitants of a dying Earth- from all kinds of perils and hazards it encounters. Considering the setup it can be truly said to be a sort of reverse-TD game, in the sense that it's you who's moving towards the enemies and not the other way round, but Galilean Relativity aside its gameplay include many of the usual features of the genre: building defenses and fighting wave after wave of enemies. To provide some variety there are three different classes of ships to choose from, each one with its unique set of weapons and skill trees, and many distinct events you'll encounter such as boss fights, derelict ships with survivors asking for help, and the like. Even though it's an attractive project enough only 10% of the prefixed $40k goal has been gathered in the first half of the campaign, so your contribution will be appreciated for sure, even if it's for one of the remaining $10 early bird copy-of-the-game rewards.
Here comes another cooperative game, although of a radically different nature: Contagion is a co-op survival horror FPS game, built upon Valve's Source engine and opportunely scheduled for release this Halloween. The game is currently on closed beta stage and this Kickstarter campaign will mainly serve to pay for license fees, server costs and to begin growing a community around the game. So what does it have to offer to prospective players? For one a strong focus on team work and rational usage of ammunition, so trigger-happy and lone hero type of players have no place here. Then there are many different game modes, and of course the ability to play as a Zed and to lead your own undead mob to assault fortified positions. The game is already on Steam ready to be launched on Early Access, so it will have full Steamworks support for those of you who enjoy achievements and trading cards. The creators are asking for $50k, and they are just on the track of getting them by the end of the campaign. It seems that Linux support will come no matter what, although they might leave it for later unless the $75k stretch goal is met, something unlikely at this point. We'll se how it all develops in the end, and in the meantime you can grab a digital copy of the game with Early Access on Steam for $15.
Opening the Top10 we've got Drop, a beatiful side-scrolling action adventure conceived as a love letter to Mega Man X and Super Metroid, and as an awesome present for the creator's daughter. It's the story of Tay, a young girl and her robot guardian who must together explore and conquer the eight flying fortresses that control the population, in the hopes of saving her missing father. The player can make alternate use of both characters to overcome different obstacles or to defeat certain enemies, and will earn upgrades when defeating each of the eight bosses. The current animation is a little choppy but as the creator states they will be drastically improved in the final version of the game. Unfortunately we may have to wait a long time before we can get the full Drop experience as this campaign is hardly going to succeed: less than two weeks remaining and only 4% of the required funds have been raised. However, and especially since he commited himself to release a Linux version of the game, we'd like to encourage you to show your support to him. The more backers he gets, the more inclined he'll be to continue developing the game.
Cedaria: Blackout is a steampunk-themed adventure RPG with a focus on exploration and, let's say, diplomacy rather than brute force. There'll always be a pacific way to resolve conflicts, but sometimes your choices and stances will leave no other option than combat. Part of the creative team comes from the Middle East and the game is somewhat influenced by the History of the region. It's the story of a prosperous land that becomes suddenly engulfed in chaos and the menace of civil war when its main source of energy breaks down. Several factions seek to control the few remaining resources and of course each clan has its own ideals and political agendas. You'll play as wayfarer who returns to the homeland only to find it as a shadow of what it once was, and who'll try to prevent the war and reunite the country again. The game will support both single and multiplayer modes, the latter offering new ways to overcome challenges and to solve situations that will make it worthwhile to replay it again with friends once beaten in singleplayer mode. Sadly this project follows the same trend as most of the previous ones, and it will be a huge surprise if it gets funded at the end of the campaign.
Terminus is like the illegitimate child of Sim City and Alpha Centauri, a traditional city-building game set in an inhospitable alien world that nonetheless could be humankind's last hope of survival. As you could read in a recent article here on GOL the player takes the role of the highest authority of the colony, who must take all the decisions regarding the construction of new facilities, the exploration of the planet to gather new resources, or the resolution of crises and disasters that will inevitably ensue. The procedurally generated planets and events will ensure new challenges each playthrough, and the possibility of saving the random seed that resulted in a particular configuration will enable players to restart a game and try a new approach with the same initial conditions, just to compare strategies. What else could a strategy nerd desire?
This is a Canadian-based project that's making its second crowdfunding attempt after a previous unsuccessful campaign on Indiegogo last February. Among its new features, the one that concerns us the most is unconditional Linux support. Just for that you should go and pledge: C$5 will get you a copy of the final game, and with C$10 you can also obtain a copy of the soundtrack. Unfortunately we're not sure the Linux community alone will be able to lead this campaign to success: much more new backers are needed in the remaining 3 weeks so make sure you mention this project to any fans of the genre you know, regardless of their desktop platform of choice.
Lords of Xulima, an isometric and turn-based RPG whose announcement was duly covered by GOL earlier this year, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to ensure its completion with as many features as possible. The main goal of this project is to bring back the depth, complexity, and challenge from the classics of the genre and put on top of them a modern and intuitive interface to help immerse the player in the lost continent of Xulima, the land of the gods. High-resolution, hand-painted 2D graphics and a custom engine provide the game with its unique looks rich with lighting and atmospheric effects. In turn, the game system tries to encourage strategy and intelligent choices by the player, as careless and hasty actions and decisions will inevitably entail negative consequences.
After many doubtful campaigns this one is definitely going to suceed, although the extense and detailed stretch goal plan suggests the creators would like to raise way more than the basic $10k goal. Whatever the final figure, the game will be released for Linux as early as next January so don't miss the oportunity to secure a digital copy of the game -and a Steam key in case it gets greenlit- for $15.
From a fixed funding Indiegogo campaign to a flexible funding one: Long Night is a survival horror game in a third-person perspective, an approach rarely used in this genre recently. The action takes place in the 90's at a summer camp in the woods. A group of teenager friends spend their last summer together there before entering adult life and definitely leaving childhood behind. Some of their most intimate fears and anguishes take physical form and start to haunt them. You play as one of the four teenagers who must overcome his own terrors as well as his friends' ones, while learning about the other's personalities and backgrounds. Exploration, riddles to solve, boss fights, and some references and Easter eggs from the horror world all await you in this game, which is being developed using the Unity3D engine and thus will be available on Linux for sure. As we said the $35k funding goal is a flexible one, and thankfully so as it doesn't look like it's going to be fulfilled. At least let's hope the creators obtain as much funds as they can in order to further develop the game.
At the bottom of our Top5 is Neo-Victorian Skirmish Squad, an adventure RPG revolving around Battle Dice, some ancient and powerful weapons that the students of the John Brummel University will have to employ, train, upgrade and even combine with each other in order to efficiently battle hordes of invading monsters. This peculiar combat mechanic is designed to please both the casual gamer and the hardcore RPG enthusiast alike, with its apparent simplicity yet actually deep and wide range of tactical variations it allows. Secret collectable items, a beastiary to complete, and an achievement system all help to ensure replayability value once the game is beaten for the first time.
The creators officially announced Linux support many days after the campaign had began, and this delay coupled with our erratic publishing schedule finally resulted in ours presenting you this project only one week before the end of the campaign. More than half of the funds need to be raised in that time, but having a relatively low $7.5k goal makes it still an entirely feasible enterprise. That's why your support is highly needed: a copy of the game is reserved for pledges from $15 upwards, but you may consider pledging at the beta access tier as it's only $20.
Take a random character from Thomas Was Alone, put it in a flattened out version of the Frozen Synapse world, and add in some Monaco and Commandos gameplay. The result should look very similar to Light, a 2D tactical stealth and hacking game. The creators are still working on the backstory of the game, so let's just focus on the gameplay and features instead: it's primarily a stealth game, so indiscriminate use of weapons is strongly unrecommended. It will include multiple mission types such as bank robberies, silent assassinations, information stealing, evidence planting, and many more. If the Kickstarter is successful, they plan on working on it non-stop and having it ready for release by next February. If it's not, as it will most probably be the case, they will be forced to do contract work to survive (we only hope it's of a more pacific nature than that in the game :P) and the game's final quality and release date will undoubtedly suffer as a consequence.
The bronze medal goes to Steam Squad, a turn-based strategy wargame set in an alternate history WWI. Now this is one of our soft spots here at The Funding Crowd and we couldn't help but getting excited about this game when we read about it on GOL, even if it's an oversimplified and historically inaccurate version of The Great War as is the case. In this alternate universe History has taken some different paths along the centuries and has resulted in a world dominated by three superpowers at the beginning of the 20th century: Tianxia, Britain, and the Holy Roman Empire. These three nations are the only relevant ones that take part in the Great War of 1914. From there, six single player campaigns will unfold in which you'll be able to defend the interests of each one of the three superpowers. In every mission you'll get to command a small squad of unseasoned soldiers in the very frontlines where the fiercest combats take place. Just as in real life, a great loss of lives is to be expected. However, judging by the current in-game footage, it seems that the game is opting for a more easygoing approach rather than trying to replicate the true horrors of war, so we expect it to be enjoyable by everyone.
Luckily for a change this project is already sitting at a 70% mark after only one third of its campaign has gone by. So after briefly congratulating ourselves for an upcoming WWI-ish Linux game we must turn our attention to the stretch goals, which would allow for an additional playable faction or even an entirely new campaign with yet another playable nation. If you pledge as little as $10, besides securing a copy of the game, you'll also help the success of this campaign come true.
In second place is Sunless Sea, another soon-to-end campaign that only recently did take a stance regarding Linux support and so we didn't talk you about it until now. What is it? It's a 2D top-down survival exploration game set in the universe of the Fallen London browser game. As a captain of your own steamship you'll get to explore the dangerous and dark underground oceans confines of this Victorian gothic world, and decide your fate through your actions and decisions. Recruit your crew and obtain fame and glory by defeating legendary monsters; or maybe you prefer the less risky life of a trader in fine silks? Whatever you decide you'll have to manage fuel and supplies, as well as upgrading the ship stats in order to prevail in the inescapable combats you'll have to face.
And what about Linux support, you ask? Well... this is a somewhat tricky question because even though the game is being built with Unity3D, the developers are not that familiar with our OS and so aren't willing to officially commit to it. Luckily they haven't resorted to any disproportionate stretch goal nonsense as a way to dismiss the question, and instead they've promised to release an unsupported alpha build followed by an experimental beta version on completion. Additional good news is that the project is already a winner as it hit the base goal some days ago, so you can pledge with full confidence that you'll obtain a playable Linux build and the developer's determination to maintain it.
Finally, the best among the best, our #1 Hidden Gem award goes to Hyper Light Drifter! It's a 2D action RPG that has so far captivated more than 13,000 people with its colourful and immersive pixel art visuals, and has been catapulted to a flabberghasting 1,200% funding mark in just the first half of the campaign. Despite its retro look it's a modern game in spirit, something like Bastion meets Legend of Dungeon. It's got fast real-time combat, hightly intelligent enemies, a vast and interconnected world to explore, and some easy to pick up yet difficult to master mechanics, ranging from melée to ranged weapons, deffensive energy shields, or evasive dashing techniques. The game, which appeared recently on GOL, will have its scope greatly expanded thanks to the massive backing response, as most of the initially planned stretch goals have been utterly destroyed: new areas, new bosses, new regular monsters, new gear, an extended cinamatic intro and expanded cutscenes, a full soundtrack, New Game+, co-op and competitive modes, PS4 and Vita ports, and many more that we're either not listing or that will no doubt be achieved in the following days.
Before the campaign ends you can snatch a copy of the game for $10. Needless to say that you should if only because afterwards the same reward will cost $15.
And that was all for today, folks! See you next week (any day next week, we're not going to make promises) when we come back with more interesting projects for your consideration. In the meantime don't forget to check our crowdfunding wiki if you want to keep updated about the lastest crowdfunded Linux games. Bye! ;)
. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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And... hot damn, Hyper Light Drifter looks SOOOOO good.
Haha no wonder its fans didn't push it over the top yet, they're trying to cut down on gaming