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Make My MMO: Crowdfunding February 9 - 22, 2014
In the world of MMOs, no news is not necessarily good news -- especially when it comes to crowdfunding. Silence often denotes a lack of progress on a game, and that can certainly make investors nervous. Thankfully, many games provide players with updates that we, in turn, provide for you here. If no news is bad, then news is good, right? Unfortunately, this doesn't hold true. In the case of Star Rider and Hot Rod Hustle, the news is that neither met its funding goals. So we say farewell to these two games from Make My MMO. And Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen's campaign was chock-full of news, but in the end, its Kickstarter didn't succeed either; Pantheon, however, is continuing the fundraising effort on its official site. At least some news is good! War of Omens also leaves this round up, but for different reasons: Players can hop in and play the game! Likewise, HEX: Shards of Fate and StarCraft Universe move on now that both have moved into testing. Another sandbox, Terrayn, also joins the Kickstarter ranks. To hear other good news, keep reading.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding January 26 - February 8, 2014
The crowdfunding train just keeps rolling right along, with passengers always coming and going. New passengers hop aboard while others hop off at their desired destination. Sadly, some have to disembark early -- such is the case with Universe Rush and Antilia. Although the Kickstarter campaign fell far short of its goal, Antilia does plan to continue development on its own. On the brighter side of things, some passengers reached their stop; Tales From The Strange Universe reached its goal, and both it and Novus AEterno (which brought in over 3.5 times its initial goal) will now take their places in the funded category. The Repopulation, earning over 175K during this latest Kickstarter run, disembarks at Betawatch station thanks to its ongoing alpha testing. Catch up on all the news for all these titles as they journey through crowdfunding here in Make My MMO.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding January 12 - 25, 2014
After a sleepy holiday season, the crowdfunding crowd has woken up and gotten down to business. And amidst that new bustle of activity, Make My MMO's ranks are altering a bit. Two games leave our listing, but each for different reasons; the cross-platform space sim Space Unfolding folded after missing its goal, and Face of Mankind moved along to Betawatch to join the ranks of the games in testing. And now that War of Omens' campaign has wrapped up, it moves into the fully funded category. Some campaigns have really kicked into high gear. Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen joined the crowdfunding race and has delivered a slew of nearly daily news. Novus AEterno has nearly tripled its goal and is closing in on yet another stretch goal these final days of its campaign, while The Repopulation has also blown away its initial goal and is aiming for its eigth stretch goal (not to mention revealed plenty of juicy new bits). A smaller title, Tales From The Strange Universe, is more than halfway to its modest goal with a week left. And newcomer Star Rider also jumps on the Kickstarter bandwagon. Unfortunately, others aren't faring as well. Things aren't looking promising for Antilia or Universe Rush, whose campaigns end soon and are still over $85K and $98K short of their respective goals. Want more details on these stories or an update on all the already-funded projects? We've got the round-up right here.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding December 29, 2013 - January 11, 2014
Was 2013 the year of Kickstarter? Whatever you think personally about the funding model, you can't argue with the fact that over $480 million was pledged through the crowdfunding platform in the last calendar year. That's definitely one hunk of change! But whether or not that figure translates into a tidal wave of awesome games has yet to be seen; the jury will remain out until even more funded games actually release and players get to experience what they backed. As for specific MMO news this past fortnight, the bulk of it involves new titles vying for a slice of 2014's crowdfunding pie. The CCG War of Omens has already grabbed a piece; it met its goal and has moved on to stretch goals for the last couple of days. Other hopefuls include more two space strategy games. Learn more about all of these, as well as the news from the funded front, right here in Make My MMO.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding December 15 - 28, 2013
'Tis the season... but not for news! With minds focused on the holidays, it looks as if not much happened in the realm of crowdfunding since our last Make My MMO update. Just how slow was it? It was so slow that Star Citizen did not announce earning another $2 million. A few tidbits did, however, did trickle out. Novus AEterno met its goal within 102 hours and still has a month of funding ahead. On the other hand, Empires of Tahn followed what seems to be the new norm: cancel the project before getting the dreaded "unsuccessful" label. And one title that is already strong in its development has jumped back into the crowdfunding realm; The Repopulation aims to incorporate even more features into the sandbox. There are also a couple dev blogs to speak of and a few odds and ends, all of which you will find rounded up for you below.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding December 1 - 14, 2013
If it seems as if crowdfunding's gone into a turkey coma lately, you aren't just imagining things -- at least as far as funded games are concerned. News on that front has seemed scarce compared to the deluge of some other two-week spans, but the current campaigns are trying to make up for it. Life is Feudal canceled its Indiegogo campaign, but devs vowed to "survive according to Plan 'B'," so we'll keep an eye out to see whether it moves into personal funding as other games have done. (That route is working for Neo's Land, whose donations keep creeping higher.) Similarly, Novus AEterno scrapped its second Kickstarter campaign, but in a twist, it's already restarted another with a lower goal. Outer Worlds Online, however, just didn't make the funding cut. On the successful side, manners and dinner parties will be coming to an MMO near you; Ever, Jane got an invitation to join the funded club. A few other funded titles also saw some progress, and still others joined (or re-joined) the race for your support. And topping all that, we also bid farewell to Elite: Dangerous, who leaves Make My MMO for Betawatch now that its alpha has started. You can catch all the updates below.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding November 17 - 30, 2013
One thing gamers can definitely be thankful for this year is crowdfunding! Thanks to this phenomenon, we have many more options opening to us than ever before. And there are definitely some good gaming prospects on the horizon, even if news about all but one is seeming a bit scarce lately. While it's true that a few funded projects tossed out a news morsel or two, two new campaigns replaced two unsuccessful ones (neither The Zodiac Project nor Omuni Online made their goals), newcomer The Mandate already made its goal, and another hopeful -- Ever, Jane -- has secured three-quarters of its goal with only a couple of days left, the majority of the spotlight has been stolen the upcoming space sim Star Citizen, which continues to blast the crowdfunding record to smithereens. If you missed any of the news, you can catch up on it all right here in Make My MMO.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding November 3 - 16, 2013
A quiet fortnight in the land of crowdfunding these past two weeks have not been. In fact, with the popularity of this funding model, it may never be quiet again. The past two weeks have had their share of campaigns starting, campaigns closing, and campaigns obliterating goals and funding records alike. Three new prospective games have popped on the radar (including one for those with impeccable manners!), and one has disappeared. But even that game isn't gone for good; although pledges had climbed to over $86K, Trials of Ascension canceled its campaign in order to "regroup, rework, and return." Another title, City of Titans, is taking its place among the fully funded crowd. And there there is Star Citizen, which proved that a single fortnight can't go by without the game's gathering another million or two. All that information and more can be found here in Make My MMO!
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding October 20 - November 2, 2013
The news meter for crowdfunding keeps right on ticking. The last two weeks have seen a score of changes in the realm of community funding initiatives, with some titles experiencing success, others not meeting their goals, and even more joining the ranks. One big name in gaming, Brad McQuaid, is even planning on launching a campaign in the near future. The zombie-centric The Living was unsuccessful, and Story Quest Online failed for a second time. Mixmaster Online removed itself from the field and canceled its campaign. On the other hand, 8BitMMO met its first stretch goal, ensuring that a Mac edition of that game will be available for players. And then there's City of Titans, which is climbing closer to doubling its goal with only two days left. Finally, there are all the progress updates for those already-funded campaigns, conveniently rounded up right here for you in Make My MMO.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding October 6 - 19, 2013
This was quite a fortnight in the realm of crowdfunding, and for once we don't mean just Star Citizen news! More than one game met its funding goals, with one title proving that fans can be a very passionate lot: City of Titans reached its lofty goal within days. On top of that, two other games joined the fight for funding. Conversely, Alteil Horizons pulled its campaign at literally the last minute to avoid the stigma of an unsuccessful stamp and plans to launch again. Want the scoop on all these stories and many more? Learn the latest right here in Make My MMO.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding September 22 - October 5, 2013
Not all games that turn to crowdfunding need a boost to get off the ground. In fact, one new addition to our column this week -- 8BitMMO -- is utilizing this avenue to help accommodate the exponential growth it has experienced over the last couple of years. The other newcomer, however, is actually trying to build from the ground up; City of Titans wants to give displaced City of Heroes fans a new home. In other news, Star Citizen was the news! Videos, interviews, new goals, and more poured forth from this crowdfunding giant this week. We also heard from Embers of Caerus (which has been pretty quite for a long while). Even Neo's Land chimed in with a new demo. And you can get the whole scoop here!
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.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding September 8 - 21, 2013
In the oft changing world of crowdfunding hopefuls, faces come and faces go... and sometimes they come back again. If one of the newcomers to this edition of Make My MMO looks familiar, that's because the game ran a shorter, unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign last July. With a longer run this time around, perhaps Story Quest Online will fare better. On the flip side, one campaign flipped sections: We congratulate StarCraft Universe on meeting its goal and joining the ranks of the fully funded. Plenty of other news came from the funded ranks as well, from the crowdfunding king hit more funding goals (again) to progress reports and new feature reveals. You can catch all the details right here.
Crowdfund Bookie, September 8 - 14: Project Phoenix, StarCraft Universe
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 campaigns for Project Phoenix, Gridiron Thunder, StarCraft Universe and Pro Pinball: Timeshock ended. Project Phoenix earned the most money and had the highest number of backers by a landslide this week, hauling in $1,014,600 thanks to 15,802 funders. Gridiron Thunder, the Ouya football game that has been embroiled in controversy with its involvement in Ouya's Free the Games Fund, had the highest average pledge per person ($934.48). This was due to a handful of suspicious backers that each pledged over $10,000 to the project. Head past the break to see the week's results and pretty charts.
StarCraft Universe Kickstarter ends at nearly $85,000
For those who haven't been keeping up with it, it might be hard to wrap your brain around StarCraft Universe. It's a StarCraft MMO that's actually a mod of StarCraft 2. Oh, and it's not being made by Blizzard ... but it has been sanctioned by Blizzard. And it just raked in almost $85,000 on Kickstarter. The Kickstarter, started by Upheaval Arts last month, concluded yesterday, pulling in $84,918 from 1,753 backers – putting it just over its $80,000 goal. Now that funding has been achieved, the plan is to release the game through Battle.net as a series of custom games for StarCraft 2. The open beta for the first chapter is slated to begin in late 2013 or early 2014. StarCraft Universe will be playable using the free StarCraft 2: Starter Edition, meaning you won't have to harvest any minerals to try it out.
StarCraft Universe hits funding goal
In the midst of all the excitement over patch 5.4's release, you could be forgiven if you've forgotten about StarCraft Universe, the Upheaval Arts fan project to create an MMO-type game for StarCraft II. The plot of the game revolves around an alternate ending to StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, where Kerrigan couldn't stop the hybrid's assault and the Protoss were defeated. StarCraft Universe tells the story of the aftermath. If that sounds intriguing to you, know that the project has hit its Kickstarter funding goal, so StarCraft Universe is on its way to fruition. For those of you who still want to contribute and earn some extra perks, there are a few hours remaining on the campaign, but don't delay, time is quickly running out. If you've been clamoring for a StarCraft-themed MMO, this is a project you'll definitely want to check out!
StarCraft Universe reaches its funding goal on Kickstarter
There are a lot of people who would very much like to see an MMO in the StarCraft universe. StarCraft Universe isn't quite the same thing, but it manages to turn StarCraft II into something very close to an MMO. And with just one day left to go on its Kickstarter project, it has hit its funding goal, ensuring that StarCraft II players can turn the real-time strategy game into a third-person MMO-style game at will. So how much does the mod actually contain? Eight classes, vehicle gameplay, customized models, a variety of boss encounters tuned for various difficulties, in-game strategy databases, a fully voiced plotline, and crafting mechanics. There are also single-player and multiplayer components for anyone who wants to experience the game solo, and the entire project can be experienced for free without a need to buy StarCraft II. If you're interested, there's still some time left to toss money into the Kickstarter and pick up a few extra rewards.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding August 25 - September 7, 2013
If you build it, they will come. While that adage hold true for baseball diamonds in cornfields, it's a little bit different for MMOs. If you're set on developing a new virtual playground, you get them to come so you can build it! That's the philosophy behind crowdfunding, anyway, and many are latching onto it. So how fare the fields of crowdfunding lately? New projects (Alteil Horizons, Epic Space) sprouted up, one took root and grew stronger (Divergence), and others (Project Snowstorm, Realms of Creation, Enspira Online) withered away from lack of nourishment. See how your favorite projects are growing right here in Make My MMO.
A fully realized Starcraft MMO is in the works, but it needs to be Kickstarted first
If you're a dedicated World of Warcraft player, you may have already spent a good deal of time wondering when developer Blizzard would give its StarCraft property the MMO treatment as well. StarCraft Universe is that MMO, but it's not being made by Blizzard; a group called Upheaval Arts is creating the game as a mod for StarCraft II, and if its Kickstarter campaign meets its goal, you'll be able to play it on your Mac (or Windows PC) early next year. StarCraft Universe takes the real-time strategy franchise and gives the player control of a single character, complete with class abilities, questing, leveling and all the other mechanics MMO players have come to expect. The campaign is roughly halfway to its US$80,000 goal amount, and has a further 20 days of fundraising left to go. If you're interested in the mod, but don't currently own StarCraft II, you'll be happy to hear that Universe can be played using the trial version of the game, which can be downloaded for free.
StarCraft MMO invades Kickstarter for funding
A StarCraft 2 mod that turns the much-beloved sci-fi RTS into a World of Warcraft-like MMORPG has launched on Kickstarter. StarCraft Universe, previously known as World of StarCraft, will allow players to create a character and log in to an alternate-history StarCraft universe, where dark forces and Zerg/Protoss hybrids run amok. The Blizzard-blessed project seeks $80,000 in funding. This amount will allow mod creator Ryan Winzen and his team to not only construct additional pylons, but focus solely on creating the game, and subsequently release an open beta in early 2014. As expected, there are plenty of stretchgoals and nifty rewards, including a Zerg character class at $100,000 funding, which just sounds like all kinds of fun. The game's Kickstarter page has more info and your opportunity to toss some minerals and vespene gas that way if you believe in it.
