Kickstarter is teeming with some seriously great projects- and then some serious piles of shit. Survival gaming is getting a major boost from successful Kickstarter projects and plenty of good games – like The Long Dark– have been made through crowdfunding. By backing these games, you’re not just funding a title; you’re fueling the creativity that keeps our genre alive and kicking.
Unfortunately, finding these diamonds requires quite a bit of digging. Let’s dive in.
Part 1: You Decide
Scorching Desert
Nutshell 🥜 The socials are lacking. The Discord has been up since October of 2023 and has four bodies in it besides the developer and the YouTube only hosts two videos and two shorts. (Though the choice of music is hilarious.) The logic behind everything is hard to follow because there doesn’t appear to be any- the game is clearly in the very rough early stage, but they’re working on things like achievements. A ton of money is being pushed into YouTube and Facebook ads- judging both by the comments and the fact that the two videos posted reached a combined audience of over 70k folks for a YT page with 22 followers. Frankly it seems like money and energy that could be better spent on development and sharing footage that avoids – rather than highlights- the rough state of things.
Am I maybe MANY BIAS on account of how I used to run the Discord server for Starsand, the other desert survival game currently available to folks? Mebbe. But on the other hand – in the entire universe of WHAT COULD I POSSIBLY PUT INTO THIS SURVIVAL GAME SET IN THE DESERT, their videos lead with an emphasis on a large creepy crawlie bad critter, same as Starsand, before turning into basically a worse version of Starsand’s trailer in general.Why not lead with an emphasis – overdone or not- on fighting the Egyptian themed gods into the dungeons? (Though I feel like that concept is also a little burnt out.) If the project isn’t abandoned, I don’t see this being a solid foundation to throw money at – either on Kickstarter or for a finished project.
Nutshell 🥜 While admitting this is a title I’d never log in a million years- I think this is cute and, so far, looks really well done! (I’m also really quite tired of things calling themselves survival – why is it not just A COZY ADVENTURE game? Whatever, I’ll table that for now.)
I see an array of well-populated social media platforms and an active Discord with organization & information. Nice clear information dumps, community engagement, and transparency. If this is your type of game, get involved!
Nutshell 🥜 During the last Steam Next Fest – in June, I think- I tried out a demo for this title. It was OK. It was smooth, I experienced no issues, it seemed like it had a purpose and may be something for folks interested in sci fi games. Kinda a Subnautica in space, but with little friction or risk. It is very much not my cup of tea, and that was even before I browsed over some of their Discord, where the developer praised Valheim and their “revolutionary approach to utilizing foods as buff food in a survival game rewarding the player rather than being punitive.” 💀 Because if there’s one thing I personally think of when I hear the word survival is an environment in which only I’m praised & rewarded, and experience no suffering. Again, that’s my two cents for myself. If you prefer your exploration and adventure game to have story and a “less punitive, more rewarding” setup- this may be a good title for ya! Demo is still available on the Steam page.
Nutshell 🥜 Another title is taking a crack at creating a “medieval open-world survival MMO.” (No, I have no idea where the survival claim comes in; I think it’s because it has food, crafting, and resource gathering. If you just said, “So does ESO, WoW, and GW2,” then I don’t know what to tell you; this is different. Oh- maybe because you can build houses? Can’t think of any popular gaming franchise that involves building and decorating homes.)
This doesn’t help either.
WHAT THE FUCK DOES THIS EVEN MEAN?
Everything about the footage and media paints a picture of your typical MMO mechanics in a new-ish setting. Their website offers multiple pre-order tiers, and some come with (eventual) Alpha and Beta access. So you can check out Feudal Lands if you’ve given up hope waiting on the popular upcoming MMO Ashes of Creation (honestly, AoC’s Alpha buy-in was TOO RICH for my wallet), or if you’ve never given up hope on a Medieval MMO Survival game becoming a reality.
Judgment: For now, keep your pursestrings closed (yay, medieval reference!) Kickstarter | Website | YouTube
Part 2: Probably Not Happening
Reign and Ruin
Game development is dead. The Discord server is full of porn spam on a regular basis and many folks have resigned themselves to sitting around and badmouthing the way things turned out. Kickstarter
Strangeland
I’m going out on a limb and saying this campaign will probably not launch. I futzed around Google for a while and failed to land a hit on the studio name or creator’s name. Also! A game- that seemingly does OK for itself since it’s got a fair amount of coverage- already exists with that name. Womp womp. Also, was there literally no other photo that could be used for the KS campaign? Kickstarter
Project Survive
I have to salute the moxie at opening your campaign with (and this is a bit of an assumption on the integrity of the Google translation) – “I’m tired of being disappointed over and over again by developers who don’t keep their promises, advertise games that never come to market, so I’ve set myself a goal, and that’s to create a game that is an open world zombie survival game like never before!”
And then – somehow – you ask for over $15,000 USD to fund what basically amounts to a description of what you’d like to see in a game. No video, no images, no nothing. Not even a listing of your gaming history to establish even basic bona fides. Just that you’re a “passionate gamer and dev.” I will say that I appreciate the idea of coming into the game and life is normal, with the zombie invasion/apocalyptic upset occurring as the player “lives life” as opposed to the player arriving after the fact. It’s an idea Becca and I have tossed around, and I’d love to see it in more titles. (This is not to be confused with PROJECT SURVIVAL, which is the working title of yet another Action RPG that added building and buff food to wiggle its way into the survival bed. And, SURPRISED FACE, is maybe a bit of a scam.)
This looks like it would have been like Stardew Valley and games of that ilk. I’m pretty sure it’s dead: there’s absolutely nothing happening on any of the social platforms – Twitch, YouTube, Twitter- dead since February of 2022. The Steam discussion forums are equally dead, though there was some hype in the past.
This title would only have had “survival elements,” but I’ll list it here since it would appear in the search anyway. A city builder/colony sim: released a demo in 2022, followed by a failed Kickstarter in 2023. The developer then went silent. Safe to say, this project looks dead. Kickstarter
Zatarra
Development pacing on this is a notch below glacial. Current Twitch streaming is mostly small blocks of development after months of pure gameplay, and the Twitch overlay funding goal looks to be raising funds for a move. Along with the “Coming Soon” KS page, there was a closed/unmet IndieGoGo campaign. I’d give this a miss if it becomes active. Kickstarter
Aeterna Corda – UltraRealistic Zombie Survival Game
Jordan Sez: “Two gamers use ChatGPT to write a long and flowery Kickstarter page- heavy on BIG WORDS and absolutely lacking in any information about the game- in an attempt to a) fleece folks out of the princely sum of $1,517 dollars or b)become developers.”
My favorite part is that the funds will be allocated to “starting the project”, while future Stretch Goals will handle the heavy lifting of *checks notes* – “development” “programming” and “alpha testing.” Kickstarter
