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Showing posts from October, 2014

Kickstarter Shout-out: Rogue Wizards

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With the disappointment of Diablo III, and just how long it took to make the game, other dungeon-crawlers and isometric RPGs have moved on up to the east side to become what dungeon-crawlers should be designed like. We have Torchlight and its sequel Torchlight II, and of course, with the help of Kickstarter, we have gotten a multitude of isometric RPG Kickstarters. You have examples such as Wasteland 2, Popup Dungeon, InSomnia, Hard West, and you get the idea. We are in no short supply of these kinds of games, but it always doesn’t hurt to keep talking about the more interesting dungeon-crawlers that appear on Kickstarter. This is the case of Rogue Wizards, a procedurally-generated dungeon-crawler that has some serious ex- Blizzard and other RPG talent looking to make what looks like a promising game. Let’s jump on in and see why Rogue Wizards is getting my Kickstarter Shout-out! We will be skipping directly into the gameplay, since Rogue Wizards doesn’t really have a story besides you

Kickstarter Shout-out: Ex-Irrational Games Special

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In some old sad news of 2014, the talented minds from Irrational Games, the developer behind the Bioshock franchise, were disbanded when the founder of the company, Ken Levine, took 15 people from the developer to make narrative-driven downloadable experiences for Take-Two Interactive. Unfortunately, that left 76 employees without a job. Luckily, during 2014, a lot of them have found new job opportunities, and some of them have even made their own indie studios and have had their projects put on Kickstarter. That is what today’s Kickstarter shout-out is going to be about. We will be covering Day for Night Games’ The Black Glove and The Molasses Flood’s The Flame in The Flood. Like I said, both games are made by ex-Irrational Games employees, and both offer something very different from one another. Let’s take a look at The Black Glove first, shall we? The Black Glove The Black Glove puts you in the shoes of the newest curator of a theater in the 1920s called Equinox. The unique element

Kickstarter Shout-out: Black the Fall

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I was having a tough time choosing between two different Kickstarters to write about. The first one was a strategy game called Highlands by Burrito Studio. I wanted to talk about Highlands because its beautiful hand-drawn-Disney-inspired graphics were really a sight to behold. However, the gameplay shown turned me off of the project slightly, since it looked like a bunch of instant messenger icons fighting instead of seeing the full individual units on screen. I still think it is a Kickstarter worth looking into if you loved the art style of Jotun, and are a fan of games like Civilization: Beyond Earth. The game’s funding goal is $20K, and they are currently at over $11K. You can go to this link if you want to support them. The second game, which is the focus for this Kickstarter Shout-out is called Black The Fall. This was the very first game to be put on Square Enix’s Collective site. This is a program where Square Enix handpicks some unique or promising indie games, and lets the pu

Kickstarter Shout-out: Battle Chef Brigade

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Some of you may not know this about me, but besides playing video games, writing video game-related articles, and watching movies, I like to cook. I make a batch of crispy chick peas almost weekly, and I also love going to different food trucks to have unique and delicious dining experiences. Unfortunately, video games do not offer many good or well-rounded cooking experiences. Most of them are boring, tedious, and any other word that means “I am not having fun.” For the most part, cooking in video games is left to little mini-games like the ones found in Dragon’s Crown. While perusing around Kickstarter for my next article for Kickstarter Shout-out, I found this lovely little project called Battle Chef Brigade. If you took elements of Iron Chef, action RPGs, and gave it an anime/fantasy visual flair, you would get Battle Chef Brigade. Let’s sauté those onions and roast some beef stew, and see why Battle Chef Brigade is getting my Kickstarter Shout-out! In this delicious game, you play

Kickstarter Shout-out: Bedlam

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With the popularity of the Wasteland 2 and Divinity: Original Sin Kickstarter, we are seeing a lot of isometric RPGs that are inspired by the classics of the 90s, like the original Fallout. Two other great examples of these kinds of games having success on Kickstarter are Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity and Studio MONO’s InSomnia. Since this genre is becoming more popular among indie developers, you will have to be pretty unique or interesting to stand out. For example, today’s Kickstarter Shout-out is all about the Austin, Texas-based developer Skyshine Games’ Bedlam. While this might look like if Borderlands, Fallout, and the artist from the cult film “Heavy Metal” had a baby, it does have a lot of elements that are unique to the isometric post-apocalyptic RPG. Let’s dive right into Bedlam and see why this game is getting my Kickstarter Shout-out! Bedlam puts you in the apocalyptic and barren world of, well, Bedlam. You are known as “The Mechanic” and you have been recently awakened f