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Frost Giant Studios Stormgate Gets Brand New Trailer

Posted on December 7, 2023 by Rae Michelle Richards

Imagine for a moment – Hordes of burning infernal demon-like creatures surround armoured marines and walking mechanized tank as they fight the nigh endless number of enemy forces that look like they’ve come straight from the depths of hell.

What I’m describing isn’t the latest science fiction blockbuster or a classic 80s action movie like Aliens – but a situation you might just encounter in Frost Giant Game’s upcoming Real Time Strategy title, Stormgate. It might seem like the RTS genre has been on life support for the last decade or so but 2024 just might be the year that changes.

Created by former members of the development teams behind Warcraft 3, Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne and StarCraft 2 – Collectively some of Stormgate’s development team have helped craft longstanding titles that helped define the genre. Chris Metzen, the high profile game designer known for his work on DIablo, the Warcraft Franchise, lead designer of the original Starcraft consulted with Frost Giant Games during the early conceptual phases of development.

The leader of the Infernal Host faction is revealed towards the end of The Game Awards trailer so make sure to look out for that. Played by actor Simu Liu (2023’s Barbie, 2021’s Shang-Chi: Legend of the Seven Rings), the character – who is named Warz and will be a playable hero during the event of Stormgate’s campaign mode.

It’s not just a pedigree for developing genre defining titles that makes Stormgate so interesting but also the engine technology that Frost Giant Games have developed. Based upon Unreal Engine Technology, the Snowplay Engine supports impressive features like a max player count of 32 people, the ability for mass spectating, the inclusion of rollback netcode and so much more. It is quite clear from the technical overview in their 10 minutes Kickstarter video that Snowplay might just be what defines the capabilities expected from future RTS engines.

If you want to join the Human Vanguard or Infernal Host in 1 Vs. 1 online battles or help test out the really hype looking 3 vs. 1 co-op mode – the online multiplayer beta started on December 5th and access can be secured by backing their Kickstarter. Frost Giant Studios set a goal of $135,519 CDN dollars and right now their fund-raising effort is sitting at mind boggling 1.5 MILLION CDN as of press time. Frost Giant have managed to raise over 10x their original goal in only a couple of days.

Pledges start at $1 CDN but if you want access to the game (and who wouldn’t if you’ve read this far?) – the Founder’s Pack (priced at $25 USD) includes access to the game during a preview week expected to launch next summer, a hero unit for the vanguard faction, Army cosmetics and a Founder discord role. Those looking for immediate access to the game will have to shell out a bit more for the Deluxe Founder’s Pack (priced at $40 USD) which includes everything already mentioned plus a hero unit for the Infernal Host, a Chicken Pet and access to the first wave of Stormgate’s Beta.

Entry into the closed beta isn’t the only way to get a sneak peak at Stromgate before it enters Early Access next year. The high profile annual gaming tournament Dreamhack Atlanta will be hosting the first ever show matches with the under development RTS. The developers have also let some higher profile RTS content creators stream gameplay of the closed beta on both Youtube and Twitch.

We will have more coverage of Stormgate as development continues ahead of the 2024 launch into Early Access.

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Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night E3 Backer Demo Now Available On Steam

Posted on June 29, 2018 by Rae Michelle Richards

Backers awaiting a taste of the upcoming Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night no longer have to wait as the E3 build has found its way onto Steam for those that pledged more than $60 USD during the game’s $5,500.000 USD KickStarter from March 2015.

Scenario Planner and famous game producer Koji Igarashi posted an update on the game’s campaign page outlining the content that backers will find within this beta demo. Featuring 5 unique characters – Miriam, a girl with a body embedded with crystals, the alchemist Johannes, A swordsman by the name of Gebel, An exorcist who has been sent by the church to deal with demons, Zangetsu, a samurai who will bring his blade against the hordes and Alfred, an alchemist who has a past with domonic power. It seems there is a lot on offer here, even if it took a few extra weeks for developers to work out all of the issues.

Koji Igarashi’s statement included the following information:

“Every time I go to E3, I’m reminded that this is the biggest game show in the world. I had a valuable opportunity to meet other developers who I usually don’t get to see.

This year, Bloodstained was exhibited in a closed space at 505 Games. The demo we showcased is actually the Beta Backer Demo that will be available today to all backers at the $60 tier and higher.

You will be able to experience a part of the storyline through these characters.

Regarding the gameplay—we’ve prepared a demo that I can proudly call an action game. Well, I guess that should be obvious… but hey! We also added special commands that were eagerly requested! It’s only a small portion of what’s in the game, but try to find them and see what you think. There are also new enemies and shards introduced in this demo.

In addition to the combat, there is a shop to buy and sell items, and an alchemy room to craft new items, where you can also make food and upgrade shards.”

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night will be released later this year for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC. It is being published by 505 Games.

[Source]

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Help Restore Lantz’s Soul By Dating Monster Girls – Visual Novel

Posted on March 27, 2017 by Les Major

Soulless Wonder Title

Soulless Wonder is on Kickstarter (http://kck.st/2nMZPwf) and it’s one of the most unique visual novels you’ll ever play! Featuring an absolutely twisted story about a cursed bard who desperately wants his soul back in his body, the game sees players venturing the wilds and trying to convince various monster girls to fall in love with our hero. Failing to do so doesn’t end in a game over however. The epic tale encourages gamers to continue forward even if some of the girls even grow to hate Lantz. With multiple endings and lots of choices to make throughout the adventure, there’s a lot to see here.

The game isn’t preachy or political, but it does take a look at some serious issues of today. Lantz himself suffers from mental health issues that are only made worse when he comes across an Eldritch horror possessed girl that he must romance. Other topics include a trans character who is involved because we wanted to tell their story, and not a way to be current or edgy. Another character is abused by her family with no hope of escaping the nightmare without help from Lantz. Further themes involve a succubus who is so terrible at harvesting souls that she is bullied constantly by her fellow kind. There’s a lot going on in this world and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. After all, the first character you meet is a cute and cuddly fox girl… who happens to be the last of her kind after Lantz’s girlfriend and Paladin Queen of the kingdom annihilated her entire tribe.

It’s huge, and we hope you’ll join us on this journey. There’s a ton of information over on the Kickstarter page. The team is looking for $37,000 Canadian to fund their game. So aproximately $5.50 US. Considering there are three people working on the game, not to mention the voice cast, that’s quite reasonable for a years worth of work.

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Kickstarter Games Festival: Ghost Arcade and the passion of Indie Development

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Meghan Kass

No matter the entertainment enjoyed, one of the most fun things about independent media are attending festivals and small events. Whether it’s and independent film festival, music festival or art gallery, such events leave an intimate, passionate atmosphere that is almost infectious. I recently had the pleasure of attending such an event for indie gaming, the Kickstarter Games Festival: Ghost Arcade, at Bric in Brooklyn. The experience of trying new games, meeting developers and playing with other indie fans was something truly unique and reminded me why I enjoy the indie game scene as much as I do.

The festival was split into video and tabletop gaming. While I played two very fun tabletop games, Heartcatchers and Illimat, most of my time was in the atmospheric video game arcade area. I sampled games that had either just recently been funded, still being funded or starting their campaign on Kickstarter in the near future. Ayo the Clown, developed by Cloud M1, was the first game I played in the arcade area, and piqued my interest almost immediately. This bright, colorful platformer about a clown in search of their pet was both challenging and had me smiling as I met various characters and completed 2 levels that were being demoed. This game showed a lot of promise and will soon be available on Kickstarter, but a demo can be played right now through their website. I had the pleasure of also playing Waynesaw, a mobile game in development by AmazingSuperPowers, that had reached its Kickstarter goal and is on its way to being released soon. This game is an endless runner featuring an “innocent chainsaw” that simply doesn’t know how dangerous he is. As far as endless runner mobile games are concerned, this was one I easily could see myself passing the time with during train rides and waiting in lines or relaxing in bed or on the couch with. The developers definitely displayed their sense of humor and showed great enthusiasm for their second game project. I also played Treachery in Beatdown City, developed by Shawn Alexander Allen who brought a unique combination of tactical turn based battle and a retro beat-em-up. Learning how to fight my opponent and how to combine moves in the menu based system was certainly something interesting to experience.

 

I also took the time to visit the Pixel Noir developers, SWDtechgames, that were displaying their successfully funded game, and got the chance to ask them why they chose to focus on indie development and what they found most different about from AAA development work. They explained there was a freedom and passion that they found in indie development and that it was much less restricting and enjoyable to be one’s own boss and work on projects that were close to them and be closer to the community. This resonated with me, because in the end, that is what I love most about indie development, passion and a sense of community through the good and bad.

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SWD tech is off to an interesting start with it’s first game, Pixel Noir

Posted on August 22, 2016 by Meghan Kass

SWD tech games is an indie development team founded in 2013. This diverse group of passionate game developers, co founded by Len Stuart and Kunal Mujmdar, are going to be releasing their first game in November. After working in the industry on multiple types of projects from small to AAA, the group has successfully come together to crowd fund and develop Pixel Noir.

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Pixel Noir is a retro style RPG game in which you are a detective who has lost his career as a police officer, his partner and his sanity; you must piece together what happened and through detective skills, making sense of hallucinations and finding allies, prove your innocence.  The game displays a turned based combat system, similar to a JRPG, has a focus on a rich story and characters. Straight from the 16 bit era of the SNES, this game finally has a demo after one failed Kickstarter and a successful second crowd funding effort and has also been greenlight on steam and became a Kickstarter staff pick. They have promised two crossover elements with other indie games, including Shovel Knight and Heart Forth Alicia. According to the Kickstarter, there will be Easter eggs and moments that reference these games, though details are still yet to be announced. These crossovers were sought out by SWD tech because they were inspired by fellow developers such as Yacht Club Games.

The developers plan to include features that will make a mobile phone version of the game easier and also plan to make the game available cross platform, which includes a 3DS version due to meeting their stretch goals. As there are updates on this game, SWD tech has been updating their development blog, Facebook and Twitter. You can follow this indie developer’s story and try out their demo on their website http://www.swdtechgames.com/ .

You cannot pre-order the game as of yet, but the website states they have plans for pre-orders and exclusives in the near future.

 

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Forget Sports Managers, Here’s A Management RPG

Posted on June 15, 2016 by Renee Gittins

While I enjoy sports here and there, I never quite understood the draw of sports management games. Now that I’ve seen Epic Tavern, I can understand the appeal: recruit, manage and reap the rewards from your own heroes. Enjoy their victories, work against their failures and quirks. It just so happens that my heroes swing swords at dragons, not throw balls around.

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Epic Tavern promises to “[combine] classic RPG elements with a unique combination of roster management and social simulation gameplay” as you run your tavern. As the tavernmaster, you must make many decisions, from the adventurers you recruit to the quests to send them on to the way your tavern looks and feels, and, of course, the number of pints you warm your heroes’ bellies with!

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I am rather fond of the heroes tavern concept. One of my favorite board games is Red Dragon Inn, where you act as an adventure drinking, gambling and brawling within an inn. Thus Epic Tavern has thoroughly sparked my interest with its promise of humorous interactions, fun management, and diverse paths and results.

Fittingly, Epic Tavern is based in a land called Beor.

Fittingly, Epic Tavern is based in a land called Beor.

Though Epic Tavern is not available currently, it has a Kickstarter campaign that launched on May 25th and that will run through June 28th. It funded in its first week, and now 135% funded at $54,040, well above the $40k goal. Games on Kickstarter have been struggling more in the recent years than they did back in 2012 when any video game concept was funded instantly, so their early success is quite impressive.

The campaign is not doubt assisted by the fact that the team at Hyperkinetic Studios has a shining roster, with well-over a collective 100 years of experience in the game industry, including on titles such as Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Resistance: Retribution. Such experience helps garner the confidence of backers.

I am greatly looking forward to playing this silly game and gathering my own group of adventures with frothy pints of beer!

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Mighty Number 9 Has Officially Gone Gold, Out June 21st

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Comcept, the developers behind the Kickstarter darling & spiritual successor to the Mega Man Franchise, Mighty Number 9,  have announced that the game has officially gone gold. Keiji Inafune, the mind behind the blue bomber and the protagonist of this latest game, Beck, wrote in part on the official Mighty Number 9 site about how crucial crowd funding was to the game’s colossal success 3 years ago.

Inafune wrote:

“It has been almost three years since the start of our Kickstarter campaign, which was only made possible through the support of our backers and fans around the world. This is a project where everyone’s passions were combined in order to create something very special, and we are looking forward to delivering the final product to everyone who was involved. There can be no stronger connection between game creators and game fans.”

Mighty Number 9

Mighty Number 9 now has a “set in stone” release date of June 21st 2016 for North America and June 24th 2016 for the rest of the world.  The PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS editions of the game are expected to be released sometime later this year.

 

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ITS: Into The Stars

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Kyle Scarboro

Title

Word around the information super highway is that this little game, aptly named Into the Stars, is a hybrid of Star Trek Commander and FTL: Faster Than Light, but is it really? The people have spoken and the people are generally right. Into the Stars is filling the void of the lack of spaceship commander based games that are out there. With inspiration gathered from these games and mixing it with a collection of modern ideas and stunning graphics, Into the Stars is paving the way and breaking ground on a genre that has not been explored to its full potential yet.

Into the Stars is the first title to come out of the California based studio Fugitive Games and published by Iceberg Interactive based out of The Netherlands. With just a team of four at Fugitive Games, they managed to squeeze out some of the finest graphics in a space based game that I’ve seen from the Unreal Engine 4. Though, the level of artistry and talent comes at no surprise when mentioning the team behind this game. Being former EA DICE and Spark Unlimited developers means that this game should be held at a higher pillar than most. Some of their past titles they’ve worked on are Lost Planet, Battlefield, and Medal of Honor. If working on AAA titles wasn’t enough, they managed to get Jack Wall to work on their soundtrack. For those who do not know Jack Wall’s works, he is the man behind Myst IV, Jade Empire, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, Lost Planet 3, but most notably from the Mass Effect series.

Like most small developing teams these days, Into the Stars was conceived by crowd funding through Kickstarter and surpassed their goal on January 16th, 2015 and by their last day on February 4th, they managed to raise over $110,000. By early July, they were Greenlit through Steam and up for Early Access. Now into 2016, their game is finally released, but does it hold up to the ideals they instilled in their 4,000+ backers and many others who helped through early access?

Story+

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Blood Alloy: Reborn A good start but needs work

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Fionna Schweit

Review by: Brandon Hall

Blood Alloy: Reborn is a new early access game from Suppressive Fire Games. Its currently released in early access an introduction to the gameplay mechanics of a bigger game. Its tiny price tag of $13 is may put some people off, but it’s really just the start of a game. An early tutorial goes over just the basics of maneuvering and sliding, and leaves much open for interpretation. It also seems to be missing a story element altogether. The art style is great for any pixel art aficionado and the music is very well composed. But those seem to be the only real great points about this game as it exists now.

I made a great mistake by skipping the tutorial, and I paid for it. Skipping the tutorial may have been a bit cocky as I soon learned that I knew nothing about this game or its controls controls. After a lot of cursing and many screams of angst I swallowed my pride and loaded up the tutorial. To my amazement, or lack thereof, the tutorial was barebones with nothing more than flashing keys in the background prompting you towards the end of the section. I know it’s an early access game, but navigating the tutorial seems straightforward, yet failure results in an instant reset putting you at the last checkpoint. It was at this point that my frustration began to take hold as I felt less immersed in the game, pushing me away from enjoyment and more towards a sense of dread.

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This should give you an idea of how much happens on screen

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Development Halts On Spiritual Successor To Final Fantasy Tactics, Unsung Story

Posted on February 9, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Today it was announced that PlayDeck the developers behind Yasumi Matsuno’s spiritual successor to the PlayStation classic Final Fantasy Tactics, Unsung Story, has ceased active development. This shocking revelation that the once promising strategy RPG would see no further development came in the form of an update to KickStarter backers who helped fund development efforts.

Several key staff members left the developer after their last update to backers in October 2015. PlayDeck released a short statement about the financial viability of continuing work on Unsung Story and that in time they may be able to get a third party to finish work on the game.

In part their statement read:

“After we posted our latest development progress, we unfortunately lost a few key staff members that were part of Unsung Story development, and that has had an impact on any progress since then, as well as our product focus”

Unsung Story launched their KickStarter campaign in 2014 to much fanfare. Playdeck originally pitched the game as a immersive single player strategy RPG that would explore the history of the world that Matsuno envisioned.  In the fall of this year development priorities appeared to suddenly shift with PlayDeck announcing that they would be rolling out a PVP online combat mode prior to releasing any single player content.

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Could there be a Dementium III on the way?

Posted on February 8, 2016 by Jason Nason

We missed this during the week, but Jools Watsham from Renegade Kid put the question on Twitter with the question: Would you back a Dementium 3 Kickstarter? The ask comes as Watsham and the team are looking to gauge interest in pursuing a third game in the series.

While Kickstarter is a great way to get games funded they can be a lot of work. So before Renegade Kid goes through that effort of setting up a crowdfunding campaign it’s always a good idea to see if they an actually be funded. If everyone who retweets the post were to donate to a campaign then the game has a healthy start and chance.

The original Tweet from Jools Watsham is below, so if you want to see a third Dementium game on the Nintendo 3DS and beyond, click that retweet button. The team is looking for about 3,000 retweets before next Sunday. Read More

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Darkest Dungeon: “There Can Be No Bravery Without Madness!”

Posted on February 5, 2016 by Kyle Scarboro

Darkest Dungeon is the birth child of indie game developers Chris Bourassa and Tyler Sigman with the help of their studio, Red Hook Studios. This is their first game and they are coming out of the gate strong! Darkest Dungeon is a Kickstarter funded, Roguelike Gothic RPG, and was successfully funded back in February 2014 and earned over $300,000 when only asked for $75,000. It is quite impressive to see what a group can come up with when they do not have large pockets to work with. A year later on February 3rd, 2015, Darkest Dungeon Early Access was launched on Steam, garnishing the game with overall very positive reviews and a Metacritic score of 86/100  This game has gone on to sell over 700k copies since its release on January 19th, 2016.

 

So what makes this game good? Did they stumble upon the underwater city of R’lyeh and prey to The Great Old One for inspiration and guidance? Maybe…let’s find out!

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“Star Wars Open World RPG” Kickstarter Showcases Game Development Delusions

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Renee Gittins

starwars

A new game has been announced on Kickstarter. It’s an expansive, open world RPG in the Star Wars universe with graphics rivaling Star Wars: Battlefront and “with the feel of The Witcher 3“. The game is set to launch December 2017 if its funding goal of $200,000 is met within the next 26 days. Development has yet to start, the team has not yet been formed, and licenses have not yet been acquired.

If you could not contain your laughter upon reading the last paragraph, congratulations, you may have a sane understanding of video game development.

While Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites have been an amazing resource for game developers requiring additional resources to complete their games, it also has been a breeding grounds for false promises, poorly managed development and even theft. Few developers using crowdfunding are outright malicious, but there are countless who try their hardest and still cannot produce the game they thought that they could on the budget they planned.Read More

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Comcept Unloads A Barrage of Mighty Number 9 Screenshots

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards

Mighty Number 9

Comcept the developer behind the Kickstarted Mega Man spiritual successor Mighty Number 9 has released a whole set of brand new screenshots for your viewing pleasure. We’ve got an entire gallery containing all of the high-rez colorful screnshots at the bottom of this post.

Mighty Number 9 was originally revealed back in September 2013 and reached its funding goal only after 2 days. With gameplay that is reminiscent of Keiji Inafune’s former Capcom creation, long time platform veterans and those familiar with his other works should have no problem jumping right into protagonist Beck’s shoes.  This past August the project was delayed from a September 2015 release into February of next year for most versions of Mighty Number 9. It will be released on Windows PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, OSX, Linux. Wii U and at a later date PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS.

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Pillars of Eternity: The White March Part 2 Due Out In January 2016

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards

The second part of the Pillars of Eternity: The White March expansion pack is set to release this January according to both Paradox Interactive and Obsidian Entertainment.  The White March Part 2 sends players back to the snowy lands of The Eastern Realm where they can complete new quests, reach a new level-cap and much more.

In a very brief press-release Obsidian gave this description of the expansion:

The White March – Part 2 adds new content to the Pillars of Eternity universe, including new quests, new abilities, and a new companion: Meneha, the Barbarian. The expansion also offers players a higher level cap, and the new “Story Time” mode, letting players experience the incredible narrative of Pillars of Eternity at a faster pace. Directed by Josh Sawyer, Game Director of Fallout: New Vegas andPillars of Eternity, The White March – Part 2 features an expertly crafted story from Eric Fenstermaker, lead writer of Pillars of Eternity and the co-writer of South Park: The Stick of Truth, and Carrie Patel, author of the Recoletta series and writer on the original Pillars of Eternity.

A Kickstarter Success Story

Pillars of Eternity began life as a Kickstarter project from Obsidian Entertainment back in September of 2012. Earning over 3.9 million dollars it quickly became one of the largest Kickstarter success stories. The final release of Pillars of Eternity was released this past March with the first expansion Pillars of Eternity: The White March following this past august.

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