Kickstarter, despite seeing funding amounts and success stories go down in recent times, is still a source of interesting crowdfunding projects for the Wii U, in particular. It also throws up occasional alternatives that can intrigue Nintendo gamers, even if the 3DS has been much less prominent in past months, limited to stretch goals in more recent updates.
As before in these summaries we are showing projects with attainable goals and / or those that generally look promising, while the majority of current campaigns focus on the Wii U. Community feedback always brings more games to our attention, of course, so keep at us with those suggestions.
There's a selection of status updates and a new project to consider this time, details below.
New Projects
Nintendo 64 Portable Console - Build Your Own Kit — [approx $3,150 of $5,000 target reached, 20 days to go]
The purpose of this project is to provide a more affordable means for N64 fans to have a portable N64, basically taking the IKEA approach. For less than most modders request for a portable N64, this kit includes substantial instructions, a whole lot of parts and — for a relatively small extra amount — an N64; alternatively you can use your existing system.
Chances of success: This is already well on its way to a modest target.
No video pitch is included in this campaign.
Project Updates
Animal Gods (Reborn) — Wii U included in core goal [approx $4,200 of $26,000 target reached, 22 days to go]
This is a 2D top-down action/adventure title that promises a large open world to explore — combat is real time, and the storyline revolves around exploring a fantasy recreation of 16th Century England in a bid to rescue and revive Animal Gods. With a variety of different moves included this looks quite impressive in its early stages.
Chances of success: After a strong start momentum has slowed, but there's plenty of time left.
Impact Winter — Wii U included in as $150,000 stretch goal [approx £8,300 of £95,000 target reached, 25 days to go]
A fresh arrival from Mojo Bones, an experienced developer that recently brought the brilliant Siesta Fiesta to the 3DS eShop. This is an entirely different proposition, as it takes place in a post-war nuclear winter — the interesting approach is that your task is to survive (and keep your group alive) for 30 days. Resource management and strategy seem particularly important, as you manage your group of survivors, deal with unexpected events and explore the surrounding area with the help of a robot assistant.
Chances of success: Despite the studio's pedigree this project is struggling to gain momentum.
Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King — Wii U included as $250,000 stretch goal [approx $20,000 of $45,000 target reached, hours remaining]
This looks like an utterly charming action RPG, with pixel-based visuals shown off to great effect in the pitch video. There are very clear moments of inspiration from the 2D top-down Legend of Zelda titles, particularly A Link to the Past, including some of those famous mechanics. Despite those familiarities there seems to be a neat twist that the plot is based off storytelling in-game, with some twists and unexpected developments promised.
Chances of success: Very unlikely.
Pending for Wii U
Aegis Defenders — Wii U included as $150,000 stretch goal [$145,815 of $65,000 raised]
Already a significant success in its campaign, this looks like a stylish tactical platformer in which two players co-operate and use various items for self-defence and navigating the environment. The pitch trailer shows promising use of these mechanics with some attractive visuals.
Chances of success: Paypal donations are slowly taking the developers towards the Wii U goal, but as yet it's not been reached.
Ray's the Dead — Wii U included as $65,000 stretch goal [$51,773 of $30,000 raised]
Another success story, this game has eye-catching visuals and a neat hook as you raise the dead — hence the wordplay in the title — to accompany you on an adventure; it seems to be part exploration, part strategy as you lead and hurl an undead army into action. It's all with the goal of exploring Ray LaMorte's backstory.
Chances of success: Pre-orders from the game's website will apparently count towards stretch goals, so there's hope yet for a Wii U version.
Let us know what you think of this current crop and the newcomers, and by all means share other projects that have been left out in the comments below.
Comments 19
The Slacker Backer campaign already ended for Aegis Defenders, actually. On October 6th.
I would be interested in seeing this appear on Wii U:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/touchtiltgames/buildanauts
Sadly it's doing pretty poor so far, may not even reach the PC goal as things stand. :/
@ThomasBW84 - Are you going to cover the Kickstarter Project Cars delay or are you skipping it since it was already delayed until next year on Wii U anyway?
http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2014/10/rumour_ps4_simulation_racer_project_cars_parks_up_until_march_2015
@rjejr I'm looking into the impact on the Wii U version (if any) before reporting on it.
These games always make the Wii U port some sort of ungodly stretch goal. Is it really that time intensive to port to the system?
@ThomasBW84 - Thanks, Thorough is good, and it does all seem to be rumour at this point anyway. I wouldn't have even mentioned it except this Kickstarter post appeared so it seemed relevant.
The build your own portable N64 one is a scam. I can't link it right now since i'm on the phone but there was a Neogaf thread about it.
I hope Blossom tales: the sleeping king will make it!
Animal Gods reminds me of Hyper Light Drifter just a little too much. Aegis Defenders looks GREAT! I really hope that game makes it to Wii U! Would be amazing if games like that made it to 3DS as well. Can't get into Ray's the Dead, Blossom Tales, or Impact Winter. Wouldn't mind building my own '64
Impact Winter looks interesting but I'm not backing anything I'm not guarenteed to get on Wii U if it reaches the goal. If I'm going to back something I want to be able to have the Wii U version as a reward.
The N64 handheld kit seems interesting.....I wonder if you could use the kit to build a N64 arcade cabinet?
@OneBagTravel Porting to Wii U can be a bit more expensive than other consoles. You do need to buy the Wii U dev kit, (granted that is only about $3,000). However, another thing to consider is that Nintendo does not allow devs to give away game keys. Unlike Steam or Humble Bundle, which allows devs to generate keys for free to give to their backers, Nintendo charges a percentage for every key distributed. So, depending on the price of the final release and the backer pledge amount, devs could actually lose money on every Wii U backer pledge, (which is also why the Wii U keys tend to given at a higher backer tier, to prevent that from happening). So the high stretch goals may be to compensate this cost as well.
Depending on the engine, it could be simple to port to Wii U or very time-extensive. Also, another thing to keep in mind is that the stretch goal isn't the cost of porting. Aegis Defenders, for example, has a Wii U stretch goal at $150,000. But the last stretch goal before that was $125,000, which is the cost of the game up until that point. So the extra cost to port to Wii U is actually only $25,000. It's just not as high of a priority as the other stretch goals.
@Xilef I think this is the NeoGAF discussion about the portable N64: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=909551
I despise any project that tosses up a Wii U stretch goal that is 2 to 4 times that of the base goal.... The notion that creating a Wii U port of something is going to cost more than development of the base game is absolutely and positively absurd and despicable, especially a UNITY title for gods sake.... just wish more Wii U owners understood the shell game these devs are playing by playing off the Wii U's supposed "lack of games" meme.
@Klinny Devs can give away free game keys.... they do all the time. How do you think reviews for indie games on Wii U pop up?? You don't think these reviewers are buying these game for our own benefit, do you? Have you seen indie-corner with Jason Levine? He gives away game keys for indie games that are given to him by the indie devs as a form of a contest.
And no, PORTING to the Wii U isn't anymore costly then porting to xbox 360, in fact if the game is made in Unity, like 90%+ of all indie games the porting process is even more painless and cost effective... why buy into the nonsense some of these devs peddle? Plenty of Wii U Indie devs have shot down these myths pushed by other devs about the costs of PORTING to Wii U, nevermind developing from the ground up on the system.
smh
@element187 Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that devs can't give away keys for free. I meant that the devs do have to pay for the keys that they give away. So they may be buying the keys from Nintendo and then giving them to reviewers as part of promotion, (which would be included in a Kickstarter's marketing budget). They may have a set amount of "review keys" they can get for free, (I don't know about this) but unless Nintendo has changed their policies recently, I don't believe they can generate as many keys as they would like to give away for whomever they please, as you can with Steam, so there is an extra cost associated with that in order to get backers the copies they pledged for.
I also didn't mean to imply that the actual act of porting to Wii U was more expensive than porting to other consoles, just that it can be as simple as a 1-click export or more time-extensive if the engine doesn't allow for that. This applies to every console. I just meant to say that porting in general is a bit costly as it adds development time, and Wii U in particular tends to be a little pricier on Kickstarter (partly because of the key thing, which is in addition to porting costs).
I don't think most devs are trying to take advantage of desperate players, however. Some of them have simply never developed for consoles either, and may not be willing to take the risk unless they raise a certain amount. If you do think a particular goal is too high, and you have information that can help a dev lower it, then by all means let the dev know That's a great thing about Kickstarter, too.
Animal Gods and Impact Winter look interesting. Hopefully they'll reach their goals.
@ThomasBW84 You listed this as being WiiU and 3DS but i dont see anything for 3DS here
@NintendoFan64 my exact same sentiments. I may actually contribute to Animal Gods and/or Impact Winter!
Aegi's Defenders and Rays the Dead didn't make the Wii U goal. Another letdown.
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