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Shovel Knight Kickstarter campaign raises over $300K
Yacht Club Games' Kickstarter project Shovel Knight raised a total of $311,502 in its crowdfunding campaign, which closed yesterday. The project reached its initial $75,000 goal in late March. It also achieved a number of stretch goals, including the guaranteed addition of a local four-player battle arena mode in which all of the game's bosses will be playable.Shovel Knight is in development for PC, Linux, Mac, Wii U and 3DS, and is also trying to earn community votes on Steam's Greenlight service to make its way on Steam.
Grimlands heralds Linux and Mac announcement with second video
If the post-apocalyptic wastelands of Grimlands caught your eye but you didn't think you could play on Linux or Mac systems, think again; DRAGO Entertainment has just announced that the shooter will be developed on both platforms. And players needn't worry about which version they are playing from, as everyone will be on the same servers together. The studio doesn't intend to stop there either: DRAGO's Lucjan Mikociak added, "And there are even more versions planned down the road." Along with this announcement, DRAGO has released the second installment of the three-part Making Of series. In the video, Wiktoryn Zerebecki details the importance of crafting and the player-driven economy and Krystian Kofin expounds on vehicles. Watch the full video after the break. [Source: DRAGO press release]
Some Assembly Required: Your guide to MMO sandboxes in 2013 and beyond
Welcome to Massively's guide to MMO sandboxes in 2013 and beyond. I've collected the essential details on all the major sandbox titles releasing this year and in the near future in one easy-to-reference article. If you're wondering whether ArcheAge forces you to PvP, or if you can't tell The Repopulation from Origins of Malu, this is your post. I'll be updating it as game features are added, removed, or revealed, so be sure to use the comments to let me know if I've overlooked a particularly noteworthy item. Finally, I want to point out that this isn't an exhaustive list because of the sheer number of sandbox projects ongoing. For now, I'm choosing to focus on the ones that will be playable in 2013/2014 as well as the projects that have a big-name developer attached.
Cloud Imperium shows off Star Citizen character motion video
Star Citizen's developers recently wowed us with an extensive look at the game's spaceship customization. Fortunately, the team isn't skimping on the title's character models either. A new video released yesterday demonstrates the range of motion for human avatars, and Cloud Imperium says that this is a good approximation of how characters will function in the finished game. The company also notes that the clip is "real-time, in-engine movement and not a pre-rendered video." Have a look after the break.
Leaderboard: Which Kickstarter project will be the most successful post-launch?
There are a lot of game developers on Kickstarter these days, several of which are aiming to make MMOs or MMO-like persistent virtual worlds. Star Citizen's crowd-funding success has been well-documented, and both Shroud of the Avatar and Elite Dangerous are now go for full-scale development as well. And let's not forget Pathfinder or Camelot Unchained, the former of which has been fully funded and the latter of which is well on its way. For today's Leaderboard, tell us which of these five titles you think will be the most successful post-launch. Vote after the cut! Ever wish that you could put to rest a long-standing MMO debate once and for all? Then welcome to the battle royal of Massively's Leaderboard, where two sides enter the pit o' judgment -- and only one leaves. Vote to make your opinion known, and see whether your choice tops the Leaderboard!
Grimlands developer turns to Kickstarter to finish post-apoc shooter
Post-apocalyptic shooter Grimlands may have been canceled by publisher gamigo, but development studio DRAGO isn't giving up on the title just yet. The firm has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds necessary to finish the project and keep it "true to its original vision." A press release says that Grimlands was canceled because of gamigo's "strategy shift from development to distribution" in spite of the title's five-year development cycle. DRAGO's Lucjan Mikociak says that Kickstarter is necessary to save the game. "There is no way around it: Big games need big money. Since gamigo stopped funding us in January, we have survived thanks to friends and family support," Mikociak explains. "However, in order to properly finish the game by year's end, we need further funding of $650,000. After talking to several publishers and investors we feel only Kickstarter allows this without compromising our vision." Grimlands marries shooter gameplay with stealth and cover mechanics as well as character progression and customization. It also features an extensive crafting system wherein nearly every in-game item is made by players. Gameplay includes an open world, dungeons, PvE and PVP options, and upgradeable vehicles.
Gloria Victis teases with more screenshots, talk of alpha two
Black Eye Games' brand-spanking-new MMO Gloria Vicitis is promising a lot; realistic weather effects, day and night cycles, and NPCs that don't just stand there are all on the game's agenda. Although an original attempt to crowdfund the game was unsuccessful, it looks as if the team isn't giving up as testing marches on. Only a small number of testers are currently in the pre-alpha test; test number two is apparently not far beyond the horizon. The developers are also opening up crowd-funding to increase server capacity for even more testers. The studio is calling its game "paradigm breaking" and "realistic," which seem like pretty heavy words, but a new batch of pre-alpha screenshots does hint at its potential. What do you think? %Gallery-184960%
Shroud of the Avatar is well and truly Kickstarted
Time has run out for the Kickstarter campaign for Richard Garriott's Shroud of the Avatar. The closing tally for the campaign was $1,919,275, raised over a humble $1,000,000 goal. When you throw in the donations made through the game's site rather than Kickstarter, the whole effort raked in just over two million dollars. Given that the game hit its funding goal back on March 19th, we realize the success of the campaign was never really in question. The project has enough funding to have unlocked nine or ten stretch goals, including a Tracy Hickman novel and a host of systems and content goodies.
Stick and Rudder: A guide to Star Citizen's community
Welcome aboard pilots, privateers, and pillaging pirate queens; you've found Stick and Rudder, the gaming press' first Star Citizen column! I'm putting all pretenses of objectivity aside today because I'm terribly frackin' excited for this game. That's why we're here, now, talking about it way out in front of its release. With all of this expectation comes the potential for massive disappointment, of course, but the good news is that Cloud Imperium is being pretty open about its development process. This has the added benefit of giving us lots to chew on while we sit through the agonizing months leading up to launch. Anyway, now that some of my fanboy gushing is out of the way, let's get down to brass tacks and carry on the time-honored Massively tradition of kicking off a new game column with a community guide.
Camelot Unchained Kickstarter update offers a look at the Tuatha De Danann
Camelot Unchained finally threw its hat into the Kickstarter ring three days ago, garnering a quick outpouring of support from the community in the form of $411K in just four hours. Two days later the amount pledged nearly doubled, jumping to over $815K of a $2 million goal. Last night, Mark Jacobs posted an update that included additional concept art for the Tuatha De Danann race, or TDD. Also included is a short video where lead artist Scott Trolam discussed that early art and demonstrated a 3D version. Check out the art in the gallery below, and head to the official Kickstarter page for a look at the video.%Gallery-184595%
Camelot Unchained discusses the trouble with rendering engines
It's been said multiple times by the Camelot Unchained team that this game is meant to be large. The focus is on large-scale sieges, not a couple of guys banging on the front door of a castle. That means the game needs to be able to handle a huge number of players on the screen at any one time. How do you find an engine that can handle that? According to the latest update on Kickstarter, you build one. While the engine isn't built entirely from scratch, it isn't based off of an established engine, simply because it's being custom-built to handle the game's specific needs. The attached video allows you to see the engine in action, scaling from a handful of characters up to the moving mob pictured in the header. If you want to know more about what makes the game pretty to look at, this will be very relevant to your interests.
Scout sensors, app jump start your home protection
There's a rather nifty crowdfunded project that aims to deliver a "roll-your-own" home security system this August. Using the Selfstarter code available on Github, the Scout Alarm project has so far pulled in almost 800 backers and more than $211,000 in funding. The project is designed to "make the latest home security technology affordable for everyone with no required monthly fees." The hardware starts with a US$80 base station complete with WiFi, a 3G cellular chip and a backup battery. At each door where homeowners want to be able to arm or disarm the system, there's an arm / disarm panel ($40) that uses RFID reader technology to avoid the need for keypads and codes. Windows and doors are equipped with $20 open / close sensors, and there are $40 motion sensors available for those locations where intruders could smash a glass window to enter the home. Tying all of the hardware together is a Zigbee chipset creating a mesh network for the sensors and allowing integration with other Zigbee-powered security devices. The security system can be monitored, armed or disarmed from anywhere on Planet Earth through a smartphone, tablet or computer. Homeowners will get notifications for certain alarm situations and can make their own response (like calling the police), or they can choose to have their home monitored professionally for as little as $10 per month over the 3G connection built into the base station. As someone who has spent much more than $10 per month for the last 29 years to have professional home security monitoring, the Scout system looks very attractive to me. My only wish for the system is that they'd add a deafeningly loud alert siren like the one that came with my system, as well as fire, smoke, CO2 and water sensors. Readers interested in the Scout alarm system can pre-order the components on the company's website.
XYZbot's Fritz offers a cheaper robot head, free trips to the uncanny valley (video)
It's been relatively easy to get your hands on an expressive robot face... if you're rich or a scientist, that is. XYZbot would like to give the rest of us a shot by crowdfunding Fritz, an Arduino-powered robot head. The build-it-yourself (and eerily human-proportioned) construction can react to pre-programmed actions, text-to-speech conversion or live control, ranging from basics like the eyes and jaw to the eyelids, eyebrows, lips and neck of an Advanced Fritz. Windows users should have relatively simple control through an app if they just want to play, but where Fritz may shine is its open source nature: the code and hardware schematics will be available for extending support, changing the look or building a larger robot where Fritz is just one part. The $125 minimum pledge required to set aside a Fritz ($199 for an Advanced Fritz) isn't trivial, but it could be a relative bargain if XYZbot makes its $25,000 goal -- and one of the quickest routes to not-quite-lifelike robotics outside of a research grant.
Project Awakened's independent crowdfunding campaign in full swing
Project Awakened came up short on Kickstarter in March, raising $338,498 of a requested $500,000, but the team at Phosphor Games wasn't ready to give up on the game just yet. After a week-long survey that attracted 4,000 responses, Phosphor decided there was enough interest to launch an independent fundraising campaign, with a few new tweaks.Phosphor is using PayPal, one option that Kickstarter doesn't offer its projects, and its first goal is $250,000: the launch of multiplayer, mod-able Project Awakened: Danger Room in November. If Awakened doesn't hit that mark by May 5, all backers will receive a full refund.Donations range from $5 to $10,000, each with unique perks. In Kickstarter-inspired fashion, the Awakened campaign has stretch goals, including for the initial requested amount of $500,000, which sees Phosphor commit to a launch date of June 2014 for the expanded Project Awakened: Subject, rather than the standard window of "around" the end of 2014.So far Project Awakened has raised $44,696 from 764 backers, with 32 days to hit the first $250,000 goal. Check out the fundraising campaign on Phosphor's official site.
Support Massively Online: A Kickstarter MMO
We all know that "MMORPG" stands for massively multiplayer online roleplaying game, but have you ever heard of an MMMORPG? Well, you are going to a lot from now on because a Massively massively multiplayer online roleplaying game is in the works! Here at Massively we've been reporting on MMOs for years, but we feel it's time to dip our toes into the other side of the lake. It's time to put our great ideas and complete lack of development experience to use and actually make a kick-ass game. We're going to make the MMO we all want to play -- and we need your help. Just because we are obviously paid off by every major and several minor game studios out there doesn't mean we have infinite resources (that yacht isn't paying for itself, folks). But collectively, you do! So we're taking a cue from the cool kids by appealing to crowdfunding to make Massively Online happen. It's going to have swords so big that you'll need a prehensile tail just to hold one. It's going to have particle effects so mind-blowing that the console crowd will be weeping on their knees in envy. It'll have sexy voice-overs done by the Massively team. It'll have sixteen pillars of gameplay. And it's going to have levels. ALL THE LEVELS. And you can get in on the ground floor by supporting our Kickstarter project! Just check out those special rewards and become a backer today.
Switched On: Higher stakes, higher ground for crowdfunding, part 2
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Last week's Switched On discussed the issues around crowdfunding liability, offering examples of some recent tech projects that delivered late or inconsistently, and explaining the justification for sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo denying accountability. Given this, there are a few options in how consumers choose to engage with crowdfunding sites.
Insert Coin: Dash charts your car data live, with gauges and a dashcam (update 3: back as Lynk)
In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line. We've seen a few stabs at smartphone-enhanced car diagnostics as of late, but many good solutions like Automatic Link and Delphi's Vehicle Diagnostics are primarily useful after you've parked. The upcoming Dash OBD-II adapter is certainly up to that side of the job, telling a Bluetooth-connected iOS device (and eventually, Android) about your car's problems and estimating fuel costs based on the gas tank's levels. Where it stands out is its usefulness while on the road: the custom app offers custom live gauges, including a Green-Meter for ideal fuel economy that you won't usually find in a real instrument cluster. There's even a dashcam mode that overlays travel details on captured video, whether it's to support insurance claims or just to immortalize a drive through the back country.
GDC 2013: Chris Roberts expounds on Star Citizen's crafting, economy
This week we have a special GDC edition of Some Assembly Required. I had the opportunity to sit down with Chris Roberts and talk about his highly anticipated space sim sandbox, Star Citizen. We talked lore, the game's PvP/PvE sliders and living universe concepts, guilds, and when players can expect to get in some dogfighting. Roberts also delved deeply into the crafting and economic aspects of the game. If you miss the days of carving out a name for yourself and your wares and/or cornering the market and building an economic empire, you'll definitely want to keep an eye on Star Citizen.
OUYA ships early backer consoles, staggers delivery over the weeks ahead
OUYA is true to its word: the company has confirmed to us that it's shipping the first units of its namesake game console to the many, many people who crowdfunded at a tier high enough to set aside a production system. If you've received a tracking notice, you should expect to have the cuboid at your door in five to ten days, depending on just which corner of the world you live in. Don't be surprised if your inbox remains empty for now, however. OUYA notes that it's spreading delivery over the "coming weeks," which by necessity will leave a few of us twiddling our (currently gamepad-free) thumbs.
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.
