Back to Back: indie RPGs to fund

There’s been a bit of a lull in people emailing me about their RPGs this past week, which can only mean one thing: it’s time for another Back to Back!

Every single game that was on last list remains available to fund, though most are approaching the end of their campaigns. Here’s the update, with some new titles added in:

• Ace Arena — a 2D jRPG looking to raise more than $75,000 on Indiegogo. 29 days remain, and they have not yet received any pledges; this may have something to do with the fact that they claim to be designing a new engine despite using footage from what is pretty clearly RPG Maker.
• Bloom: Memories — an unusual-looking Zelda-alike (previously covered here) with only 3 days left to raise another $18,000. That’s a lot to raise in such a small time frame, but given that they shot up $7,000 since yesterday, they should make it if their momentum keeps up.
• Caravaneer 2 — this isometric post-apocalyptic survival wRPG / economic sim (previously covered here) is now in its final week, having finally surpassed its (quite modest) $5,000 funding goal.
• The Enraged — a zombie-apocalypse-themed sRPG in the Shining Force mold, The Enraged is doing reasonably well on Kickstarter despite having one of the most awkward pitch videos I have ever seen in my life. There’s a downloadable demo, which I’m sure is helping. There are 12 days left to go on this one.
• King Voxel — a 3D voxel-based Zelda-alike (previously covered here) with a new procedurally generated world / quest each time you start a new game. It has $526 raised out of a goal of $25,000; not exactly off to the best start, given that it’s been on Indiegogo since at least March. This one has 84 days left.
• Lex Laser Saves The Galaxy, Again — a 2D “tactical puzzle RPG designed for busy people,” Lex Laser one is clearly going for a Buck Rogers, 1950s sci-fi aesthetic, which is cool. The “for busy people” phrase makes me wonder about its RPG credentials, though; I’ll be investigating this one further. They’ve got more than $64,000 left to raise in the next 25 days to meet their base funding goal.
• Lords of New York — a 2.5D adventure/RPG hybrid (previously covered here) set in Prohibition-era New York City with a poker-based combat system. Unfortunately, it remains a little short of 10% funded with a day and a half remaining on the clock, and the base funding goal is so astronomically high that I doubt they’ll be able to meet it even with a tremendous last-minute push. Hopefully they’ll be able to retool and try again, as this does look like an interesting game.
• Paradigm Shift — a 2D jRPG with $46 in funding and 18 days left to go on Indiegogo; it has raised literally zero dollars in the past two and a half weeks, which is a little depressing.
• Pixelry Champions — a 2D jousting simulator with RPG elements, this game has a little less than three days to raise £20,000 or so (i.e. roughly $30,000).
• Telepath Tactics — a 2D tactical fantasy RPG with mod support, currently on its last day of funding. This one’s more than 200% funded; if you’re looking to save a game in need, I recommend looking further up the list.

That’s all for this edition! Frankly, barring a couple of success stories, it’s looking a little grim this time around. Given the recent, wild success of campaigns like Torment and Divinity, I don’t think we can blame “Kickstarter fatigue” for that; in my view, it’s more likely that people have developed higher expectations for quality on Kickstarter, and the consequences for subpar presentation and marketing have grown more severe alongside it. One of these days, I’m going to write an article with my theories about how and when to Kickstart a game…