There’s been a lot of attention drawn to Kickstarter over the past month. First internet darling Tim Schaffer successfully raised 3.3 million dollars to fund the development of a classic adventure game. Then, out of nowhere, Brian Fargo repeated the miracle by securing a sequel to Wasteland – a game that came out in 1988! It appears crowd funding has hit the limelight, and indie developers couldn’t be happier. To celebrate Kickstarter – and to exploit the site’s popular for the benefit of my own blog – I’m dedicating a feature to current projects I’m following. If this article ends up being popular, it may become a semi-regular set piece at The World is Square. If not, I’ll find another fad to desperately attach myself to. Here goes!

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The Banner Saga

Mike would kill me if I didn’t mention this one. The Banner Saga is a tactical roleplaying game project being developed by a splinter group of old Bioware employees. If that isn’t enough to wet your appetite, the game also features lush hand-drawn animation reminiscent of classic Disney movies and a story rooted in Viking mythology. It’s surprisingly well-realized considering its early stage of development Less surprising is how quickly the game reached its $100,000 goal – it’s attached to the Bioware name for heavens sake. Still it’s only $10 for the complete game, and higher tiers of investment will yield a doubtlessly gorgeous digital art book.

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Dwimmermount

The next project hails from my native Canada. Dwimmermount is a sprawling megadungeon, a tribute to the classic deathtraps of Gygax’s era of Dungeons and Dragons. The game employs a modified version of the Labyrinth Lord rule system and has also been adapted to the Adventurer Conqueror King System. Dwimmermount is well worth a look if you’re interested in classic roleplaying games to any extent. It’ll only run you $10 for PDFs of both the LL and ACKS versions. Although already funded, the team is going to cough up a tantalizing bonus dungeon level if the project reaches its secondary goal of $30 000.

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Pure Steam

Are you a fan of Pathfinder? Are you a fan of steampunk? The three of you who answered yes to both these questions can rejoice. Pure Steam is a campaign setting for the Pathfinder roleplaying game entrenched in the anachronistic and generally irreverent genre of steampunk. Steampunk usually isn’t my cup of tea, but promises of “[e]xpanded options for non-magical healing” and a “plethora of pseudoscience wondrous items” caught my attention. A donation of $15 will land you a PDF of the Pure Steam Core Rulebook, fully compatible with the current edition of the Pathfinder roleplaying system.