Back to Back: Indie RPGS to fund

Greetings, indie RPG connoisseurs! During my absence, the world of indie RPG crowdfunding continued to change, and all of the unanswered questions we had in our last outing have now been answered.

Since we last looked in, Crosscode, Dungeons of Aledorn, Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander, and Icy succeeded in reaching their funding goals. Less fortunate were Aylus: Exiled Dominions, Bloody Monday, Harmonia Tactics, Melancholy Republic, Mystic Tales: Legend of the Janovi Gem, and Ralin – Dwarf Wars.

Here are some of the titles now seeking funding:

• Adventure Craft – a 2D, top-down action RPG with extensive crafting, set in a procedurally generated open world. It looks cute. Unfortunately, there is basically no chance that it will reach its $115,000 funding goal in the next 5 days.

• Aloran – not to be confused with Princess Leia’s home planet, Aloran is a 2D isometric RPG with parties of up to 8 characters, turn-based combat using rules drawn from the D20 system, and a lovely visual presentation that calls to mind the old Infinity Engine games. What’s there so far looks nice, though I suspect the game might be too early in development to get the traction it needs. So far it’s raised $1,500 out of $68,000, with 53 days left on the clock.

• Amaranthine Story Chapter I – a 3D jRPG with some pretty nice art, but no gameplay footage to show for itself and no pitch video. It has a meager $9,000 funding goal, of which it has raised an even more meager $776. In the likely event that it does not hit its goal in the next 15 days, I believe the developers should give this one more time in the oven and try again.

• Machine Made: Rebirth – a 2D RPG Maker jRPG. This one also has no pitch video, but the developer emailed me, so I can link you to this instead. Also, there’s a playable demo; you can nab that here. Machine Made has raised $355 out of $658, with 49 days left to go.

• Melancholy Republic – “Wait a second, didn’t you jus–” Yes. This 2D jRPG was apparently put right back up on Kickstarter immediately after it failed. It seems to be doing much better this time around, though! It’s gathered $8,000 out of its (now much lower) $11,000 goal, and there are 7 days left for it to gather the remainder.

• Mongrel – a 2D side-scrolling Metroidvania starring a trench-coat-wearing frog. It has some pretty good pixel art, though I think it could really use the touch of a professional animator–unfortunately, that particular need is relegated to the game’s fourth stretch goal. Mongrel has about $5,600 left to raise to hit its base goal, and 16 days in which to do it.

• Monsters’ Den: Godfall – Monsters’ Den, a turn-based dungeon crawler with a customizable party and row-and-column combat, has been around in one form or another for roughly forever, with free browser versions dating all the way back to 2007. This latest edition seeks to be not-free and not-browser-based, however, with the introduction of an overworld map and multiple parties of heroes you can send off to raid different dungeons and embark on story missions. It’s raised approximately $5,500 out of $23,500 so far, with 27 days left on the clock.

• Outland 17 – a 3D strategy RPG inspired by Firaxis’s XCOM, but with the sort of historically anachronistic setting that more calls to mind Code Name S.T.E.A.M. Outland 17 takes place in a sci-fi, alternate universe version of the American Revolution, and it looks like it might have some potential; it has another 5 days to raise the remaining $6,600 or so.

• Songbringer – a 2D Zelda-alike with an essentially limitless supply of procedurally generated worlds and some rather nice pixelly graphics. The player movement and attacks look a bit sluggish, though. It has surpassed its extremely modest $9,000 funding goal–there are 5 days left for it to get more.

• Unraveled – “Wait a second, didn’t you jus–” Yup! Unraveled, too, is right back into the proverbial ring after its initial crowdfunding defeat. It’s raised about $4,200 out of its $15,000 goal thus far, with 24 days left to go.