Gaming Crowdfunding Weekly – Kodama, Prodigy, Cosmochoria, Bear Simulator

Gaming Crowdfunding Weekly – Kodama, Prodigy, Cosmochoria, Bear Simulator

Back from rehabilitation, Gaming Crowdfunding Weekly cleans up its act and gets back to what really matters: underfunded puzzle platformers like Kodama, collectible miniatures making the transition to video games with Prodigy, fart-propelled naked spacemen in Cosmochoria and “Skyrim with bears” in Bear Simulator.

Know of a game or game-related project on Kickstarter, Indiegogo or any other platform that you’d like to see featured? Please email us with a tip!

Previously featured campaigns

  • Despite its strong start, Earthlock: Festival of Magic is 2/3rds of the way to its goal with one week to go – still certainly achievable, but in need of a signal boost.
  • With two weeks to go Julian Gollop’s Chaos Reborn, is two thirds funded. Dead Synchronicity has less time, and is only halfway there
  • Things don’t look so great for Bizenghast, which still needs to find $100,000. The Red Solstice needs to pick up the pace too
  • A week to go for Dragon Fin Soup, which is nearly 300% funded – stretch goals up to $360,000. Planets³ has also very recently passed its $250,000  goal
  • The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 was easily funded, exceeding its goal more than twice over. Koe made it past several stretch goals on the way to its goal
  • Tulpa is still only a third or so to its goal, just over a week left
  • Dark Drive failed to raise even 1/20th of its goal by the end

In progress

Kodama

Kodama gameplay screenshot

Goal: $26,000
Deadline: 12 April 2014
Outlook: Not great with one week to go – but the goal is low and the right publicity could easily take it beyond the target.

A physics platformer with pretty art in which you play a tree-spirit that must photosynthesise and stay watered to be either light and weak or heavy and strong. Kodama isn’t exactly soaring towards its goal – perhaps physics platformers are just becoming a hard sell, but I’m surprised that the cute protagonist, Japanese cultural references and hand painted backgrounds aren’t attracting a little more attention.

Prodigy

030414-crowdfund-weekly-02-prodigy-figurine

Goal: $100,000
Deadline: 2 May 2014
Outlook: Has shot off out of the gate rather quickly – just a third of the goal to go.

I’ve always assumed that the supremely obvious and lucrative Skylanders-style, figurine powered game must have been too prohibitively expensive for anyone else to attempt. The evidence seemed to point that way anyway – aside from Activision, the only other attempt has been made by Disney (they who can afford to do anything). Heck, Japanese giant Namco Bandai recently created an anime series that was essentially Gundam Skylanders, and seem to have decided for whatever reason that actually making a game with that concept didn’t make financial sense.

So seeing Prodigy asking for just $100,000 to create what is being widely interpreted as ‘Skylanders for adults (who collect figurines)’ initially seems a little jarring. In practice, this is a little less like a Skylanders proposition, and more like the many (and often hugely successful) gaming miniature Kickstarters, just with a digital playing board rather than the traditional table-top.

When Prodigy says it’s offering a “tactical RPG” experience, it’s talking about a digitisation of table-top one-on-ones (complete with grid and action cards), rather than an 80-hour Final Fantasy Tactics-esque epic then. Also worth considering how the $100 buy-in for the starter-kit tier factors into your enthusiasm. Either way, an interesting collision of worlds and some hugely detailed figurines that are bound to go down a storm.

Cosmochoria

Red planet Cosmochoria screenshot

Goal: $10,000 (CAD)
Deadline: 1 May 2014
Outlook: A solid start means we’re halfway to a modest goal.

While I haven’t a clue why Cosmochoria features a naked spaceman jumping between planetoids, shooting aliens and planting seeds to rejuvenate a dying galaxy, I’m willing to suggest that I’d be interested to find out. In terms of art style and control scheme, I’m getting vibes of PixelJunk Shooter from this one, and that is by no means a bad thing – though the fact that gamepad support won’t be in until 25,000 of your Canadian dollars are raised adds incentive to fund this way past its goal.

Funded

Bear Simulator

Bear simulator gameplay screenshot

Goal: $29,500
Deadline: 17 April 2014
Outlook: Currently chomping away at a long list of stretch goals

Disappointed that Goat Simulator failed to do exactly what its title promised? What the hell is wrong with you? Also, Bear Simulator might be right up your street, making something more of an effort to include daily bearly tasks such as eating fish, mauling animals and just generally being a bit of an inconsiderate, giant furry asshole.

Fans of Goat Simulator will be happy to hear that things aren’t too deathly serious, with humour injected throughout the pitch and in the early gameplay. Currently there are no references to ‘pickernick baskets’, gay subcultures, or Werner Herzog. These things will come in time.

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