Kickstarter projects that need your help

So speaking of Kickstarter… I’m backing a few projects that haven’t yet met their goals. Figured I’d share them here in case they seem interesting to anyone else:

The first one is the one I’m most hesitant about: Class of Heroes 2 Deluxe for the PSP. This is a collaboration between MonkeyPaw and Gaijinworks to bring a deluxe, physical version Class of Heroes 2 to the PSP. Gaijinworks, to me, = Vic Ireland of Working Designs fame, and that’s why I’m backing it. However my understanding is that they’re localizing CoH2 no matter what…the Kickstarter is more about a big fancy packaged edition and some general enhancements to the project. I’m not interested in physical copies of anything, so I’m just kicking in for that ‘general enhancements’ part. Also, they’re trying to raise $500,000, which is a pretty big number for a PSP game, I think.

Update: There’s been an update to the Kickstarter page for this making very clear what funding will add to the project:
-A Physical Deluxe Pack to be made
-English Voice Acting in the Digital and Physical releases
-English Opening Song and Video in both releases
-Extended game fixes and features (extra save slots, better controls, etc)
-Translation and release of Class of Heroes II webcomic series


Next up is Tortured Hearts – or, How I Saved The Universe. Again. This one bills itself as a satirical, old-school RPG, but what grabbed me is the artwork (see the video below) and this bit about the party system (a party-based RPG? Yes!):

This is a single player game, with 8 possible companions (unless of course you donated $5000, in which case you can be your own companion). It is quite possible to play solo. If you choose companions, you can have up to five in a party for the classic 6-person party. However, not all these companions get along with each other. They have their own personalities, skills, and agendas. The PC and the companions have approximately 100,000 words of dialog with each other. Much conversation is initiated spontaneously by the companions and occurs between them as well as with the PC.

These folks are hoping to raise $300,000; I’m hoping they make it.


Last is The Dead Linger which is “a first-person zombie survival sandbox in which you can venture into a vast, undead world, surviving and exploring in whatever way suits you best.” Nope, I’m still not tired of re-killing zombies! I like the sandbox aspect of this one; believe it or not I was getting a bit of a Minecraft vibe when reading about it. First, you can play with up to 16 people in your zombie sandbox, and then there was this bit:

You’ve found a hideout. Now what? Barricade it! Fortify it! Defend it! You probably need a place to keep your stuff. You might need a place to house your clan, or maybe you just like a particular building you found. If you choose, you can fortify and defend

This one is from an established team with a game out on Steam (Detour) and they’re only looking for $60,000. We ought to be able to get them there, right?


I’m backing a few more projects but they’ve already made their goals so no need to promote them, but just for the sake of completeness:

FTL Kickstarter ends. Now we wait for the game!

FTL, the indie spaceship simulation rogue-like, finished their Kickstarter drive today. They were hoping to raise $10,000 to help finish the game. They barely squeaked by, finishing up at $200,542.

This is a game being made by a team so tiny they don’t even have a company name. It’s just FTL by Matthew Davis and Justin Ma. And they got as far as getting a demo onto OnLive and winning a couple of Independent Game Festival Honorable Mentions (for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and for Excellence in Design) without any funding (as far as I know).

Now they’ve got about 20 times what they were hoping for. I wonder what they’ll do with it? If it costs them $10K to finish the game, will they just pocket the other $190K (hopefully using it to fund their next game). Or will they try to add $190K worth of new features to FTL?

They must be overwhelmed, to be honest. Estimated launch date is this August. Maybe they’ll quit their day jobs and work full time on the game. Who knows?

I just know I’m looking forward to playing it! I kicked in enough to get into the closed beta that’s supposed to start in May because I was too impatient to wait for August. 🙂

Congrats to Davis and Ma, and here’s hoping Kickstarter continues to be a great way for people to get unique game ideas funded!