Kickstarter Roundup #2: Weekly Dose of Indie Games
Having gone through a successful Kickstarter campaign for CasinoRPG in early 2013, we know how hard it is to get noticed and scrap all the way to your goal, especially if your name isn't Tim Schafer. So, we've decided to help spread the word about our fellow indie game developers and post a weekly roundup of our favorite games we've stumbled across lately.
Fight The Dragon
Explore, Battle & Loot in this epic hack'n slash action RPG, or create & share your own Adventures like a true Dungeon Master of old!
The almost-voxel-but-not-quite-voxel art style of this game is really drawing me, but the overall vibe the game gives off just screams fun! What really caught my eye was the fantastic map editor, I would have killed to have something like that back when I actually had time to play these types of games. If the distribution of player-made maps/adventures is handled as well as the editor itself, this could be a major hit. This one is just getting going, there's still time to get in on the early-birds with a month to go.
New Orbit
A space game with realistic gravitation, custom ship building and a fully voiced story.
If you read last week's roundup, you know about a game called Scraps that lets you design and build a vehicle with hilariously realistic physics. New Orbit does something similar with spacecraft (which is equally as awesome), but wraps it up with an immersive story. This is one of those games that makes me really excited about the potential for Oculus Rift support. But before that can happen, it needs to reach its goal in the next 38 days!
War of Omens
War of Omens is a card game combining deck-builder and CCG mechanics, featuring fast, strategic play and 3 different playable factions.
Ever since I was a kid I've loved physical card games, but for whatever reason I've never really gotten into the digital variants. However, War of Omens caught my eye thanks to the slick visuals and their desire to change the traditional model with longterm progression. I don't generally put a lot of weight on graphics, but I think in this type of setting is important to simulate that real world feel, and this game does that well (plus, it has a great UI, and you know how much I love UI). Again, don't miss out on the early-birds with a little less than a month to go.
Starwhal
Retro, epic narwhal battle in space! The heart-piercing action is furious and unrelenting. STARWHAL will change your life.
To be quite honest, I'm simply a big fan of Narwhals, and when you stick them in space you are guaranteed to be a winner! I'm also a big fan of games that don't take themselves too seriously, and flying Narwhals that duke it out in the stars is about as far from serious as you can get. Pretty simple gameplay, but I get that Geometry Wars vibe, which is a very good thing. Ten days left to be a Starwhal backer.
Tower of Elements 2
ToE2 is a real time strategy and puzzle game with deep city building and match-3/tower defense combat. Lead your kingdom to glory!
I'm always fascinated by attempts to merge different genres into something new (heck, that is what we always aim for here), so I got excited just by the multi-genre description of this game. I'm not sure I've quite seen the combination of strategy, city-building, tower defense and puzzle games. Not only does this game combine genres, it combines segments of gamers, in that spot that lies between casual and midcore. After the success of Frogdice's first Kickstarter, this one passed its goal easily, but you've still got 20 days to get in early.
Pixelsphere
A classic pixel art platformer and generative music experience where the soundtrack changes with how you play the game. (Mac/Win)
I've never really gotten into 2D side-scrollers, and wasn't all that interested in seeing yet another show up on Kickstarter. However, dynamic music creation greatly interests me, and an innovative take on a music game is what I found waiting for me in Pixelsphere. Audio is often overlooked in games, so a game that tries to do something different with music as the focal point is certainly worth checking out. Twenty days to go and only around 50% of the goal to go.