Ten... crowd-funded games from veteran devs
Kickstart my career revamp?
Project round-up The world is awash innovative ideas and clever product blueprints, although the folk who come up with them are often too penniless to take things further. Which is why fundraising site Kickstarter has been such a success of late.
But the site isn't limited to new inventors. We've seen a wave of veteran videogame developers seek public funds to help brush the cobwebs off their classic franchises. Bypassing the need for a big-name publisher can give developers the freedom to give us the games we'd like to play. Or maybe the majors just aren't interested.
This week, Carmageddon joined the list. Here are ten more.
Auditorium 2: Duet
Independent studio Cipher Prime built its original music-based puzzler as a Flash game in 2008. It was then ported to iOS and published by EA, subsequently making its way onto the PS3, Xbox 360 and PSP. The team wants to take things up a notch now and make the game co-operative with its sequel, Auditorium 2, but it wants to do that without the need for The Man. The game should see release this October.
Banner Saga
This RPG meets turn-based strategy from some of the team that worked on Star Wars: The Old Republic managed to raise considerable funding after exciting the gaming public with stunning preliminary designs. Aimed at gamers who appreciate art, story and strategy, Banner Saga was "painstakingly hand-animated" and promises to be DRM-free and available at first on PC and Mac.
Double Fine Adventure
Tim Schafer, famed for games such as Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle and The Secret of Monkey Island, managed to get the funding required for his next game in eight hours. In fact, his team went on to raise almost $3.5m for Double Fine Adventure, eclipsing the $400,000 requirement by a long shot.
The game itself is a classic point-and-click, although further details are hazy. Over the 6-8 week development time, though, backers will be sent exclusive video updates and given the opportunity to provide feedback and discuss the game's direction.
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards
Last month, we saw Al Lowe and Replay Games pitch for a complete remake of the 1987 classic Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. After raising more than enough wonga through crowd-funding, it promises support for PC, Mac and mobile devices from day one.
It seems the world wanted to watch Larry come again, and it shall. The little squirt is set for a return this October.
Next page: Nekro
COMMENTS
crikey
A space combat sim, I haven't seen those for ages and I miss them... where's the modern version of x-wing v tie fighter, imagine what a modern pc/console could do with it"
A bit of balance please
Crowd-sourcing isn't just Kickstarter you know. Infact, if you're trying to get a project underway and you don't have a US social security number it's pretty much a no-go.
Indiegogo.com is an international alternative and just as good in my experience.
Re: Multiplayer ELITE - where are you?
Eve isn't a replacement for Elite. It's a replacement for Excel. </facetiousness>
I don't want a point and click RPG. I want a real time space-flight-fight sim. We used to play Netwars across a Novell 4 network back in the early 90s - there's no reason we can't have an Elite: Frontier sequel where every other ship you meet (or most) is controlled by another real player... Eve isn't that by a long shot.
I played Eve for about a year around 5 years ago - clicking on points in space isn't the same as desperately trying to pull the nose up and adjust thrusters while trying to catch a pirate in a full loop...
Re: Multiplayer ELITE - where are you?
You could try Eve Online ;)
No mention of Project CARS?!
Surely Project CARS (Simply Mad Studios/World of Mass Development) was fully funded via crowdsourced development before anyone had even -heard- of Kickstarter?
