Some games make their release day very much anticipated. Engaged in their favorite fictional world, the fans crave more and more, and that’s perfectly understandable.It also happens that the announced project, which has not yet seen the light of day, simply does not have enough funds to achieve the final form.
Very often the announcements and trailers themselves have a very positive effect on the imagination of the future players. Then it is enough to allow fans to help raise funds. The willpower of a man who wants something very much is basically infinite and a fan who cannot participate directly in creating the game will be happy to help by adding even a single penny to the fundraiser for a given goal.
The idea of crowdfunding nowadays does not surprise anyone anymore, and that is great because through projects such as Kickstarter you do not have to wait forever for some video game titles. Some of them raised the highest funds at a really record pace and their work turned out to be a huge success, so let’s take a closer look at this surely amazing phenomenon.
Pillars of Eternity
| Release: | 2015-03-26 |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: |
A game from Obsidian Entertainment, which was released in 2015. Quite a classic role-playing title in which the gameplay is observed an isometric point of view.
The action takes place in a fantasy world in which the reincarnation of souls is a fact. As a result of an unknown event, some children began to be born without souls, and the main character gets caught up in an adventure that leads to an understanding of the whole situation.
On Kickstarter, the game was initially introduced as Project Eternity. The fundraiser took just over a month and during that time the project raised $ 3.9 million, which was one of the top biggest sums ever raised for a video game.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Wasteland 2
| Release: | 2014-09-18 |
| Genre: | Indie |
| Developer: | inXile Entertainment |
A classic turn-based RPG that is a sequel to the title from 1988, and at the same time a continuation of the story remembered from its predecessor.
The action of the video game takes place in the wastelands of the United States, where the player and his team travel the world left after massive nuclear destruction. The game stands out from other titles with a very broad system of choices that can be made by the player as well as a rich conversation system.
InExile Entertainment, together with Brian Fargo, managed to raise $ 2.9 million on Kickstarter, and the collected amount was three times higher than the planned minimum stake.
| Key features |
|---|
|
FTL: Faster Than Light
| Release: | 2012-09-14 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Subset Games |
A game by the indie developer Subset Games, which is an exciting space adventure with elements of strategic RPG.
The player takes on the role of the commander of a single mercenary ship, which, as a result of an unfortunate development of events, begins to be chased through the galaxy by the entire navy. The gameplay requires planning and strategy but is also varied with nice side quests or interactions with the subordinates.
FTL was basically created by just two people – Matthew Davis and Justin Ma. The creators had very modest assumptions about the minimum amount on Kickstarter, which they set at $ 10,000. Quite surprisingly, the hypothetical total was collected in just one day, and the final sum received for this project was $ 200,000.
| Key features |
|---|
|
The Banner Saga
| Release: | 2014-01-14 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Stoic |
A very climatic title from the independent Stoic Games studio, which is a tactical RPG set in a fantasy world straight out of Norse mythology.
The game revolves around a journey that is full of various unusual adventures, but also dangers and traps.
The creators of the game set the minimum amount on Kickstarter at $ 100,000. As it turned out, players admired the project of Scandinavian adventure greatly as the minimum sum was collected by the next day and the final amount was $723,886.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Darkest Dungeon
| Release: | 2016-01-19 |
| Genre: | Indie |
| Developer: | Red Hook Studios |
A dark RPG set in a gloomy world inspired by the novels of H. P. Lovecraft.
The gameplay requires careful planning, as the death of each of the team members is absolutely irreversible, and an element of the unstable state of the character’s sanity has been added, which distinguishes Darkest Dungeon from other similar thematically titles.
The Red Hook studio took great care to spread the word about their upcoming project around the world and succeeded, planning to raise $ 75,000 and eventually ended the fundraiser with $ 313,000.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Divinity: Orginal Sin
| Release: | 2015-10-27 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Larian Studios |
The most classic turn-based RPG title among video games of this genre. The title is a prequel to the events that take place in Divine Divinity, which allows players to understand the incidents that took place earlier in the story.
The plot of the game begins quite inconspicuously with unraveling the mystery of a murder. A bit later, it turns out that the matters take a slightly more serious turn when the game begins to revolve around the fight between forces of good and evil.
The creators of the game, collecting a Kickstarter fundraiser for this particular title, earned exactly one million dollars for the project. A sequel followed shortly after, which had also been crowdfunded, and eventually, both parts of the series earned a total of $ 3 million.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Torment Tides of Numenera
| Release: | 2016-01-26 |
| Genre: | Indie |
| Developer: | inXile Entertainment |
The title of the independent inXile Entertainment studio known from the production of Wasteland 2, which was a huge success on Kickstarter. It is a computer RPG with elements of science fiction and fantasy.
Torment: Tides of Numenera takes place in the future on an unknown planet inhabited by humanity, but the living conditions correspond to the times known from the Earth’s medieval ages. The protagonist finds himself in this world and aims to understand the meaning of his existence, as well as the destiny of the various artifacts abandoned all over the planet, which seem to be created by other civilization.
This is another title that broke one of Kickstarter’s records. The players really seemed to await a lot the spiritual successor of popular Planescape: Torment, because the goal created by the developers, the $ 900,000, was raised in just a few hours, and the final sum exceeded one million dollars.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
| Release: | 2018-05-08 |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: | Obsidian Entertainment |
A sequel to the computer RPG by Obsidian Entertainment. The game is about controlling a team of heroes in an isometric point of view and exploring the corners of a new world.
The seemingly dead god Ethoas turns out to be alive, which leads to the development of a whole series of events motivating the player’s character to continue the new adventure.
The game broke another most successful record among fundraisers for video games. The creators, considering a minimum amount of $ 1.1 million, did not expect the sum they finally collected from fans, which was $ 4.4 million.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Shenmue 3
| Release: | 2020-11-19 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | YS Net |
Japanese RPG, which is a continuation of the titles that premiered 14 years earlier.
Ryo Hazuki and his companion, Shenhua Ling, continue their journey to find the killers of the young warrior’s father. The whole exciting adventure takes place in China in various villages near the Great Wall of China.
Yu Suzuki – the creator of the series – stated that developing a game may require raising as much as $ 10 million on Kickstarter, but the smaller sum will not be disappointing either. The title achieved an absolute crowdfunding record for 2015, as it raised the first million dollars in less than two hours. Ultimately, the project ended its fundraiser with $ 6.3 million in the account.
| Key features |
|---|
|
Undertale
| Release: | 2015-09-15 |
| Genre: | Indie |
| Developer: | tobyfox |
A computer fantasy RPG from 2015, the work of an independent designer Toby Fox. The game outstands with unusual mechanical solutions, an interesting audiovisual setting and a very mature story.
Undertale’s plot presents a scenario in which in the past people and monsters shared the surface of the Earth, and they all lived in harmony until a conflict broke out in which the monsters were sent to the underworld. Some time later, a little kid accidentally ends up in a cave that leads to the world of these creatures. Interestingly, the title can be completed without using violence at all.
In 2013, Toby Fox first released a demo of the game and then started a fundraiser on Kickstarter. The minimum fundraising amount for the project was $ 5,000. In the end, the game apparently won the hearts of fans before it was released for good and ended up with $ 51,000.
| Key features |
|---|
|
