Electric Nightmares

Our four part series about generative AI and its use in video games

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Kickstarter Katchup - 28th July 2012

Kap In Hand

As the Kickstarter Katchup grows, I'm scanning the budget to see if I can hire a personal assistant. With 29 tabs open for projects, if Chrome crashes at this point I'm going to walk out the front door and just keep walking. Just for the sake of my sanity, I'm going to have to keep some of the entries shorter, but give them a click if it sounds like something you want to know more about. If there's a project you're just aghast we haven't included, email me via my name above and I'll take a look - but, you know, try to do it nicely.

The Rules

  • Featuring a game in this list doesn’t mean we endorse it. We likely haven’t played, and as such can’t say whether it will be worth your cash. That’s your call.
  • Letting me know about a game (which you can do via my name above) doesn’t mean it will definitely be included.
  • No heavy petting.

The Winners

DIVEKICK - Adam Heart

Four days left on the clock, and this joke-turned-game beat-em-up has made a very impressive $31,687. So DIVEKICK should now definitely reach the PC.

Castle Story - Sauropod Studio

Quite a few people brought this Minecraft-inspired castle builder to our attention. But the Minecraft theme does seem to end at the blocks. This is a strategy, about building castles and then defending them against attack. It's proving phenomenally popular, reaching its $80,000 in just five hours, and a day later already on $188,748. None can predict the Kickstarter masses.

The Losers

Skyjacker - Digitilus

Adam covered the sad failure of this one to reach its $200,000 goal during the week, so head there to find out all the details of their future plans. I'm pleased to report that their request for direct Paypal funding has already netted them nearly $10,000.

The Players

Crea - Siege Games

Goal: $15,000
Now: $9,425
Days: 10

A 2D sandbox, taking inspiration from Minecraft and Terraria, Crea brings the focus to RPG, and modding. The notion is to be able to add anything to the game you want, without needing any coding knowledge. Pre-order pledges are at $10.

Moon Intern - LarryPixel

Goal: $30,000
Now: $20,373
Days: 9

It would be a gross abuse of my power as the writer of this column to pick out particular projects and tell you to BACK THIS ONE. The notion that I would spot a game I want to play, and then artificially promote it above others would be a gross misuse of the site, and terrible journalism. So I shan't be saying anything like, GIVE THIS YOUR MONEY, for instance, as it would damage not only my integrity, but that of RPS too. So of course it's up to YOU, as we MUST ensure that each project is GIVEn fair billing, as THIS is at the core of our and YOUR understanding of fairness, especially where MONEY is involved.

Insurgency 2 - New World Interactive

Goal: $180,000
Now: $21,241
Days: 41

I wonder if the rest of the gaming press has just somehow missed that the Insurgency team are making a fully fledged commercial sequel. $4k has been added on in the last week, for a game I was sure everyone would fund until their banks bled. Shows what I know.

Defense Grid 2 - Hidden Path Entertainment, AMD & Razer

Goal: $250,000
Now: $163,191
Days: 17

Do you want more Defense Grid? Randy Pitchford, Jordan Weiseman, Richard Garfield, Al Lowe, David Perry, Ken Rolston, Jason VandeBerghe, Chris Taylor, and Dave Taylor do. Hidden Path seem to have a lot of friends, and a desire for quarter of a million dollars to make a sequel to the very popular tower defence game. $15 pledges will not only net you a copy of the game when it's released, but also straight away get you a Steam code for the original. (Seemingly one you could pledge for, get, then withdraw your pledge, which is a bit odd. Don't do that.)

Bad Planet - Red Fly Studios

Goal: $575,000
Now: $12,795
Days: 19

Turns out having the actor from Punisher isn't enough to set a project alight. Turns out having something even approaching game footage is probably rather necessary when asking for over half a million dollars to launch a new gaming IP. Just $2,500 has been added on in the last week, making this one look incredibly unlikely to happen, even at this early stage. A Comic Con panel plug doesn't seem to have helped any, and an update describes an awful lot of ideas, but shows none. No game, and a ludicrously high goal, doesn't seem a great plan.

Wormhole Ventures - Deva Winblood

Goal: $16,670
Now: $379
Days: 24

Inspired by Starways and M.U.L.E., this is a space economic strategy. They're only after a relatively small (and extremely precise) goal, which is likely a good thing, given the dubious success of previous space strategy and MULE projects on Kickstarter so far. There's a playable alpha right now though, which is a huge boost for the project.

Detective Grimoire - SFB Games & Armor Games

Goal: $25,000
Now: $16,822
Days: 5

Some excellent news here - the nice-looking adventure game with a splendid voice cast is now including a PC version in the main funding goal. Previously taking on PC as a stretch goal seemed (to me) to send the message that it was up to tablet gamers to get it so far, then PC players to top it up. Now there's an incentive for everyone to chip in, and give this the push it needs in its last five days.

Knock-Knock - Ice-Pick Lodge

Goal: $30,000
Now: $10,666
Days: 45

I think it's interesting to see a studio that's made a number of games already pitching their goal so relatively low. The creators of Pathologic, The Void, and Cargo return with yet another completely different game. As Alec mentioned this week, even the game's development background is a deeply creepy tale of fictional weirdness. I could read through the Kickstarter to properly understand what this is, but with Pathologic I'd prefer to just start it and find out. That's how I first met Pathologic (it was me who found it, not Quintin, ME!!!) and it's how I want to meet all their games. Just $5 will net you a copy on release.

Day One - Pendulo

Goal: €300,000
Now: €32,716
Days: 42

Things have slowed down a lot on Pendulo's attempt to get a new adventure funded. I've a suspicion that the revelation they're only planning to make a "short" game if they reach their €300,000 goal, really wanting a ludicrous €750,000 to make a full game, hasn't helped. They seem to be stuck around 10% of the way there, but there's still a very long time to go.

Super Motherload - XGen Studios

Goal: $50,000
Now: $9,266
Days: 14

Soviets on Mars dig for minerals in this sequel to XGen's puzzle game. With a story, multiplayer, and Russians on Mars.

Volgarr The Viking - Crazy Viking Studios

Goal: $18,000
Now: $15,041
Days: 26

Without even a video The mystery missing video has returned! - the promise to make a 16-bit style side-scrolling actioner has almost made its money, with four weeks left. Although frankly, the idea of a faked Megadrive cartridge containing the game on a USB stick is enough to make me want it.

Jack Houston And The Necronauts - Warbird Games

Goal: $56,000
Now: $42,346
Days: 12

The stop-motion animated point and clicker edges ever closer to success. Only another $2k tacked on this week, but it's looking close enough to get there in the final push.

Perch - Aaron Neugebauer

Goal: $1,500
Now: $1,285
Days: 14

Only asking for fifteen hundred, it would frankly be cruel if the next two weeks didn't see the endless upward jumper get its last two hundred bucks.

Shadowrun Online - Cliffhanger Productions

Goal: $500,000
Now: $179,748
Days: 17

It's a huge ask, another half million for another Shadowun game, but this online MMO that will apparently interweave with the table-top game has already managed to raise a huge amount.

OURFIRG - A and B and S and A

Goal: $6,000
Now: $2,172
Days: 7

The Greek third-person adventure should really have made more than $500 in the last week. I think it looks intriguing.

Cover image for YouTube video

Kaiju Comba - Sunstone Games

Goal: $350,000
Now: $27,640
Days: 4

As I mentioned last week, Simon Strange has already acknowledged that the project was going to fail, with new plans already in place for alternative funding.

Jetpack 2 - Adept Software

Goal: $10,000
Now: $7,670
Days: 42

Adding another thousand on this week, with eight million years to go on the project, we'll definitely be seeing a belated sequel to Jetpack receive its funding.

Magrunner: Dark Pulse - 3AM Games

Goal: €100,000
Now: €92,081
Days: 21

This is also looking inevitable to get to its substantial goal. A first-person puzzler, looking for funding to add a multiplayer mode for its magnetic polarity based game.

Star Command - War Balloon

Goal: $100,000
Now: $86,219
Days: 11

While some have expressed consternation about the delayed release of the iOS version of this game, the Kickstarter page is pretty clear on all that. This is funding (and rather a lot of it) to create a definitive version for PC. Looking halfway between Startopia and Star Trek, it's clearly got a lot of appeal, and needs only another $14,000 in the next week and a half to get there.

Bad Dudes 2 - Pinstripe Games

Goal: $80,000
Now: $5,433
Days: 11

Things aren't looking quite so hot for this attempt to create an official sequel to the 1988 arcade classic. A couple of grand have been raised this week, but they're still just a fraction of the way there.

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John Walker

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Once one of the original co-founders of Rock Paper Shotgun, we killed John out of jealousy. He now runs buried-treasure.org

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