kickstarter-rewards
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Ascent: The Space Game now has cloaking devices
Do you want to show off your ship while you're flying in Ascent: The Space Game? Because you shouldn't. People seeing your ship is the first step to people being able to shoot at your ship. Why not keep your ship cloaked at all times so that no one can see you and you can shoot them first? Seems logical. And you can do just that now with the new Kickstarter rewards being shown off in a video from the developers. The video also shows off the Bowhead ship and the Hawk fighter, all of which are indisputably in space. It's the name of the game. You can check out all of this in action in the video just past the break.
The Soapbox: How to run a successful Kickstarter campaign
The past few years have seen an absolute revolution in the games industry, with an explosion of studios securing funding through crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter. In a time when banks worldwide are tightening their belts, Kickstarter represents a lifeline for indie developers and a way for the bigger studios to work on their own projects free from the need for outside investors or publishers. But with the growing number of projects seeking funding each year, developers are facing stiff competition and the rising challenge of running a successful campaign. Most developers don't release all of their stats or write up advice and insights following a successful crowdfunding campaign, and those who do are often lost on obscure blogs that don't appear when you Google for advice. But I'm in the unusual position of both being a games journalist and having successfully Kickstarted a small game project (unrelated to MMOs and my work on Massively). Six months ago, I ran a campaign for my new sci-fi 4X game Predestination, and in the process I learned some valuable lessons on what works and doesn't work on Kickstarter. We've since published the campaign stats and gone on to help a few other campaigns hit their goals. In this article, I run down the lessons I learned the hard way during the Predestination Kickstarter campaign and give some advice for developers hoping to get funded.
Camelot Unchained reveals final Kickstarter reward tiers
Have you ever heard of Poe's law? It originally applied to parodies of fundamentalist behavior, stating that it's impossible to create a parody of fundamentalism that someone won't mistake for the real thing. Sometimes, though, the law finds applications elsewhere, such as in Camelot Unchained's suspiciously timed unveiling of its final Kickstarter reward tiers. We're pretty certain that these are legitimate; after all, there's plenty of room for absurdity in rewards that only a small fraction of people will ever pay for. But some of these are so out there that we wouldn't be at all surprised if Mark Jacobs popped out of our computer screens and yelled, "April Fools!" Many of the rewards seem innocent enough, sure: Up to 50 particularly spendy players can drop a thousand bucks in exchange for the opportunity to work with the dev team to design their own custom-built house, for instance. But that same thousand bucks could also be used for the ability to "name a liquid substance" in Camelot Unchained, which is probably one of the more bizarre rewards we've seen in recent times, especially considering the exorbitant amount of money required. And if you're the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or some kind of oil sheikh, pledging a whopping $10,000 (yes, ten thousand bucks) will net you a three-day visit to the studios of City State Entertainment, on the final day of which you'll "get to say the magical words 'AOT DEKCUS' (protip: read that backwards) and throw your choice of fruit pies at Mark Jacobs." If that's not sufficiently surreal for you, then you might be living in an Dali painting. Either way, the full list of rewards can be found on the official Camelot Unchained site.
Rewards expand for backers of Garriott's Shroud of the Avatar
If you've been meaning to throw money at Richard Garriott's Shroud of the Avatar Kickstarter campaign but haven't yet, the good news is that there are now more rewards for people who pledge support to the game. The $50 reward tier now includes a special Immortality Fruit, a special title, and early access to your surname. At $60, you also get a special tunic, weapon, and pet. The new $80 tier adds in future access to episodes 2 & 3 of the game, an indestructible starter tool, and the ability to tame an elusive monster out in the wild (assuming the game reaches its stretch goal for the taming system). Those who have already donated will receive the rewards as well, but there are several more expanded tiers that might convince fans to bump in a few more dollars.
