Warp Zoned Presents
Author: Andrew Rainnie - UK Correspondent
Kickstart This! Orphan, Izzy’s Revenge, Orion Trail
How did it get to be February so soon? Now that the longest month of the year (in terms of having no money) is done and dusted, we can look forward to funding an exciting plethora of new video games that need a little help to push them from cool concepts into coffee-fueled development.
This week we have Limbo-esque puzzle-platformer Orphan, comic-style 2D platformer Izzy’s Revenge, and finally Star Trek-inspired space adventure comedy Orion Trail. Let us boldly go where many men and women have gone before! (more…)
Kickstarters Need To Kick It Up A Gear
It’s the start of a new year, which means analysts are pouring over statistics from the previous 365 days, especially to do with the weird and wonderful world of crowdfunding, which still appears to be more of an art than a science.
So what have we learned? Kickstarter revealed that investment in the Games category is down to $89.1 million in 2014, compared to $105.6 million the previous year. Yet successful projects were up from 1,481 to 1,979. That’s nearly a difference of 500, suggesting investors are backing smaller projects that have a larger chance of success. According to Kickstarter’s own stats, the overall rate of success for Games is 34.18%, 5.5% less than the total success rate of the site, which sits at 39.68%.
In short, video games donations and numbers were down.
A lot. (more…)
Kickstart This! Elventales, Threshold, Maestros of the Anthymn
After an extended Christmas break, Kickstart This! is back with a vengeance, sifting through the crowdfunding projects of early 2015 to find those few that stand out from the digital masses. And even better, Kickstarter has now dropped Amazon payments in favour of payment system Stripe, which means not only is it easier for developers to set up payments, but there are also fewer steps for players to make them. Everyone wins.
This week there is top-down RPG Elventales: A Path Foreseen, beautiful hand-painted 2D platformer Threshold, and finally, episodic fantasy adventure tale Maestros of the Anthymn.
Let the adventure begin! (more…)
Elegy For A Dead World Review: Is This the Real Life? Or Is This Just Literacy?
Words. They are the foundation of our civilisation. In the early days they allowed for more complex communications beyond the grunts of cavemen, while today they inspire and enthrall. Our age, more than any other, has come to rely on the written word through reading, advertising, and most importantly, social media and the Internet, which has given rise not only to a whole host of new words and terms, but ways of using them. For this alone, Elegy For A Dead World may be one of the most important games of the decade. (more…)
Mario Kart 8: The Legend of Zelda X Mario Kart 8 DLC Pack Review: Now With Link
Nintendo has been late to the party with regards to adding DLC to their games, but in Mario Kart 8 they have managed to tackle my biggest gripe since the term “DLC” rose its monstrous head and became an ugly word that meant a new way for developers to rip-off gamers… and that’s the amount of content. The Legend of Zelda X Mario Kart 8 DLC Pack comes with eight new tracks, as well as a few new characters, karts, and customisations. Another DLC pack based around Animal Crossing is due out in May 2015. Both DLC Packs are individually priced at $7.99 each or you can buy both together for $11.99, which means you are getting half the game’s original content at a quarter of the price. Value for the money, indeed! (more…)
Posted in Reviews, Top Story, Wii U
Tagged Mario Kart 8
Kickstart This! Aviary Attorney, Curse of the Darkness, Spectrum
Finding original games, especially from the bigger game developers, is becoming something of a chore. WWhile Ubisoft and Activision continue to produce annualized franchises that fans don’t seem to want as much anymore, truly original titles can always be found on Kickstarter. Designers and developers on the crowdfunding site are creating new experiences and approaching tired genres from a different angle, holding their begging bowl out to the masses to drum up enough cash to keep the lights on long enough to finish the game. So as we enter the season of giving, here are three projects that could use a helping hand. This time we looked at French-inspired animal courtroom drama Aviary Attorney, haunted house FPS Curse of the Darkness, and comic-book inspired side-scrolling adventure Spectrum. (more…)
An InnerView with InnerSpace Director Tyler Tomaseski of PolyKnight Games
The Kickstarter phenomenon has allowed those who would not have been able to follow the traditional routes of funding to realise their visions within many art forms, but this is especially true in video games. The way the project campaign is run and managed can often be the determining factor in achieving success or returning empty-handed to the drawing board. It is the final few days that are the most tense, and no one knows this better than the team behind the unique flying adventure title InnerSpace as it entered its last 48 hours with pledges covering 95% of its funding. Then, four hours later, the game managed to skip past its 100% target of $25,000 (including a pledge from myself). We caught up with Tyler Tomaseski, Director and Programmer at PolyKnight Games, to discuss the campaign, his hopes for the game now that it has been funded, and who shot JR. (more…)
Kickstart This! Unsettled, Blood Star, Waking the Glares
Despite Peter Molyneux claiming that “Kickstarter is a destructive force for video games,” as it may cause developers to oversell a project (oh, the irony), the crowdfunding site still plays host to a smorgasbord of quality, undiluted games. This week on Kickstart This! we have top-down survival game Unsettled, Action-RPG Shooter Blood Star, and finally the Myst-esque FPS Waking the Glares. (more…)