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Showing posts from February, 2015

Kickstarter Shout-out: Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire

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In 2014, we got the surprise Kickstarter hit, The Banner Saga. It was praised for its challenging combat, engrossing story, and downright beautiful art style. In fact, this art style was loved so much, that another Kickstarter project, Bedlam, is using the same engine that The Banner Saga used. 2D animation is just a delight to see since so much of the animation industry is fixated on using CG or flash animation for different products. Sure, you can make both CG and flash animation look nice, but nothing captures that magical feeling of watching 2D animation on a big/small screen. Don’t get me wrong! I love films like “How to Train your Dragon.” In fact, “How to Train your Dragon” has recently become one of my all-time favorite films, but there is a certain kind of feeling you get from watching something like “Ernest and Celestine” that you won’t get with “How to Train your Dragon.” Now, what does The Banner Saga, and the talk about the different experiences you get between 2D and CG f

Kickstarter Shout-out: Edge of Eternity

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With the popularity of the RPG genre from Kickstarter, I am not really surprised that I am about to talk about another RPG. First off, let’s get some history out of the way. If the title Edge of Eternity sounds familiar, then it’s because this project has appeared on Kickstarter before. Sadly, the project was unsuccessfully funded. The team behind the game, Midgar Studio, then went to help out the team behind the popular Kickstarter game, Hover: Revolt of Gamers, which is being developed by Fusty Games. Recently, Edge of Eternity has appeared on sites like Siliconera.com, and they have now relaunched their Kickstarter. So, on top of being a 3D old-fashioned JRPG, this Kickstarter also has the stretch goal of having Chrono Trigger/Cross composer Yasunori Mitsuda, but there is a playable PC demo for any curious/potential backers if they want to check it out! Basically, this Kickstarter does a lot of things I want to see Kickstarters do. Let’s jump in and give Edge of Eternity a Kickstart

Kickstarter Shout-out: Underworld Ascendant

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Due to a few unfortunate Kickstarter horror stories and failures, people like to think that Kickstarter is a terrible thing since you are backing a game that may or may not be good or even finished. Granted, it doesn’t help when you have the examples of such failures like Yogventures and The Stomping Lands . Well, while we do get those horror stories, you should really see the popularity of a lot of games from last year. Most of them were Kickstarter games. Honestly, due to the huge disappointment of last year that was the Triple A gaming scene, a lot of the more well-received receptions and reviews went to these crowd-funded products. Think about it. The more interesting note, at least for me, is that the most well-received Kickstarter games were RPGs. You had The Banner Saga , Divinity: Original Sin , and Wasteland 2 . Even the recently released Hand of Fate (review coming soon) is getting an incredible amount of positive reviews. That isn’t even counting the Kickstarter games that

Kickstarter Shout-out: 3 Sprite-based Games Special

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Indie games that use pixel-art and sprites for the overall look of a game is nothing new. Last year, I covered what seemed like hundreds of games that use this style for their games. You had Crossing Souls, Aegis Defenders, Witchmarsh, The Way, Thimbleweed Park, Hive Jump, and you get the idea. A lot of these games are doing something different whether it is how they look, how they play, or how the game’s narrative will be executed. Since so many developers use this graphical style, you have to stand out and show off why your game is different from the others. Gamers might like pixel-art games of the retro consoles, but they have to be good games and have a lot of variety to them. Let’s check out these three Kickstarters and see what they’ve got going for them. Children of Morta Here we have an action game that reminds me more of games like Gauntlet, with some elements of roguelike games. The story revolves around a family, the Bergsons, who are the guardians of a massive mountain call