I think we might be entering another golden-age for gaming. Sure, with crap produced by EA such as SimCity, this may be hard to believe.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/e … ty-buyers/

However, we have Kickstarter. What Kickstarter does, is it allows game designers to bypass companies such as EA, and actually produce the games they want and publish it themselves. Of course, there are risks for backing said designers, but apparently not less risky than purchasing a game from Evil...er Electronic Arts.

Anyway, all that said, I thought it would be nice to either have discussions, and/or a thread where we can list projects we're excited about or have backed.

Currently, I'm really excited about the next game in the Torment series. Apparently a few others are too, since in about three days it's been funded to around 2.2 million. Other than evil dictators and oil companies (basically the same thing) who else makes 2.2 million in three days?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inx … f-numenera

and now, on to the project I'm currently quite disappointed with. The next Avatar/Ultima-like project by Lord British

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/por … -virtues-0

I love Ultima! Some of the best games ever made in my opinion, and the opinion of many producers here in the US, in Europe, and in Japan. This series influenced numerous people... so I expected something special. However, instead I see a project that says Avatar in the title but what is this game? Supposedly it has an "offline" solo campaign, but what does that mean? Also, why is it you can NOT purchase a physical copy of this game, but must resort to a download only? Sadly, I'm disappointed. Maybe I expected too much... although I don't think so.

Anyway, that's it for now.

I've contributed funding to both Project Eternity and Dreamfall Chapters. I'd love to help with Torment but I'm completely out of money...

The new Ultimaish game looks like a mess. That series really went down the tubes.

At what level did you contribute?

Another awesome-looking project is this classic Sierra-style adventure/RPG:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/211 … -adventure

That last game looks a fair bit like Beyond Shadowgate to me.

Have any of these game-related Kickstarter projects actually already resulted in any games?
All I see is people starting Kickstarters to fund whatever, but I'd like to see some results before I would consider funding something myself.

A few have. Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams was released pretty shortly after, because they only needed the money to finish.

But most games they need the money to do the majority of the work, and games DO take a while to develop, after all.

In terms of results, most of these games have some previews of their current status. That is, they have a rough build and you can see where they are going. Most of these indie groups simply don't have money to finish the game without help, which is why Kickstarter is so marvellous. On the other hand, it's always possible for a project to fall through, in which case chances are you will lose the money you invested. However, I believe that is unlikely for most of these projects. Also, you can always contact the company directly through Kickstarter, and most of these projects have rewards such as soundtracks, figures, artbooks, which are exclusive to these campaigns. I personally feel it's better karma to give money to these groups than say EA. Anyway, I'll certainly update as things progress. I haven't helped that many projects, but as I said, I do think this may be the dawn of a new golden age for gaming.

The only game I've backed was the Ni no Kuni kickstarter and that wasn't really a kickstarter as much as it was just a tiered bonus thing because tit was already planned but the more money they got the more bonuses they could pack in.

I do support musicians on kickstarter, it's a really good way for those with a strong fan base to get money to put out an album without having to incur thousands of dollars of label fees and never break even.

As a follow-up to what jb said, the Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess Symphonic recording was also initially funded on Kickstarter. That of course came to fruition beautifully.

The lowest tiers for both which would get me the game, as I recall. Kickstarter is an interesting concept, definitely but we haven't been able to see what happens when these big games get finished. I worry that if they aren't as good as people are expecting (and feel entitled to), there will be a massive backlash.

True, that's always possible. I do think it unlikely though, since many of these games are made by people who have long been in the industry, and also really like high quality games. I think what you're less likely to get in these games are cutscenes. Apparently producing movie-like cutscenes is very labour-intensive, and thus most of these indie developers will skip them. So I think these games will be heavy on atmosphere, style, and substance, and less heavy on flashy graphicy stuff. Not a problem for me

Bloom.
While I haven't committed to this game (yet), I would advice everyone to at least check it out and listen to the music (scroll down to hear two tracks from the game). It definitely looks surreal and unique.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/137 … enture-rpg

FTL came out and is awesome.

I do look askance, though, when I see some of these project creators promise the moon, especially when they get swept up in their own enthusiasm and start adding outrageous stretch goals.  Code Hero comes to mind.

Yeah, I'm very much okay with that. That'll force them to focus more on the writing, which should always be a top priority with an RPG.

Shovel Knight
"A groundbreaking [cute] love letter to 8 bits!" Looks very cool! I can see Zane totally digging this (get it, digging

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yac … vel-knight

Also, don't forget to check out Bloom (which looks amazing)
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/137 … enture-rpg

Oh yeah, man. It looks like a mashup of Megaman, Zelda II and Simon's Quest!

I figured you'd find it appealing
It sort of reminds me of the girlfriend you wish you had back in high school... but I digress. Are you going to pledge? I probably will, it looks quite awesome.

Actually game play mechanic reminds me more of Duck Tales than anything else.  I think i may have to contribute to this one...

Oh man, I love the Divinity series!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lar … iginal-sin

This is a must for me

I'm not a big admirer but I do like their description of the game...

Have you played any of their games? They were truly made with love... pure love...

Spiritual successor to Ecco the Dolphin. I'm personally not impressed, although it has potential, but I think it needs work before going to Kickstarter.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ann … nture-game

Awesome news if you backed Shovel Knight and wanted the soundtrack. Along with virt, Manami Matsumae is composing two songs for the soundtrack.  Glad to see it's really taken off since PAX.

Silent Hill + 2 year old?

Looks very promising

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kri … -the-sleep

OK, this is a movie, not a game, but I think many of us will find it hilari... er, I mean, very serious and important!!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/295 … -the-movie