Make My MMO: September 21 - 27, 2014
As usual in the Kickstarter corner of the MMO industry, this week saw ups and downs for hopeful MMOs. Trials of Ascension hit its $60,000 crowndfund goal, Star Citizen broke $54,000,000 (count those zeroes, folks!), and Camelot Unchained got a new website. Yay! But TUG laid off half its staff, Pathfinder Online's early enrollment has been delayed until almost Halloween, and Project Gorgon's Kickstarter campaign has fallen short of its $100,000 goal. Boo! Bringing balance to the universe is Shroud of the Avatar, which was successfully Steam greenlit but has resorted to enticing testers with digital hats.
Read on for our complete MMO crowdfunding roundup in this week's edition of Make My MMO.
Dream a little dream, get a little green, and before long you'll have your very own MMO... at least that's what these developers are hoping! Games seeking funding to make their plans a reality are listed in this section.
Citadel of Sorcery (MMO Magic, Inc.): Open donations, no end date
- A vast, dynamic world where nothing is set in stone and each player will experience the game in very different ways
- Massively interview
Contested Space (Zon): Kickstarter coming soon
- Player-design spaceships and stations
- Action-oriented combat, territory expansion and defense
Gloria Victis (Black Eye Games): Open donations, no end date
- Fantasy medieval setting with a classless system and unrestricted character development
- Realistic weather system
- Greenlit on Steam
- Latest news: March 30 — PvP raid and new screens
Neo's Land (NeoJac Entertainment): Open donations, no end date
- A sandbox where the community decides development by round table discussions
- Massively interview
- Massively news: Voxel-based building demo available
- Old school fantasy MMO with focus on group content
- Shaman class, Gnome race unveiled
- The return of corpse runs
- Race/class combos revealed
- back in "full development mode"
Project Gorgon (Eric Heimburg): Kickstarter fell short September 27
- Heavily rewarded exploration
- Customizable death penalties
- Intertwining skills (for example, practicing calligraphy leads to better swordplay)
- Player housing
- Live events
Seldon Crisis (Chaos Interactive): Kickstarter ends October 8
- Completely player-driven
- No pre-set paths
- Hybrid progression
- Single-shard universe
Trials of Ascension (Forged Chaos): Open donations, raised $60,000 so far
- Skill-based sandbox MMORPG
- Dynamic spawning
- Player structures, settlements, kingdoms, playable dragons
Success has its privileges, including a spot in this section! Games that have reached their crowdfunding goals and that are currently being developed are listed here. Once a game reaches the closed testing stage, it will move to the hallowed halls of Betawatch.
- Camelot Unchained (City State): Official site Recent news: New website
- City of Titans (Missing Worlds Media): Official site
- Divergence: Online (Ethan Casner): Official site
- Elite Dangerous (Frontier): Official site Recent news: Beta 2 Sept. 30
- Epic Space (EpicSpace.net): Official site
- Ever, Jane (3 Turn Productions): Official site
- Greed Monger: Official site
- Guns of Icarus: Official site
- The Mandate (Perihelion Interactive LLC): Official site
- The Repopulation (Above & Beyond Technologies): Official site
- MyDream (MyDream): Official site
- Novus AEterno (Taitale Studios): Official site
- Pathfinder Online (Goblinworks): Official site Recent news: Early enrollment delays
- Pumpkin Online (Monique): Official site Recent news: Funding goal met
- Shadowrun Online: (Cliffhanger Productions) Official site
- Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues (Portalarium): Official site Recent news: Steam greenlight, free hats
- Star Citizen (Cloud Imperium): Official site Recent news: 0.9 now live, Citizen Con, Aug.update, $54 million reached
- Stash (Frogdice): Official site
- Tales From The Strange Universe: Official site
- The Stomping Land: Official site
- TUG (Nerd Kingdom): Official site Recent news: Bronze age alpha vid, layoffs
Kickstarter puts the the fate of fledgling MMOs in the hands of gamers. Which will live and which will die? Check the pulse of MMO crowdfunding with Massively's Jef Reahard every Wednesday in Make My MMO. And for a look at non-MMO crowdfunding, don't forget Joystiq's Crowdfund Bookie.


