Back to Back: indie RPGs to fund

It’s been a few weeks since our last Back to Back–let’s see what’s new in the world of indie RPG crowdfunding!

Of the games we posted about last time, Beloved Rapture, Omori, Shiness and Witchmarsh met or surpassed their funding goals; Celestial Tear: Demon’s Revenge, Deadrock Divide, and Endless Fantasy The Goddess Story were not so lucky. (I’m still surprised that Deadrock Divide didn’t make it, frankly–I’m not sure what to make of that.)

As for new projects, things seem to have calmed down from previous months, but we definitely have a few promising ones in search of funding and glory! (Mostly funding, really.)

• FranknJohn – a comedy-horror action roguelike-like (think The Binding of Isaac) where you attack enemies by spinning your detachable head like a flail. Its RPG credentials are questionable at best, but the concept is absurdly deranged enough that I feel compelled to give it a mention.

• InSomnia – a post-apocalyptic, dieselpunk, sandbox 3D isometric action RPG set on a space station. (And if that wasn’t enough catch words for you, there’s also time travel.) The game will support co-op play in addition to single player. InSomnia has 28 days to raise another $55,000 or so.

• The Legend of Sonia – a Zelda-alike with 8-bit graphics and gameplay very clearly modeled after the original Legend of Zelda. The pitch video mentions expanded mechanics that weren’t present in the original LoZ, but I don’t see any mention of what those might be. This one has 23 days left to raise $11,600.

• Midora — a 2D Zelda-alike with some nice music and some very slick, charming pixel art. The main gameplay innovation here seems to be the presence of a much, much larger roster of unique items (“over 200”) and spells than we’re used to seeing in Zelda-style games. I think this one looks rather promising. 17 days remain to raise about $30,000.

• Timespinner – a Metroidvania with some really nice-looking pixel art and a female protagonist seeking revenge against a technologically advanced empire that has destroyed her home town annnnnnnd wait a minute. This sounds a whole hell of a lot like Eternal Daughter, doesn’t it? Well, this one has the advantage of some cool time-stopping mechanics (as well as a level of audiovisual polish that simply didn’t happen in indie games back in 2002). Anyway, I think it looks quite good. Timespinner has 29 days to raise about $48,000 so that it may join the likes of Chasm, Legend of Iya, and Heart Forth, Alicia.