Following on from my article posted on Tuesday, I thought I would highlight the good work done by Kickstarter in funding, original and innovative game releases. As AAA games become increasingly finance obsessed and sequel orientated, the value of indie and crowd funded titles is ever increasing. While it is shame that gamers who want to play original titles have to fund them themselves, it does give opportunity and support to many small developers who otherwise would struggle to find a place in the market. I have long championed the indie developers and wish more of the larger developers had the daring to make niche and innovative titles via crowd funding. Below is small selection of such productions by both indie and more established developers, arranged in order of release date, which were crowd funded through Kickstarter and are already complete and released, which I hope will show why this style of funding is so important.
Broken Age – 28 January 2014
Kickstarter Project Completion Date: March 2012
Final Total Raised: $3,450,000
A point and click adventure game with some very stunning visuals. This game was a labour of love for the developer Double Fine with an all-star vocal cast and an original sound track. The game follows the two individual stories of its dual main characters which the player can freely switch between. It was released in two acts but is now available as one complete game.
Shovel Knight – 26 June 2014
Kickstarter Project Completion Date: April 2013
Final Total Raised: $311,502
Copies Sold: 1.2 Million
A classic action adventure with 8 bit retro graphics and matching soundtrack. The main character shovel knight is armed with a Shovel Blade which allows him to both kill foes and dig up treasure, because why not right? The game has plenty of campaigns and modes to keep you busy with three boss campaigns and a challenge mode to keep you busy. If you miss the old platform adventures of yore then this game is for you.
Hand of Fate – 17 February 2015
Kickstarter Project Completion Date: December 2013
Final Total Raised: $50,000
Copies Sold: 400,000
Rather than fitting into a single genre, this game is a mixture of three, action RPG, deck building and a text adventure. Cards are laid out by the dealer, a rather shady looking character if you ask me, and then the player traverses the cards one by one facing up to sometimes text based scenarios and often actions styled RPG fights against opponents chosen by the random drawing of cards. This game is one of only a few games I’ve come across which as entertaining to watch as it is to play.
This game was included in the article ‘The Year in Games 2015’. So if you want to see the game in action then take a look at the video version posted at the top of the article or click here to view it on you tube.
Pillars of Eternity – 26 March 2015
Kickstarter Project Completion Date: September 2012
Final Total Raised: $4,163,208
Copies Sold: 700,000
A real-time strategy role-playing game which calls back to the good old days of RPG games with fixed perspective cameras, but in terms of scale and attention to detail, it borrows from more recent trends with features such as party chat and companion quests and back stories. In terms of character customisation the game is epic. It can take you an hour just to clear the character creation screen, with choices on religion, cultural background as well as the classic race and class all of which affect choices you’ll have in the game and the way your character interacts with the game world.
There is a full review of this game posted here.
Darkest Dungeon – 19 January 2016
Kickstarter Project Completion Date: February 2014
Final Total Raised: $313,337
Copies Sold: 650,000
Darkest Dungeon is a challenging gothic roguelike RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring. Where you lead a team of heroes on increasingly dangerous and psychological damaging excursions into demon and monster infested ruins and tunnels. This is a game that frequently punishes failure with death, your team members will pay the price of you failure with their lives, but fear not as there’s always a coach full of new recruits eager to take their place. This is a game that will appear simple on the surface with its turn based RPG combat but once you start experimenting with group dynamics, equipment and skill synergy you’ll soon find that mastery demands a far more complex understanding.
There is a full review of this game posted here.
