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Awesomenauts: Starstorm brings the McPain on December 12
An early version of Ronimo Games' Starstorm expansion for Awesomenauts will be available on Thursday. The developer earned $345,835 in September on Kickstarter to fund the expansion, which will feature five new characters and a map for the arena battler, in addition to a new spectator mode and replay system. Thursday's expansion is the first of many updates for the game, and focuses on one of the five playable Starstorm characters, Ted McPain, "one of the great heroes of the first AI Wars." The pants-less character comes with a transformable weapon, which switches between a shotgun and a rapid-fire machine gun. The developer says that Thursday's early access DLC also includes the first set of custom game settings, including a new deathmatch game mode. The full Starstorm expansion is expected to be be complete by the end of 2014, and Ronimo Games will continue to launch pieces of the DLC in multiple stages over the coming months.
Awesomenauts Assemble aimed at PS4 launch
Awesomenauts hopes to Assemble on PS4 when the console launches next month, but a final release date remains TBA. Ronimo's playful 2D MOBA is priced $10 on the next-gen system, and includes the features from the upcoming fundraised Starstorm expansion. The news arrives alongside the drop of patch 1.24, which includes temporary access to Starstorm additions like Custom Game setup and Team Deathmatch mode. Those free-to-try modes will eventually be included in a separate Starstorm DLC package, available to Kickstarter backers and as a Steam purchase. Other Starstorm extras include the Replay System and Spectator Mode (both covered by the PS4's streaming capabilities, says Ronimo), five new characters, a new map, and new songs, too.
Crowdfund Bookie September 2013: The best of times, the worst of times
The Crowdfund Bookie crunches data from select successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns that ended during the week and produces pretty charts for you to look at. The month of September embodied the best and, arguably, the worst crowdfunding has to offer video games. On the positive side of things, September saw the birth of Project Phoenix, the month's highest-funded game ($1,014,600). The RPG-meets-RTS features an all-star crew, including Lead Composer Nobuo Uematsu, Art Director Kiyoshi Arai and Director/Producer Hiroaki Yura, each with ties to the Final Fantasy series as well as Diablo 3 and Valkyria Chronicles. September will also be remembered as the month that Ouya's Free the Games Fund left its mark on crowdfunding. One game in the program, Gridiron Thunder, was accused of unfairly bolstering its own campaign by self-funding it past the $100,000 mark in order to earn rewards offered by Ouya. The hardware company's program fell under great scrutiny before being overhauled, at which point developer MogoTXT removed Gridiron Thunder from Free the Games Fund eligibility. As an example of the discrepancy in funding, Evelend Games' action platformer Indiegogo project AdventurOS had over ten times as many funders as Gridiron Thunder (1,899 versus 183), yet the Ouya football game earned over eight times as much money as AdventurOS ($171,009 versus $21,323). Additionally, removing Gridiron Thunder from the action genre for the month takes the category's average pledge per backer rate down from $44.19 to $34.31. As seen in our latest quarterly report, it only takes a few projects like Gridiron Thunder to shape the community's perception of entire crowdfunding platforms like Indiegogo and Kickstarter. While September saw the same number of successful projects (29), the $2,211,975 raised by 40,701 funders were down by $764,575 and 23,218 people from the previous month, and were the lowest amounts seen in the last four months. It's unclear whether potential community distrust thanks to controversial projects like Gridiron Thunder or the release of big retail games, such as the recent launch of Grand Theft Auto 5 will have a bigger impact on crowdfunding in the coming months. Head past the break to see the month's breakdown by genre as well as a list of September's top five projects.
Crowdfund Bookie, September 15 - 21: Awesomenauts, Chromancer
The Crowdfund Bookie crunches data from select successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns that ended during the week and produces pretty charts for you to look at. This week in crowdfunding, the Kickstarter projects for Awesomenauts: Starstorm, Chromancer, Fandrafter, Piano Wizard, Stronghold 2D, Icebound and Lucid: The Awakening as well as the Indiegogo projects for AdventurOS and Choice: Texas ended. Ronimo Games' project to fund an Awesomenauts expansion generated the most interest this week, earning $345,835 from 7,496 backers. The project with the highest average pledge per person was asynchronous fantasy football app Fandrafter, which saw a mean average of $547.09 from its 56 funders. Pitched as Words with Friends-meets-fantasy football with no season commitments, the Fandrafter project's average was boosted by three backers that pledged at least $8,000. Check out the week's results, as well as our fancy graphs, after the break.
Awesomenauts Kickstarter campaign concludes at $345,835
Ronimo's Kickstarter campaign for the Awesomenauts: Starstorm expansion opened a revenue lane worth $345,835. The expansion originally had a goal of $125,000, which it achieved in seven days, and went on to tick off several stretch goals. It has already achieved goals for adding a new character, replays and a spectator mode. Since Ronimo is also taking direct PayPal pledges, the actual campaign total for Starstorm is around $408k. "Ronimo's own page will remain open for a short while longer, although all physical rewards have been removed," the company mentioned in a prepared statement. "And since Ronimo's own crowdfunding page is still open, the next stretch goal might also be met. At $415k a fifth character and third song will also be built!" As things stand now, when Starstorm eventually drops, it will include four new Awesomenauts, new map, two new songs, "full spectator mode and replay system" and custom games setup, allowing fully customizable private matches.
Awesomenauts heads to Kickstarter for expansion
Ronimo Games' 2D online battle arena game Awesomenauts is heading to Kickstarter for its expansion funding. The game, which has only gotten better (particularly on PC) since its launch in early 2012, is seeking $125,000 to add new characters, modes and levels. The three new heroes announced are brawler Ted McPain, tanky Sentry X-58 and assassin Skree. Developer Ronimo will also add a spectator mode, global chatrooms, a twin-stick control scheme and more music – if the company hits its goal. Ambitious stretch targets include more characters, a replay mode, level editor and AI editor. A pledge of $15 will nab the expansion when it launches, but if you've got more coin to spend the awesome will naut stop there.
