Only two months ago few of us knew that Kickstarter existed, and now it has exploded into our consciousness with Double Fine’s adventure project and inXile’s Wasteland 2. It stands on the precipice of becoming one of the next big things in how video games are made.
The examples above are two potential games from two established companies, but there are other titles from indie developers that are just as worthy of attention. Whereas Double Fine and inXile will continue to make games regardless of whether or not they recieved crowdsourced funding, Kickstarter may be the only way for these indie developers to make the game they want to make.
Do you like outer space, roguelikes, and dying a horrible death in the cold vacuum of said outer space? Then FTL might be the project for you. For those of us that have dreamed of captaining a starship (I assume that’s everyone) FTL looks to make those dreams come true.
Banner Saga is a tactical RPG about Vikings. Beautiful Vikings. Vikings that would look at home on a movie screen they look so good. It’s also nice that the developers promise a mature story while knowing that sex and swear words don’t automatically make something mature.
In this day and age the modern military shooter has moved away from the tactical shooters of yore and more towards an arcade style of game play with regenerating health action set pieces that would be at home in a Michael Bay movie. For those who yearn for the days of the original Rainbow Six the Crowdsourced Hardcore Tactical Shooter wants to descend from the heavens to answer your prayers.
These are just three examples of the kinds of projects being posted to Kickstarter that aren’t coming from big name companies, and more like them are cropping up all the time. Kickstarter isn’t just proving itself as a way for proven developers to finance niche productions, but it is also allowing indie creators to get their titles off the ground.