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Blumoo turns mobile devices into RF remotes, streams music via Bluetooth (video)
If you hoard gadgets like us, then your living room is probably covered with a plethora of remote controls. Flyover Innovations' Indiegogo campaign aims to streamline your home audio experience and minimize your mess with Blumoo, a small hardware platform that turns your mobile device into an RF remote. The IR-equipped Blumoo pod connects to your stereo via standard 3.5 mm jack or RCA connections, and allows you to control your home theater system with your mobile device through the magic of Bluetooth. The Blumoo app -- coming soon for both iOS and Android -- pulls from a database that Flyover claims is comprehensive enough to ensure your home theater equipment is covered. Flyover plans on retailing the device for $79 but is offering an early bird special for supporters starting at $45. To check out their rewards and watch their cartoon mascot, Blumoo Bob, shake it a like a polaroid picture, head over to their Indiegogo page. For a more informative -- if slightly less entertaining -- video, watch the preview after the break.
Eric Ruth goes crowdfunding route for 'Hauntlings' project
Eric Ruth of Eric Ruth Games has an extensive history of creating de-makes, and now he's branching out to create the original title Hauntlings. Using Indiegogo for crowdfunding, Ruth is seeking $35,000 to create his 2D 2-vs-2 side-scrolling multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game featuring supernatural entities. "I've always had the means to create a free project on my own from beginning to end on my own, however this particular title actually has expenses and I can't afford them on my own," said Ruth in his pitch video. "Unfortunately, I'll need the assistance from my awesome – and very sexy – fan base to complete Hauntlings and make it the very best it can be." Being a competitive online game, it would seem Ruth is seeking to hire some help and cover infrastructure costs. Ruth's previous projects include the Team Fortress 2 arcade beat-em-up and Pixel Force: Halo.
Student film 'Brothers Rapture' revisits BioShock's underwater city
The Brothers Rapture is an upcoming short film put together by a group of Vancouver film students with a bit of Indiegogo funding, and this teaser should give you an idea of what it has in store. Plasmids, audio diaries, and the philosophical battle between art and commerce, oh my!
Arcade documentary '100 Yen' launches on DVD
For those of us unable to pop into a nearby Taito Station, the film "100 Yen" sounds like the next best thing, and without some guy angrily making an "X" shape with his arms when you try to shoot photos.The documentary film features a series of interviews illustrating the evolution of arcade culture, focusing on shooting, rhythm, and fighting game scenes in Japanese, Canadian, and American arcades.The film was funded through two IndieGogo campaigns, and is now available on DVD through distributor Filmbuff, which also released Exit Through the Gift Shop and Super Size Me. Blu-ray and online versions are due in Q4.
Skullgirls funding temporarily blocked by Paypal [update: XBLA patch on the way]
Paypal froze Lab Zero Games' account briefly today, due to risk that a significant number of Skullgirls crowdfunding pledges would be revoked. Lab Zero allowed backers to vote on new DLC characters, leading to the theory that if their chosen character didn't make it into the game, some fans would pull their "vote." "Basically, they are terrified of chargebacks," CEO Peter Bartholow told Venturebeat. "If we spend all the money and don't deliver and everyone [requests] chargebacks, PayPal is concerned they will be on the line for [the money]. So, they are effectively treating it as a loan."After discussions with PayPal, the company has "unrestricted" Lab Zero's account, but continues to hold around $35,000, which Lab Zero CEO Peter Bartholow had planned to use for payroll. "They've only got $35k of our money frozen, so we're not in any real danger," Bartholow said on NeoGAF. "It's just an inconvenience at the moment."Update: In other Skullgirls news, Bartholow tells XBLAFans the "Slightly Different" patch should arrive in the next two weeks on Xbox.
Crowdfunders fail to win Homeworld IP in THQ auction, issue refunds
When THQ went bankrupt and saw several of its IPs heading to the auction block, indie developer teamPixel began crowdfunding bidding money to win the Homeworld property for use in its upcoming space RTS game. Even after garnering $58,644 through a successful Kickstarter campaign and $13,675 on Indiegogo, teamPixel recently announced that it failed to win the Homeworld IP during the auction process."We hope you will join us in supporting Homeworld's new owners in building a future for the franchise," the developer said in a Kickstarter update. "We anticipate an announcement of the new owner to be made within a couple weeks and for the sale to be finalized around mid-May."Well into development on its own Homeworld-inspired strategy game, teamPixel will refund all money earned during its crowdfunding efforts while also offering donors a "special credit" in the game. The developer's "Save Homeworld" site has since transformed to a landing page for tracking donor refunds.The final THQ auction is expected to earn $6 million to $7 million. First details of the bidding results are expected to be revealed Monday.
NZN Labs launches Lit, a social-enhanced fitness tracker for adventurous types
No, your existing fitness tracker probably isn't good enough -- not if you frequently participate in "extreme sports" and wish to log every possible measurement as you cycle, snowboard, surf or just go about your day. At least, that's what the folks at NZN Labs hope you believe -- their new Lit wrist-mounted tracking device being the answer to all your prayers. You can slap Lit on your wrist, or mount it in other ways, and the battery is said to keep the logs churning for up to a week. Metrics vary depending on the activity -- surfers, for example, will track the number of paddles, waves attempted and ridden, max g-force and the longest wave. Fortunately, it's waterproof to 30 feet, and all the gathered info gets booted to the cloud through your smartphone and Bluetooth 4.0. You earn "points" for certain athletic achievements, letting you pit yourself against friends and other folks, in the off chance that you feel the need to up the ante when it comes to competition. Lit hits Indiegogo for $99 pre-orders beginning today, or you can wait for the device to ship to retailers, at which point you'll be able to pick one up for $149.
Skullgirls drive ends at $830K, five DLC characters funded [update]
The Skullgirls Indiegogo fundraiser concluded this week at the neat figure of $829,829, beating its $150,000 goal by some five and a half times. The whirlwind drive means five new characters will come to the 2D fighter as downloadable content, including two "mystery" ones as chosen by a fan poll.Developer Lab Zero Game's Indiegogo campaign took just 22 hours to raise the $150K required to fund the first DLC character, Squigly. Surpassed stretch goals unlocked the game's first male combatant, Big Band, along with Robo-Fortune and the two mystery characters. Each new fighter, with the exception of the second mystery one, is getting a new stage and storyline. That exception would've been unlocked at $850K, although it took a mammoth surge across the final day to take the fundraiser to its final figure.Lab Zero says each piece of content developed thanks to the funds will be, for a limited time, free on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.Update: Lab Zero has since announced, due to unexpected additional funds, the second mystery character will get a stage and storyline. Lab Zero CEO Peter Bartholow posted an explanation on NeoGAF: "Non-disclosure agreements with the powers that be prevent me from getting too specific, but in the last week one of our character development line items has evaporated. This means we've got an additional $40,000 to play with now. Naturally we'll be using this money to give the 2nd fan-selected Mysterious Character a stage and story mode."
Skullgirls gets third 'mystery character,' more from Indiegogo drive
With just hours to go, Skullgirls' massive Indiegogo funding drive has hit $725,000, blowing past the $600,000 required to fund the addition of a third "mystery character" as downloadable content.Previous goals unlocked Squigly, Big Band (with their own storylines and stages), and additional voice packs. Also unlocked at $725,000: a free copy of the Skullgirls "Z Engine" for the Fighting is Magic team, and another character, Robo-Fortune. At $825,000, another new mystery character will be added as DLC.The "mystery character" or characters will be determined through a voting campaign by backers. There are ... 32 different choices.
AIA crowdfunds a space program ad that would run in front of Star Trek (video)
As a federal agency, NASA can't run commercials -- a problem both for rallying broader public support and fostering the next generation of astronauts. The Aerospace Industries Association has both cultural and very practical reasons for improving that public awareness, so it's taking the unusual step of crowdfunding an ad purchase to get the American space program in front of as many eyes as possible. The project would cut a 30-second version of NASA's We Are the Explorers promo (after the break), minus the administration's official endorsement, and run it in at least 50 major movie theaters for eight weeks following the launch of Star Trek Into Darkness on May 17th. The crowdfunding is ostensibly to demonstrate our collective love of space, and would directly translate any money raised beyond the $33,000 goal into ads for more theaters. A cynical industry move? Maybe -- but we won't build starships without a public that's interested in seeing them beyond movie screens, which makes the ad a noble enough cause in our minds.
Switched On: Higher stakes, higher ground for crowdfunding, part 1
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. The power of crowdfunding is that, by aggregating relatively modest donations from what is often hundreds or even thousands of backers, consumers can help artists and inventors turn ideas or concepts into reality. The Pebble smartwatch that set the record for funds raised on Kickstarter was noteworthy for breaking the $10 million barrier. That money, though, came from nearly 69,000 backers. Today, the two biggest crowdfunding destinations, Indiegogo and Kickstarter, offer different approaches to what gets presented on their sites. Indiegogo is a completely open site; there is virtually no screening of projects. Kickstarter, on the other hand, is a curated site. Projects must meet a range of criteria. As co-founder Yancey Strickler recently explained at Engadget Expand, the roots of Kickstarter were in the funding of creative and social pursuits. Kickstarter has been a haven for artists such as photographers looking to create a photo book or musicians seeking to cut a first album or create a music video.
Ronimo Games considering crowdfunding for Awesomenauts content
Awesomenauts developer Ronimo Games is considering a crowdfunding approach to make its next project a reality. The developer self-published Awesomenauts on Steam in August 2012, and has since offered a number of updates and extra content for the PC version of the game.Though the developer's next project is "not Awesomenauts 2," it does have ambitions to expand on Awesomenauts. "There are some bigger features that we want to try to do, but we don't have the capacity to really do that right now," Ronimo Games co-founder Jasper Koning told Joystiq during PAX East.Crowdfunding extra content has lead to success before, most recently in the case of a successful Indiegogo campaign to bring new characters to Skullgirls. The campaign reached its $150,000 goal in less than 24 hours.As seen with Lab Zero Games, the costs for creating new content for its fighting game made the goal a reasonable one to obtain. Likewise, Ronimo Games has added four characters and a number of maps to Awesomenauts in the game's lifetime, and has offered that content to Steam players for free.Not every piece of additional Awesomenauts content is free, as the developer sells character skins. Without revealing any specific numbers, Koning told Joystiq the "skins do very well, we're not getting really rich off of it, but well enough for us."
Brother, can you spare a charge? ChargeBite goes indiegogo
We've all been there. Out, carousing, maybe having too good a time, when suddenly it hits. Not in our wallet, no ... where it really counts. Our iPhone is wasted as we are. Its battery icon flickers with a hint of the red in our bloodshot eyes. Surely no white night can end well with a phone that isn't working. So what do you do? Find an outlet and hope you've brought an adapter? That's so 2009 of you. Instead, turn to a friend. With ChargeBite, you transform your phone from a meek and mild Xander into a merciless power-thirsty Vampire (before-he-got-boring) Spike. Just hook your iPhone to a couple of "volunteer" phones; it will begin to leech power from the donors, and soon (for variable levels of "soon"), you'll be able to call again. The indiegogo site says that with two powered devices, your iPhone charges as fast as if it was attached to a USB port, or in about an hour or two. We can only imagine the awkward conversations as you wait for your phone to charge while not one, but two "volunteers" impatiently sip their lattes and wonder if they'll ever get to work on time. There's also that embarrassing feeling when you leave fully charged up, knowing that both of those lovely people now have to find someone else to suck power from. ChargeBite is the first "social" charger. Instead of bringing a small plug, ChargeBite truly allows you depend on the kindness and amperage of strangers. After all, sharing phones is gross, but sharing current, well, that's not quite as gross. By the way, as of publication time ChargeBite has just 4 backers for a total of $80 ... but there are 47 days left in the campaign to get the $45,000 needed for it to go into production.
Fighting Walrus Radio turns your iPad or iPhone into a UAV controller (video)
So, here's a situation: you'd love to your iPhone or iPad to control your UAV collection, and you're pretty obsessed with collecting as many of these UAVs as possible. Aside from undoubtedly landing yourself on an FBI watch list, you'll probably also be interested in helping the folks at Fighting Walrus Radio turn their dreams into reality. In a nutshell, the project seeks to fund an iOS hardware peripheral that operates with both Lightning and Dock Connector-equipped products -- turning 'em into "a mobile ground station for your personal unmanned aerial vehicle." It's built to report your UAV's critical flight systems and log flight data within a one mile range, and it's compatible with all MAVLink drones as well as the Parrot AR.Drone. Also, it's called the Fighting Walrus Radio. For those that need a bit more convincing, there's a demo video just after the break, while to-be customers can hit up the read link.
Indiegogo's Danae Ringelmann backstage at Expand (video)
Crowdfunding has taken the world of consumer electronics by storm. Heck, even Expand has been dragged into the frenzy: we've taken our Insert Coin feature and turned it into a full-blown competition. Indiegogo co-founder Danae Ringelmann swung by backstage at Expand and chatted with us about what makes Indiegogo stand out from other crowdfunding platforms and whether their ultra-democratic philosophy holds the site back or works in its favor. For the entire interview, check past the break for the video. Follow all of Engadget's Expand coverage live from San Francisco right here!
Skullgirls dev may license engine to Fighting is Magic team for free
Skullgirls developer Lab Zero Games announced plans to provide former MLP: Fighting is Magic developer Mane6 with a free license of its Skullgirls engine should Lab Zero Games' Indiegogo campaign reach $725,000. Lab Zero Games launched its crowdfunding campaign in late February to fund new characters for Skullgirls with an initial $150,000 goal that it reached in just 24 hours.As for Mane6, its ambitions to create a fighting game based on the My Little Pony property were halted by Hasbro in early February due to Mane6 not having the rights to develop the game. Mane6 has since noted its desire to continue development on its game, now using new characters in a new setting. Lab Zero Games' Indiegogo campaign is currently at just over $427,000 with 11 days left before it closes.
Skullgirls secures funding for second DLC character, Big Band
Skullgirls developer Lab Zero Games has announced its Indiegogo pledge drive has earned enough for a second DLC character, the first male fighter to make his way onto the roster: Big Band. With 14 days remaining, the Skullgirls Indiegogo page rests at a comfortable $380,000.Initially the Indiegogo campaign was to fuel a single DLC character – developer Lab Zero Games asked for $150,000, exceeding that goal in a brisk 24 hours. If you find yourself wondering why it costs so much money to come up with one little old DLC character, know the process requires more work than you'd think.
Breathometer: A would-be breathalyzer accessory for iPhone
Breathometer wants to be the first breathalyzer that works in tandem with your iPhone, making it easy and convenient to breathalyze yourself, or a friend, to see if your blood-alcohol level is above the legal driving limit. With a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, Breathometer has been designed to be compact and unobtrusive, small enough to conveniently fit on your keyring, but within easy reach when you need it most. Plugging into your iPhone's audio jack, the Breathometer automatically works with the companion app. All you need do is blow into it to identify your blood-alcohol concentration (BAC). The Breathometer app will also keep a record of your BAC, "so you can be sure to allow for the proper amount of time to pass before you think about getting behind the wheel." The Indiegogo campaign opened today, with pledges of US$20 or more to secure yourself one of the first Breathometers.
Breathometer lets phone users keep alcohol in check from a keychain (video)
Who knew that smartphone owners were suddenly such temperate drinkers? Just days after Alcohoot unveiled its take on a phone-friendly breathalyzer, Breathometer is here with its own way to watch our tipsiness. The namesake, FDA-approved gadget will plug into the headphone jack of an Android or iOS device and warn if our blood is too alcohol-rich, all while staying small enough to fit on a keychain. Plans are underway to eventually let soused users hail a taxi from the native app. The Breathometer won't be available until we're at the height of summer party season, but it should be cheap enough to eliminate any excuses: its Indiegogo campaign is asking for just $20 to secure a Breathometer alongside a pledge, or less than a good night out.
Riot in the streets, at a desk, in your hand: An indie documentary game
"Riots are powerful. They are moments in which lots of different people blend into a unique and cohesive mass to fight for their freedom. It is something that you cannot pursue for yourself, but only for a greater good. How can that not be incredibly emotive?"Designer Mattia Traverso approaches rioting as an intense, human experience, from both sides of the kevlar: Rioters take to the streets for freedom and glory, while the authorities fight back in an equally fervid attempt to retain order. Riots are masses of thousands of stories about people, and Riot is a game about humanity.Traverso, creator Leonard Menchiari and programmer Ugur Ister's Riot has raised almost triple its $10,000 funding goal on Indiegogo, and it still has 10 days to pull in more money. Money that the Italian trio will use to travel the globe, seeking out and documenting riots in Italy, Greece, Egypt, Russia and other countries, interviewing rioters and law enforcement officers, gathering videos, photos and eyewitness accounts – then throwing all of that into the game."Phisically visiting these places and joining the live riots is fundamental," Traverso tells me. "One cannot describe something he does not know, and that is something that the 'serious' movie industry knows very well: You need research. How could we even claim to describe such an important topic without having lived it multiple times or having talked with the rioters or the police?"
