Back to Back: Indie RPGS to fund

Greetings, esteemed readers of blogs and backers of projects! It is once again time to peer into the misty depths of the Vale of Crowdfunding and see what we might see.

Of those we last spied, Edge of Eternity, Infernax, Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire, Underworld Ascendant, and WarRab: Veteran have emerged victorious; the corpses of Legends of Pixelia, Seaworthy, Unraveled, and Windwalkers scatter the valley floor.

But wait! What new souls brave those musty depths?

Aylus: Exiled Dominions – a 3D, open world, first-person action RPG promising Oculus Rift support, online play, “the exploration of Skyrim and combat of a Souls game.” Aylus looks to combine stamina and health into a single stat, which I’m not entirely sold on, but who knows–maybe it’ll work well. This one just started; it’s raised $383 out of $53,200 with 39 days left.

Bloody Monday – a comedic strategy RPG in the Disgaea style, set in a dimension where negative emotions manifest as monsters. The game’s mechanics apparently call for you to make your teammates be mean to each other so they can build up emotional energy for attacks. It looks like it might be fun, so it’s unfortunate that it’s only raised $1,580 out of $80,000 so far. There are 18 days left to turn things around.

CrossCode – a 2D Zelda-alike / action RPG in a sci-fi setting, featuring some slick pixel art. It’s raised €38,040 out of €80,000 (~$88,500). 34 days remain.

Dungeons of Aledorn – a 3D wRPG that seeks to combine first-person exploration with hex-based, turn-based combat (with both modes using the exact same environments). One of the designers of the old classic Betrayal at Krondor is on the team. Dungeons of Aledorn has raised more than $22,000 out of its $60,000 goal with 17 days left to go.

Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander – billed as a “rogue-like sci-fi strategy survival game,” this looks like a more complex take on the FTL formula, albeit with the ability to command fleets instead of just a single ship. It’s already close to 300% funded with 15 days remaining.

Harmonia Tactics – we last covered this one more than two years ago, when it went by the name of Harmonia Online. It’s a turn-based strategy RPG with an infinite, procedurally generated world and support for online play. Each player commands 4 characters from 8 classes, each of which can reach max level in a few hours (or die forever–there is permadeath). Harmonia Tactics has a playable engine demo here (Windows and Linux). There’s about $24,000 left for it to raise in the next 28 days.

Icy – this wintery survival wRPG has far surpassed its meager $2,500 funding goal; less than 3 days remain to bump its funding higher.

Melancholy Republic – a 2D jRPG; the campaign promises lots of beautiful illustrations and art in-game. It has about $18,000 more to raise in the next 17 days.

Mystic Tales: Legend of the Janovi Gem – a strategy RPG where characters fight on literal chess boards and “taking” a piece means applying a disadvantage to it and engaging it in battle via a turn-based card game. Concerningly, the game is planned to be free-to-play. It’s raised $1,161 out of $75,000 with 28 days on the clock.

Ralin: Dwarf Wars – a 3D Diablo-alike (it calls itself a roguelike, but it’s obviously not) with multiplayer support and the ability to mod certain characteristics of the enemies. It claims to be “community driven,” though it’s not really clear to me what that actually means. Ralin has about $55,000 left to raise and 22 days in which to raise it.

Also of note: Seven Dragon Saga, which began after the last Back to Back and was canceled before I could write about it in this Back to Back. Developers TSI (which include several SSI veterans) are determined to relaunch this one, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to cover it properly when that happens.