Back to Back: Indie RPGS to fund

Oh dear. We seem to have hit a rough patch on the Sea of Crowdfunding, folks. Since we last peeked in, only two games have ended their campaigns successfully funded: Luckless Seven and R.O.T: Age of Arius. Unfortunately, this means that Cross Reverie: The Trial of Nightmare, The Island of Eternal Struggle, Legends of Fire & Steel, Treasures of Arcania, Undead Darlings: No Cure for Love, Vandal Swords, and Wolfsong all failed–and as we’ll see below, a few of their former compatriots are on track to join them.

Let’s look at what’s seeking funding now and see if we can find some bright spots.

CivCraft: Legends of Ellaria – a 3D hybrid RTS /  first-person action RPG / Bad King Simulator. You manage your kingdom and command armies as its ruler–and then, whenever you feel like it, just completely abdicate your responsibilities to go out on quests and adventure by yourself. Seems legit. Civcraft has raised just shy of $8,000 out of its $12,500 funding goal; mind you, I have no idea how a game like this could possibly get made on $12,500, but here we are. 32 days remain for it to accrue a level of funding that is slightly more realistic.

Fantasy Dimension – this party-based dungeon crawler with row-and-column combat is 28% funded with less than 2 days left.

Mooncrest – yet another project from ex-Bioware devs who fled the company to go indie, Mooncrest purports to be a story-driven adventure with puzzles, real-time combat influenced by Dark Souls, and what seems to be an AI-driven, bow-wielding companion. It’ll apparently be based on some popular Neverwinter Nights mods. Mooncrest has pulled in a respectable $48,000 so far, but the devs are seeking $400,000–nearly 10 times that amount–so they’ve got their work cut out for them over the next 23 days.

Pauldron: Shield of the King – if you’re the shield of the king, why are you a pauldron? This and other mysteries will presumably be answered in this RPG where you jump between past, present, and future timelines, juggling your responsibilities to the realm against the need to protect your children. The game will feature procedurally generated quests and row-and-column combat in a Suikoden-ish style. It’s raised over $1,600 out of its minimal $5,000 goal; 28 days remain.

The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Groves – a 3D role-playing game set in ancient China and featuring gay romance. The devs promise the moon–an open world, procedurally generated dungeons, 16 storyline missions, a persistent reputation stat, a custom path to enlightenment based on in-game dialogue choices–but there’s a notable absence of any gameplay footage or in-engine screenshots. Thus far it’s raised about $300 out of its $38,624 goal with 17 days left on the clock.

Wind and Tide – a 2D pirate-themed roguelike-like where you command a ship as captain; with island exploration, an upgradeable crew, and RTS-style combat. It is now in its final 8 hours with less than 10% of its funding goal pledged.

World Cubed – sadly, this action roguelike-like set on (and within) a series of concentric cubes has raised only $10 in the last 28 days; about half a day remains for it to raise the last $390 necessary to hit its funding goal.

You Are a Dark God: Desolation Road – a hybrid visual novel/RPG where you play (what else?) a dark god. This one has already surpassed its miniscule $800 funding goal, and has 9 days left to rack up some more funds.