Time for my third annual kickstarter progress report. I'm up to 25 projects backed though I have slowed down after last year's splurge.
For those somehow still unfamiliar with it, Kickstarter is way for developers and artists to raise funding from their fans and potential fans. During an age of limited financing this is often the only way for great products to see the light of day in our niche industry. Despite the occasional hiccup, I still find the Kickstarter process continues to work well.
Fully Completed
The only video game I've thus backed,
Telepath Tactics uses the Fire Emblem-style design of turn based team combat. I'm a sucker for old school games like that. Despite some slippage of dates, in the end I got everything I was promised. The game is pretty fun, though I haven't had time to play through it fully yet. The designer has provided
some interesting analysis of the financials on his end which really sheds some light on the economics of video game design.
Last year I wrote a post on
my ideas for a
Mecha vs. Kaiju game based on this Fate adaption. I had a lot of fun
playing with the developer at DunDraCon and I'm glad to have the final product in my hands. The final physical book ended up 9 months delayed but I think the product was worth the wait.
Worlds In Peril applies the rules of Apocalypse World to the superhero genre.
I reviewed it here. The pdf release was only a few months late. I've received all the materials at this point so this one is done.
Save Point Tavern is going to be a gaming bar here in Sacramento. While the bar hasn't materialized (last report said they were doing construction at the site), my reward (a sticker) did arrive. I'll call this complete and watch for their opening day announcement.
Main Project Completed
Now we get to projects, though technically complete, still have some extra rewards coming. Items still on this list tend to have ambitious stretch goals.
I backed
Mummy: the Curse at the beginning of 2013. After some delays (including a nasty one due to printer difficulties), I finally got my completed book 9 months late. In that I was pretty satisfied. However a number of other books were promised as stretch goals: a story anthology, a city book for Rio de Janeiro, and Dreams of Avarice, replicating an in-world artifact. Very little has come out in the months since.
I know there is an issue for Onyx Path and retaining enough freelancers to work on supplements. According to their
Monday Meeting notes two of these books are currently in the red lines. Basically I'm beginning to think Onyx Path is overstretched. Hopefully they can figure out to expand enough to fulfill their promises in a timely manner.
As I researched where all my kickstarters were at, I realized that the full project for
Obsidian Portal remains to be completed. Most of the functionality (and almost all of it that I care about) is complete: improved maps, name generators, custom URLs, and improvements to the overall system. But we are still waiting on natural editing and the file locker two years out.
Another project with a lot of stretch goal products,
the Strange has been better at delivering new items over the past couple years. Only a couple of books remain out of a vast collection of supplements. Unfortunately I've barely read any of them, having lost interest in the setting shortly after the kickstarter. At least I only spent a little money on it. The book itself came out exactly on time which was nice.
The print editions of
Urban Shadows should be out in the world by now, not that it matters to me because I foolishly did not back it for more than the pdf. Even so I have another item to look forward to: Dark Streets, a supplement that gives the Urban Shadows treatment for several cities around the world. You can find
my review of the game here. Next time I'm ready for an Apocalypse World based game, this will be it.
The cards for
Backstory Cards came out a few months delayed and most of the stretch goals were incorporated into that. The concept is to provide starting points for describing the relationships between the PCs, other characters, events, and the setting for the purposes of character creation. Now we are in a state similar to Hillfolk, where the creators are releasing a series of monthly additions. Overall I'm pretty happy with this. I need to make use of these cards at some point.
Feng Shui 2 arrived by GenCon essentially on time. The book is beautiful and well presented. While the system doesn't add anything for me, the philosophy and setting for the game are quite compelling. I've received several of stretch goals and now am just to wait for a supplement and a few adventures.
Delayed
Then we have the projects for which I am still awaiting completion of the main product. Specifically those that have fallen behind schedule.
I posted a
review of
TimeWatch recently, a time travel game using the GUMSHOE system. Since I wrote that I've gotten a post editing (and pre-layout) version and looks good. Given that the original book was due to arrive almost a year ago, I suppose it could be worse. I'm still excited for the game and due to delays in my own life, it hasn't held up anything for me.
The project I backed secretly for my wife did not appear this summer either (missing both her birthday and our anniversary). So now I hoping it will arrive in time to be a Christmas present (crossing fingers). According to the kickstarter reports, it ran into that all too common problem of printer troubles.
My wife got to try out
The Sprawl at GenCon. A cyberpunk adaption of the Apocalypse World system, it seemed overly fiddly to me from the draft rules. This is another that is overdue (currently at 8 months late). I did receive the audio reward however and the book is layout. So the pdf should appear any week now.
At the end of last year, I contributed to the kickstarter for a new edition of
Paranoia, a game which like Feng Shui that I heard a lot about but never played. You play clones (6 in fact, think of them as extra lives) under the benevolent rule of your friend the Computer. Except everyone is secretly a traitor and needs to be eliminated. Basically it is a game of backstabbing, silliness and satire with an emphasis on the humor. Their plans were clearly overly ambitious (6 months to complete a box set!) but it looks like it should be in layout this month. So there is a possibility that a pdf will be available before the end of the year. I don't expect the print version until next spring at the earliest however.
Remember how I said Onyx Path is over extended? I also contributed to
Dark Eras, their historical setting book. This only slightly behind schedule at the moment (a month) but I expect it to be a few months before we see a pdf release. It looks like the main hold up for this are all the bonus chapters that funded and which need to be completed, edited and added to the main book.
Delayed (with Caveats)
These projects are not technically delayed, it's just that I asked for the more expensive printing and so I've got some time to wait still.
First up is
Mage: the Ascension, the 20th anniversary edition. I paid for the deluxe edition so I've been held up by the same printing issues that dogged the Print on Demand version. In any case I received the pdf last spring and like far too many games, I haven't read it fully yet. This kickstarter generated a lot of extras so I expect we'll be seeing this again in next year's post (though higher up the page).
Then there is the
Dracula Dossier, a massive two book improvisational adventure that includes a unredacted version of Bram Stroker's book and an almost limitless number of ways to use it. Which doesn't cover the extras: a dice bag, handouts, several adventures, and more. This was the item that forced me to cut back on kickstarter. I went for the signed limited edition Dracula Unredacted in the style of Stoker's original edition and spent more than I really should. So far I've received the finished pdfs, my limited edition version of the director's Handbook, the roll-out book, several adventures, and the pdf handouts. My copy of Dracula Unredacted was lost but should be arriving fairly soon. Now I just need the group and time to run it.
Still to Come
Finally we've got the projects that have not yet reached their release dates. these remain in the clear, though for some the clock is ticking.
The clock is specifically ticking for
Wraith: the Oblivion 20th anniversary edition. I don't expect to get the book next month because, again, I went with the deluxe version. But more importantly the book remains in redlines. So a pdf is still some months away as we need to get second drafts completed, editing done, and finally layout.
Next up is
Beast: the Primordial, the controversial new line from Onyx Path. Supposedly they are shooting for a June release but we'll have to see. Onyx Path has a lot on its plate. I am heartened by the Monday Meeting notes which indicate the main book is well along in the post editing process.
No Thank You Evil is a fantasy roleplaying game by Monte Cook Games geared towards young children. Since it is for ages 5 and up, I'm not exactly worried about it being late. I've got 4 years until I need it for my son. Anyway according to the last report, its moving into editing. Maybe it will be out this spring after all.
I've been seeing dribs and drabs for the last item on the list for the past few months.
Microscope Explorer is a supplement to Microscope, a collaborative history building game. Microscope Explorer expands the possibilities of Microscope to time travel, family tress and more. The developer was very timely with his kickstarter for Kingdom so I expect this project to remain close to schedule.
My latest kickstarter which just ended was for
Masks, a new Apocalypse World based game that focuses on teenage super heroes and how learn to establish themselves in a city with many of generations of heroes in it. I don't really need another super hero game but the mechanics sounded interesting and so for that reason I backed for a pdf. The kickstarter was wildly successful and hopefully I'll be able to report good things by this time next year.
The Future
I have no new kickstarters on my horizon right now, something my wallet is happy about. I'm sure I'll another one or two by next year however.
No comments:
Post a Comment