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Showing posts from August, 2014

Kickstarter Shout-out: Kaptain Brawe 2: A Space Travesty

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If you are not an adventure game fan, you probably wouldn’t recognize the name, Steve Ince. He is an award-nominated writer and game designer, who is most famous for his work on Revolution Software’s Broken Sword franchise. I bring this very talented individual up because with the help of Kickstarter, we have seen a lot of the big wigs of adventure gaming come out of the woodwork to bring back the adventure game genre. Since we are seeing so many adventure game designers returning to the scene, why not add another? This Kickstarter Shout-out will be interesting, because this will cover a relaunched Kickstarter project called Kaptain Brawe 2: A Space Travesty. The original Kickstarter was already very impressive, and it looked like it was going to shape up to be a good game. Unfortunately, the Kickstarter didn’t reach its funding goals, but now with a new Kickstarter page up, and some healthy support from Ouya, let us talk about Kaptain Brawe 2: A Space Travesty. The story is about the

Kickstarter Shout-out: Four Wii U Kickstarter Projects to be on the Lookout For

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Everyone likes to complain that the Wii U has no games right now, and even though the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are also in a dry spell, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have third party support. This is a bummer since you can do a lot of creative things with the Wii U GamePad, and a lot of Kickstarter projects like the upcoming Hex Heroes show gamers and potential investors what you can do! When I was searching through my list of Kickstarter games to cover, I saw that four of them were coming to the Wii U, with three of them being specifically for the Wii U and PC. I then decided to cover each of them in one article with a one or two paragraph descriptions of the game. Let us get started then! Here are four Kickstarter games that are coming to the Wii U that deserve your attention! Hive Jump Let’s start with a game that will fulfill your needs for fast-paced 2D action four-player co-op! Hive Jump puts you in the armored shoes of jumpers as you go across the planet and vanquish these giant

Kickstarter Shout-out: The Sun Also Rises

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With games like Valiant Hearts: The Great War and Spec Ops: The Line covering other elements of games set around war, I think it’s nice that some developers are looking at war from a different point of view. It’s getting a little old that in basically all games set in some war-time era, all you do is shoot other characters. When I was checking out Kickstarter, I saw this game, The Sun Also Rises. Before clicking on it, I had a feeling that it was going to be some super pretentious game that is trying to say more than it actually is, but luckily, I was wrong. Let us jump on into The Sun Also Rises, and see why this game is getting my Kickstarter Shout-out! The game will revolve around events of war, based around the stories of U.S. soldiers, their families, and people from Afghanistan. I like this set-up, because it’s based more around reality, and it doesn’t just drop you onto the battlefield with an assault rifle. It’s like this developer realized that there are more stories based aro

Kickstarter Shout-out: Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries

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Here is a very interesting case for this Kickstarter Shout-out. If you remember at E3 2014 when Microsoft was showing off that they are making sure to have good relations with indie developers, they showed off a trailer filled with multiple indie games that were coming to the company’s Xbox One. Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries was one of those games. This was a fun-looking action game with a fantastic art style. Recently, I saw that this very game was on Kickstarter. It was a little confusing, since I feel like if Microsoft is coming out and saying that they want your game on their console, they would give you the funding for that to happen. However, it is a project on Kickstarter, so I thought, “why not give them a shout-out?” Let’s dive into the twisted world of twisted fairy tale books and read on why Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries is getting a Kickstarter Shout-out! This game puts you in the heels of a rather gloomy, but deadly Red Riding Hood. Four years in the past, Red’s father, the

Kickstarter Shout-out: Hard West

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The Wild West as a setting is nothing new to gaming. We have had some fantastic games that are set in the realm of cowboys and Indians, like Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption and Techland’s Call of Juarez franchise. Unfortunately, developers really don’t like putting the Wild West into that many different game genres. If you are getting a game that is set in the west, it is most likely a shooter of some sorts. It’s a shame, too, since you could really do some interesting things if you take the setting and put it into a genre like, I don’t know, something that is like the recently funded InSomnia, the highly anticipated Wasteland 2, or the first two Fallout games. Luckily, I found out about a company called Creative Forge and their game, Hard West. Let us dive into this world of revolvers and ten gallon hats; this is Kickstarter Shout-out: Hard West. Hard West puts you in the boots of six different characters, with, of course, six different scenarios. They will be interconnected, so this m

Kickstarter Shout-out: Five First Person Games To Be On The Lookout For

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I promised myself that I would be very diverse when it comes to covering different Kickstarter projects, but I realized that I haven’t really covered first-person games. I think the reason why I don’t do a lot of shout-outs for these kinds of Kickstarter games is because they either don’t show enough gameplay, just show concept art, or some of them seem really pretentious, or don’t look all that impressive. However, to make up for this fact that I haven’t covered many first-person games, I will do a quick shout-out to five different first-person games that I think deserve it! Vanguard V I am going to start with the game that has the least amount of days left in their Kickstarter to get funded, and that is the Oculus Rift game, Vanguard V. This Oculus Rift game project has you in the seats of a pilot named Qu, who has traveled across the universe for a dangerous parasite that has destroyed her home world. It is up to you as Qu, and her robot companion BiT, to stop this evil force and sa

Kickstarter Shout-out: Jenny LeClue

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With Double Fine Production’s Broken Age Part II, Doug Tenapel’s Armikrog, and Two Guy’s SpaceVenture in development, many gamers are now anticipating what could be the next big adventure game to come out of Kickstarter. Currently, there are three different Kickstarter projects that I am keeping track of, all of which are adventure games. The first one is Wyrmkeep Entertainment’s Inherit the Earth: Sand and Shadows , the sequel to the cult favorite original, Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb. It is currently at over $26K of its $160K funding goal. They have 5 days left to get their game funded. I don’t know if it will make it, but I hope it does, and if it doesn’t, I say relaunch their project at a later date, because I like the set-up for the original, and would love to play it at some time in the future. If you want to support them, you can go to their Kickstarter page . The second Kickstarter game is Cateia Games’ Kaptain Brawe 2: A Space Travesty . This is their second Kickstart

Kickstarter Shout-out: Aegis Defenders

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One of my favorite movies to watch and talk about is Hayao Miyazaki’s “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.” The film has great animation, interesting themes, incredible atmosphere, and some very memorable characters. I know people debate as to whether Nausicaä is a great character or not, due to her acting like she is holier than everyone, but I still enjoy the movie very much, and for one of his first films to direct, I think it still holds up. Now then, why am I talking about a movie by one of the world’s great animation directors? Because today’s Kickstarter Shout-out is about a game that has the same vibe as “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.” Let us dive right into Aegis Defenders, and see why this game gets my Kickstarter Shout-out! Aegis Defenders is about two characters. The first character is an old man named Bart, who is an engineer, and the second character is his granddaughter, Clu, a hunter. They explore the land of Elam that was destroyed by a robotic demi-god known as

Interview with William Dubé, The Creator of Jotun

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One of the most popular Kickstarter projects going on right now is William Dubé’s action adventure game, Jotun. If you have not seen my Kickstarter Shout-out for it, I would recommend checking it out ( here is the link! ), along with the Jotun Kickstarter page . Recently, I had the pleasure of talking with William Dubé about the project. Me: What was the inspiration for Jotun? Why set the game around Vikings and Norse Mythology? William: Jotun was inspired by my love for mythology and ancient literature. I’ve always been fascinated by centuries-old stories like Beowulf and The Divine Comedy. The more you dive into Norse mythology, the crazier and more epic it gets. It is the perfect backstory for a video game. Me: I love that the game has a female protagonist! So, I was curious, what was the decision around making the main character female? William: It’s impossible to ignore all the talk in the industry about gender equality going on right now. I think that definitely influenced our

Kickstarter Shout-out: Jotun

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I have recently noticed that the themes of Vikings have been more of a thing in the media for the past six or so years. If you really think about it, it is slowly becoming the new craze like with vampires and zombies. I am being serious here, let us list the ways that Vikings have been a popular thing among the entertainment industry. You have The Creative Assembly’s Viking: Battle for Asgard, Dreamwork’s “How to Train your Dragon,” Pixar’s “Brave,” the PlayStation downloadable game, When Vikings Attack!, History Channel’s “Vikings,” and this year’s indie hit, The Banner Saga. Vikings are slowly becoming a thing and I am fine with that. There is so much lore and stories that revolve around Vikings that I am surprised that we haven’t gotten more games based around the violent warriors of olden days. Well, if you think we don’t have enough stuff about Vikings, you should check out this Kickstarter game called Jotun. Let us dive into this world of giants, and Vikings with battle axes to s