Back to Back: Thanksgiving Edition!

Hey guys! My parents have flown in from the far-away land of Nashville to come visit with moi, and so I am going to be taking a short break from updating the site in order to spend time with them. Have a happy Thanksgiving, and I’ll see you all again soon!

“But wait!” you say. “I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving / don’t like my family / want to learn about more indie RPGs during this period of time. What do I do?!” Well, don’t panic! It turns out that there are a ton of Kickstarters going on right now; this is the perfect opportunity to dig into some of those and learn more!

From our last edition of Back to Back, Confederate Express raised nearly four times its target funding goal; You Are Not the Hero raised nearly eight times its funding goal; and Project Swordsmith made it just over its goal. Of the projects that have finished since then, only Lords of Discord went down to ignominious defeat. Here are the games left looking for funding, including a few fresh faces:

• After Reset — a post-apocalyptic wRPG modeled very closely on the original two Fallout games–arguably, just a little bit too much so. It cribs everything from the vault-dweller motif right down to the font. On the plus side, this game has raised $40,000; on the minus side, its funding goal is a ludicrously over-the-top $900,000. 13 days remain.

• Approaching Infinity — I mentioned this one here; it’s a sci-fi roguelike with the sort of scope that calls to mind classic games like Starflight. What’s more, it’s only seeking a measly $5,000, and it has a playable alpha demo available to boot. This has 13 days to raise another $850.

• Astral Terra — I described this as Morrowind meets Minecraft in our last Back to Back. It has made some progress since then, but not nearly enough for my liking–17 days remain to raise $43,000.

• Astrobase Command — a sandbox sci-fi RPG with AI-generated stories and the ability to customize your own space station. This strikes me as a close cousin to FTL; it has $125,000 left to raise and 22 days to do it.

• Bloom: Memories — I’ve covered Bloom a few times now; luckily, its second attempt at Kickstarter is going decidedly better than the first. Bloom has only $6,800 to go with 12 days left on the clock. Also, there’s a pre-alpha engine demo available now.

• Deathfire: The Ruins of Nethermore — Guido Henkel’s baby has raised the significant sum of $122,000 and counting, but given the project’s astronomically high $390,000 funding goal, things are starting to look a bit dire. 9 days remain to fund this promising-looking first-person party-based RPG.

• Dex — a side-scrolling cyberpunk aRPG (previously covered here), Dex is now fully funded with 14 days remaining. This pleases me.

• Elliot Quest — a 2D side-scrolling platformer / aRPG modeled on the Adventures of Link (previously covered here), Elliot Quest is now fully funded. This also pleases me.

• Graywalkers: Purgatory — a strategy RPG with sort of a motley-heroes-versus-the-demons-of-hell motif. Unfortunately, it has 12 hours left to raise 58% of its $100,000 funding goal; but on the plus side, the developers have already emailed me with assurances that they are going to try running a second campaign in the coming months.

• King Voxel — did you watch this video? No? Watch this video. And then, when you’re done watching the video, throw money at this game. It’s delightful! There’s 6 days left to turn things around for King Voxel to the tune of $18,600 or so.

• Lisa the Painful RPG — I’m kind of excited, guys; I think this might be the first surrealist jRPG to show up on Kickstarter! It’s not quite as batshit as OFF or Middens, mind you, but it’s still certainly pretty odd. Perhaps on the level of Space Funeral. Watch this video if you don’t believe me. Lisa is $500 away from its $7,000 funding goal with 16 days remaining.

• Lords of Xulima — previously covered here, Lords of Xulima is about to wrap up its second successful crowdfunding campaign in a row. It’s 270% funded with 36 hours to go.
  

• The Mandate — for a while there, I was seriously worried about the fate of this 3D sci-fi RPG. But it looks like I needn’t have fretted! The Mandate is now $31,000 past its funding goal with 4 days remaining.

• The Memory of Eldurîm — previously covered here, The Memory of Eldurîm is an Elder Scrolls-style RPG that aims to have better combat and co-op support. There is a pre-alpha demo available. The game has raised a healthy $25,000, but unfortunately its goal is a hulking $150,000 (roughly one-third of which seems to be for licensing the Crytek engine). There are 10 days left to make up the difference.