KickTraq

Two $100,000 winners this week and a few other projects close to the finish line. While I was compiling the column this week, I realised I was keeping track of the number of projects that apparently ‘contained roguelike elements’. It’s about 90%, although to be fair I stopped keeping track almost as soon as I’d started so that figure is entirely made up. Perhaps my memory fails me, but I don’t recall the term being anything like as popular 12 months ago. Of course, some would argue that the meaning has been lost and that anything with procedural generation or a modicum of difficulty is now wearing the roguelike hat, but that in itself surely tells us something. Games want to be like rogue, which is far more agreeable than the days when every other one wanted to be like a soldier or a space marine. (Read More)

What a week for Planet Explorers. We've hit the goal on KS, and a few days later, we're approved for Steam. This is all thanks to your support. On Greenlight, out of all the people that voted, 76% voted yes, that's much higher than the 58% average of... (Read More)

http://steamcommunity.com/games/765/announcements/detail/1569777813150191807 Yay! We'll have more info later as we just got the news. :)  (Read More)

Hey everyone, we're still moving at a pretty nice clip, we'll probably end up at $120,000+ for the entire KS. Thanks for your support! On Greenlight we're now at #21 with a littler over 40,000 "yes" votes. We're find out in a few hours if we made it... (Read More)

We're getting so close now! 99% and counting! Not only that, we're now at #23 on Steam Greenlight! This is all thanks to everyone's support. We will be adding the Paypal options (they're the same as the KS tiers) once we have hit the goal in another... (Read More)

Last weekend took on a life of its own, which is the sort of thing weekends should probably do more often, and I was stranded away from my trusty keyboard and therefore unable to type words about games that might exist at some point in the future. This was a sad thing. Fortunately, missing a week means that there are more winners than ever before and the bumper crop contains two games that I’ve played and enjoyed, at least three that I look forward to playing when they are released and a project that makes me realise how much I want to play with an Oculus Rift. (Read More)

We're now at 85% with about 8 days and 23 hours to go! We're really close now, down to the final stretch! Please keep on helping us spreading the word anyway you can! On Steam, we're now at #26, with 5 days to go until they select the next batch of... (Read More)

First, we're at 77% now, with 10 days and 22 hours to go, so looks like we will make it! Maybe! Haha. Second, we've moved up to #27 on Greenlight, so things are looking good there as well. If we just get a boost from an IGN or a Gamespot or a... (Read More)

We're now at 73% done with about 12 days to go, so we're ahead of schedule! Thanks everyone! We got a huge boost yesterday from Youtubers GamersDissent and Scott Manley, thanks guys and everyone else showing the game on Youtube! But we can't relax... (Read More)

Welcome to the Kickstarter Compendium, a gathering of games and game-related projects that we’ve come across that deserve your attention. The crowd-funding model for video games has resulted in some interesting new game ideas, and new projects are going up on a weekly basis that deserve your attention. (Read More)

April is turning out to be quite the slow month for retail releases, RPG and otherwise. It’s not a total dead zone as it has often been in the past, with a few AAA titles being released during the month as well as a few smaller games. The lack of boxed copies isn’t really going to effect how much of an impact gaming has on my wallet, however, as once again a number of interesting projects have made their way to Kickstarter, all but demanding that I give them all of my available cash in anticipation of a finished product somewhere down the line when I will inevitably not have enough time to fully enjoy them. (Read More)

We're now at 62% there with 13 days and 23 hours to go! We're getting there but we need more people to know about it still. On Steam Greenlight, we've moved up to #33, still moving at a very fast clip. If we can get approved in this group of... (Read More)

We're now at a little over 54% with 16 days and 23 hours to go! We're getting there! Also, we've moved to #36 on Greenlight, not sure if we'll move up fast enough to be included in the batch approved on April 17th, but we can all hope! Today, we take... (Read More)

We're at #40 on Steam Greenlight now, and climbing. If we make it to above 30 in the next 14 days, there's a small chance we could get approved in this round of Steam Greenlight games. So keep telling other people to vote there! :) We're almost to... (Read More)

For some reason (PAX East, GDC), most of the major news sites have completely ignored us! But we're still at almost 46% now, thanks to everyone's hard work in spreading the word out! On Steam Greenlight, we're now sitting at #43 and climbing. But we... (Read More)

I haven’t eaten a single chocolate egg in the last twenty four hours, which would normally be an acceptable dietary state, but with this being the extended weekend of confeggtionary rabbit worship, I’m a little bit upset that nobody bought me a big Smarties egg. (Read More)

Hey everyone, we're now at almost 38% of the way there in a little over a week! Now that GDC is over, maybe the gaming press will have time to shine some light on Planet Explorers (thank you RPS and Destructoid!). We are also now at #48 on Steam... (Read More)

Jim and Adam have written words about Planet Explorers, a sort of MMO single and multiplayer voxel-based construction game that’s free to download right now. The reason I am returning to the game is the developer of this oddball mix of Spore, WoW, and Minecraft has just released a video showing their commitment to user-created content. It’s a sci-fi fantasy world with giant, stalking deathbeasts, shiny spaceships, and laser blasters, so naturally you’d expect to see Arrested Development’s Stair Car roaming the lands. (Read More)

Hey everyone, thanks to all who've backed us so far, we're still far off from our goal, but we're getting there steadily! Please continue to tell everyone you know about our game! Especially tell any media members and gaming communities you can... (Read More)

Fans of open-world sandbox games will definitely want to check out Planet Explorers, an ambitious indie game currently seeking funding on Kickstarter. Developer Pathea has already done some amazing work on the game, which you can see in the video below. (Read More)

A few winners, a few losers and a heap of new entries. It’s a busy week and there are quite a few projects that people have contacted me about that aren’t included, even though I’m interested in them. I’ll do some individual posts on those over the next couple of days but, for now, feast your eyes on the contents of the Katchup at the breadth of gaming delights that it contains. Then feel a bit morose that Rogue System probably isn’t going to be on your computer for a long time. (Read More)

Some of my fondest memories of being a digital explorer come from the should-have-been-revolutionary Outcast, a '90s PC title that sees the protagonist stranded on a bizarre alien world. Now I can relive some of the wonder I experienced in that classic in a new voxel-based sandbox title, Planet Explorers. It's still in alpha right now, and recently got a Kickstarter campaign. Developer Pathea Games is asking for $100,000 so that it can complete its colony builer/exploration adventure. (Read More)

Planet Explorers is part of the advent of independent emergent games that focuses on creativity, gameplay and originality above all else. It's part of the trio of upcoming games that really puts the Minecraft style sub-genre to work in a bombastic way, with games like Edge of Space and StarForge rounding out the experience. Anyway, the other two have already been crowd-funded and now it's time for Planet Explorers to head down the same route. (Read More)