May Kickstarter Compass: Back It or Bin It?

It’s a new month, which means another round of shiny promises and sketchy pitches on Kickstarter. I’ve dug through the pixelated trenches to find what might be worth your cash.

🔥Worth Watching / Backing

🚨  Red Flags / Question Marks

⚠️ Everwind – Whomp. Right out of the gate, this one set off my spidey senses. I’m putting a pin in it for a full post later. For now: the campaign ends June 5th, and they’re sitting at about $25k of a $33k goal. Voxel/Sandbox/First-Person RPG/Magic/Randomness…but Survival—in their very most inner dreams only.

 ⁉️Instinct: A Multiplayer Wild Cat Survival Game -First off, that name needs work. That aside, I want this to succeed—cat lover, Warriors fan, etc.—but it’s not looking promising. The Kickstarter is rough, and there’s barely any info beyond the website. They’ve got 36 days (June 17th) to hit $5,000 and are at about $375. I left a message for the dev and will update you if I hear back.

🚩Wandering Shadows – This one’s DOA. If the main page was written by ChatGPT, the dev bio reads like it came from a Hallmark chatbot. It’s all fluff, no substance, and nothing concrete anywhere.

🚩 EZCAPE– This’ll probably go nowhere—even if the campaign somehow goes live. But seriously, what is 👀 with that mega blurry picture of… random assets?

🚩TROPICALYPSE– I doubt this is going anywhere, I mainly wanted to point out that this is the first time I’ve seen a (self-labeled at best) survival game with adult-themed DLC.

🚩 Aftershock: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Game – Can I just say that the seven seconds we had to stare at the player character (?) were the longest seven seconds of my life. Also weirdly uncomfortable. In 2024, the developer attempted to raise $500 for a fantasy game using a flowery campaign page and five seconds of what looks like AI-generated video. Failing that, the obvious pivot was to ask for $6,600 and claim to be making a survival game—since those are big now. The bio was also hilarious—was this written by their biographer?

🚩 Eternal Rot: War of the Undying – This is absolutely going nowhere (least of all to $185k), but the page is worth a look if you want to see what not to do.

⏳ Ending Soon

⏰ Mythanos – On paper, Mythanos is supposed to be a survival strategy game—but I’ll be honest, I’m having a hard time reconciling the details on the campaign page with whatever the hell that video clip at the top is supposed to be. Maybe it’d click more if I’d played the games they list as inspiration. (I’ve played Don’t Starve, but still—the video does nothing for me.) Either way, the funding goal’s already been hit, and you’ve got until May 16th to back it.

⏰ Autonomica – I honestly don’t even know what the fuck this is—it looks like someone took Palia, The Sims, Palworld, Titanfall, and No Man’s Sky, threw them in a blender, and scattered the results across the gaming cosmos. Crytivo is a magician when it comes to Kickstarter campaigns, though, and the game’s sitting at nearly $700k. So… hopefully that money turns into something great.

🔥 D&Z Post-Apocalyptic TTRPG (Roll20 Character Sheet)– Like tabletop RPGs? Like zombie games? D&Z is a conversion kit that turns Dungeons & Dragons 5e into a modern-day, post-apocalyptic TTRPG. Campaign ends May 15th.

📌 Watchlist

🔥 SURVIVALIST: The Board Game – I have zero interest in board games. Negative a hundred billion million. But I’m going to back this one when the campaign launches. Even better—it can be played in groups or solo. (Lonely… I’m Mr. Lonely…)

👀 Lost Legions– You can check out the Steam page for the game here. Kinda feels like you threw ASKA and Medieval Dynasty in a bag and added a dash of Roman zest. Could definitely appeal to fans of both—it’s been racking up wishlist adds.

👀 WILDLANDS– I’ve been lurking in the Discord for… over a year and a half, I think? Info’s been sparse, but as of April this year, the devs have repeatedly reassured folks it’s still in the works. So. Twiddles thumbs.

👀 Imminent Peril – Not my type of game, but this really looks like an adorable improv storytelling survival game for fans of role-playing (and party card games). Campaign ends June 30th—39 days to push them over the finish line with four grand left to raise.

👀 Lifeboat – A card-based survival game where you’re set adrift in—yep, you guessed it—a lifeboat. This KS campaign aims to fund and create an updated version of the game, which originally set sail back in 2002. Well-reviewed game, by the way. The funding goal’s already been crushed, and the campaign ends May 22nd.

👀 The Signal – Hey, this one actually exists! (Closed playtest, but still.) I’ve had hands-on time—it’s a little quirky, but kinda interesting. I’ll be watching for when the Kickstarter goes live.

👀  AETHUS– This game exists too—as a demo! I’ve tried it. Not really my scene—it’s way more into exploration and crafting than any real hint of survival. Kinda space Valheim-ish. That said, a small but dedicated community is forming.

👀 Opaldune – I’m very much team #mosthorrorshouldnotbecalledsurvival, but this game sounds interesting.

👀 WASTED Will Be Brutal – According to a recent post by the dev in their Discord, work on this title has been “slowed” in favor of their second game — a competitive multiplayer FPS.
Reading between the lines of their lengthy response, it sounds like they got ahead of their skis on this one. Rather than trying to rebuild the foundation mid-flight, they’re pivoting to the second title to build things properly — with the intent to apply what they learn back to Game 1.

See you next month for another Compass. If anything wild shows up on Kickstarter before then, I’ll flag it in the newsletter—so keep an eye out.

Spotted a hidden gem or a flaming hot mess I missed? Drop me a comment. If not—keep that wallet sealed till next time. 💸