Kickstarting and Screaming

I wouldn’t call it dead, but the shine has worn off for sure. I mean, things like Sunless Skies and that Pathfinder CRPG funded this year, but you can’t just throw up a nostalgia pitch and be sure to fund anymore.

Still waiting on:

Star Citizen - LOL
Conquest of the Universe (3rd party Pathfinder scifi expansion) - Not gonna happen, he ran 3 years late and got beaten to the punch by Starfinder
The Mandate - super dead
That Which Sleeps - the walking dead
Underworld Ascendant - Probably happening!
The Bard’s Tale IV - Slowly coming along
Pathfinder: Kingmaker - No way this thing actually happens, but I had to back anyway.

Plus Pillars of Eternity 2 from Fig, which is probably fine.

Still waiting: At the Gates, Conifer Games.

Everything else has been completed so far.

I think the oldest videogame Kickstarter I am still waiting on is Meriwether. I believe they made it to like beta-ish this year but as far as I can recall there has been no final release and communication remains quite sparse.

I had to go back and check out my Kickstarter history but mine has been a really great (or maybe just lucky) track record. Only two failed backings so far. What does kind of blow my mind is how much I would go in for - I backed Sunless Sea, Broken Age and Wasteland 2 at $100? Holy crap, sometimes my enthusiasm gets the better of me.

Here’s my list. Of everything on there, I’ve received everything that I should have by now. Even the Coolest Cooler.

CULTIST SIMULATOR: BEHOLD OUR END
Founders of Gloomhaven
Brainiac Documentary
Gloomhaven (Second Printing)
Rising Sun
Sunless Skies - the sequel to Sunless Sea
The World of SMOG: Rise of Moloch
Wildfire
Deadwood: The Forgotten Curse
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
The Electron: Cellular dev kit with a global data plan
Orion Trail
Piper Computer Kit
Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove
Exploding Kittens
Underworld Ascendant
Thimbleweed Park: A New Classic Point & Click Adventure!
The League of Legends Experience
COOLEST COOLER: 21st Century Cooler that’s Actually Cooler
Shadows of Arkham
Unwinnable Weekly
Sunless Sea
WARMACHINE: TACTICS
Double Fine’s MASSIVE CHALICE
PIXIES: A Visual History (Exclusive Ltd. Ed. Hardcover)
RiffTrax Wants to Riff TWILIGHT Live in Theaters Nationwide!
The New Science
The Return of Tom vs. Bruce
Spriter
The Banner Saga
Wasteland 2
FTL: Faster Than Light
Double Fine Adventure

I’m still waiting on SpaceVenture:

blah

I have six Kickstarter games that are late; five are looking almost definite for 2018, but the oldest of them I’ll play when I play it and I’m not putting any bets on ship dates as this point. :)

My oldest unshipped Kickstarter is Two Guys SpaceVenture, the unofficial Space Quest sequel. Funded on 6/12/2012, original estimated ship date February, 2013. Still sending progress reports, looking like it might finally ship in 2018 if the last update isn’t overly optimistic.

Also from 2012, the Quest for Glory sequel Hero-U from Corey and Lori Cole. Estimated ship Oct. 2013. It’s in private Alpha now with estimate of beta in November and ship in Dec./January. I’m guessing later than January but will finally hit in 2018.

Shroud of the Avatar, funded 4/7/2013. People have been playing betas for years – they are on release 48 – so perhaps I should make an exception to my “I’ll wait until it’s finished to play” on this one since it seems like they’re content to be in eternal early access. Though they’re making noises about being at the stage where they’re finalizing for launch.

Bard’s Tale IV: Estimated Oct. 2017. Still in development, no clear release timing.

Battletech: Estimated May 2017. Slated for early 2018, probably will make it by mid-late 2018 at worst given the progress they’ve shown.

Infinity: Battlescape: Estimated Sep. 2017. Active development, in alpha, looking good for 2018.

I have a pretty good record overall. Of 67 backed projects (including hardware like the Pebble), only 3.5 have failed/gone quiet:

  • Troubador: An Interactive Graphic Novel (created by a former coworker, just went silent)
  • Unwritten: That Which Happened (development cancelled 2014)
  • Pebble Time 2: Cancelled/refunded when Pebble was sold to Fitbit
  • H-Hour: World’s Elite: Actually shipped an alpha on Steam, but the development is now in the hands of volunteer developers rather than the creator of SOCOM, and if the game is ever finished it doesn’t look like it’s going to be what was originally promised.

No, it’s shipped. It’s final. Alas, I’d hoped my kid would get into it, because he learned about Lewis & Clark when he was younger and was interested. But the game has a boring-as-hell, snails-paced half-hour-plus forced tutorial in the beginning that his teen attention span isn’t going to slog through.

My late list:

StoneHearth - still active
That Which Sleeps - pretty much dead
The Wild Eight - not sure

Waiting but not late:

Thea 2: The Shattering
Evolution: The Video Game
Epoch: The Awakening Board game
Founders of Gloomhaven

I’ve voluntarily cut myself off KS until more are delivered, complete and finished.

I’ve not had any Kickstarter failures thankfully. But certainly slowed down on backing new ones.

The only really late thing is I’m still waiting on Darkest Night from VPG. Zeds 3 was completed promptly but this one … I think the minis killed them and were a huge mistake.

Apart from that, there’s the One Deck Dungeon expansion and some Eklund games (Bios Genesis/Megafauna) that are a little late but nothing drastic, and apparently almost shipping. Also 7th Continent due early next year which I’m 99% sure will not fail. :)

The oldest ongoing project I’m still waiting for is Barkley 2, followed by La-Mulana 2; the former has quietly moved along in development and just posted a Kickstarter update last month, while the latter clearly underestimated on its delivery date (made worse by a delay caused by the lead dev having to go in for surgery) but has been going fine.

Aside from those, most of my outstanding backed campaigns are far more recent:

  • Darkest Night Second Edition: Victory Point Games massively underestimated the problems miniatures would cause, and the game was massively delayed as a result. That said, they just showed off and unboxed the final proof. I don’t think it’s guaranteed that they’ll ship in December, but they should at least have stuff on the boat from China by then.
  • AI War II: Sent out Steam keys to release backers last month, but the game is still in a somewhat early beta state. Development has been going great, but like many other campaigns, their release estimate was off the mark.
  • The Stonebound Saga: Moving smoothly. Shouldn’t have any problems shipping in February, if copies aren’t already in backers’ hands by then.
  • Tiny Epic Defenders Second Edition: This just ended last month. That said, Gamelyn Games has been incredibly consistent with these games, and like the other titles in the series, I expect they’ll hit their July estimate with no problems.

Over on Indiegogo:

  • Them’s Fightin’ Herds lifted their backer beta NDA back in September, and they estimated then that the release build should be out before 2018.
  • Indivisible just released a backer-only preview build that expands on the original playable demo a few days ago.

I’ve been lucky. Everything has delivered except

  • Shroud of the Avatar and
  • Underworld Ascendant

both of which appear as though they’ll ship sooner or later. I have a few qualms about whether Shroud will be engaging, but they sure have been beta testing it a lot!

How about kickstarting games that just get added to the backlog? I mean, I haven’t played Wasteland 2 yet!

I am horrible.

What makes you say that? They sent out an update this week.

It seems way more ambitious than their modest funding could possibly achieve.

That plus the abject failure of the last Pathfinder game and Paizo’s laughably inept management

A new romance and intrigue game that’s being made by a coworker of mine: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joymanufacturingco/ambition-a-minuet-in-power

They call it a roguelike but I’m not sure what they mean by that. Maybe just randomly generated scenarios and no saving?

If it makes you feel any better, I spent a non insignificant amount to be an NPC in the game and -I- haven’t finished it either.

Shameful.

Someone needs to start a Kickstarter project for the creation of a guidebook on how to use Kickstarter to bilk people out of their money.