Shards Online, the upcoming sandbox RPG featuring player-run servers from Citadel Studios hit its Kickstarter goal on Wednesday and is now looking toward the future. We spoke to Citadel's Founder and CEO Derek "Supreem" Brinkmann about stretch goals, Shards' playable female character, customization and more.
These days, it's tough for devs to come up with a truly unique event. Usually they're all tied to holidays or some other seasonal trope. Don't get me wrong, they're fun! – but they're expected.
En Masse has a fresh take for TERA: a Kickstarter-themed event.
Let's admit it: games on Kickstarter don't always pan out. When they do, sometimes they’re a paragon for the platform. This is the case with Divinity: Original Sin, a $1+ million Kickstarter success with everything going for it.
Realm of Strife, a Kickstarter helmed by former Free Agent columnist Robert Gray, is a free-to-play tabletop fantasy RPG that pairs open ended roleplaying and character advancement with strategic skirmish-style tabletop combat.
Citadel Studios has reached the final week of its Shards Online Kickstarter and wants everyone to get a chance to go hands-on with the game—no strings attached. You can currently download the game, which has no NDA over the weekend, and hop in to try it out. If you were on the fence about backing the Kickstarter, now is the perfect time to check things out.
Shards Online, an Indie Sandbox MMORPG currently in development by Citadel Studios, continues its Kickstarter campaign with an exciting event: the Battle of the Backers.
The Shards Online crowdfunding campaign still has about 20 days remaining to reach its goal, and yesterday Citadel Studios doubled down by releasing an update stating that all $20+ backers will receive a code to get in-game for pre-alpha testing sessions after the campaign successfully completes. In addition, Citadel is offering an extra three months of premium subscription time to all $20+ backers, on top of what the reward tier already grants.
Shards Online, an Indie Sandbox MMORPG currently in development by Citadel Studios, launched its Kickstarter campaign earlier today. The game will feature a variety of rulesets, including player customization of their own. The "shards" and "clusters" system is akin to zones and servers, with Citadel running official ruleset shards, as well as players being able to rent and host their own shards. For more information on the game, check out our pre-alpha preview with co-founder and CEO Derek Brinkmann.
In a high tech science lab, scientists have been experimenting with the elements to learn about the building blocks of matter in order to exploit their secrets for profit. One night, during a freak thunderstorm, the lab is struck by lightning, and the elements become self aware. You play as one of four elements as you escape the lab and ultimately destroy the evil corporation. You must fuse together different elements as you fight your way to the head of the corporation to shut it down for good.
A new Kickstarter for a side-scrolling, arcade-style "beat-'em-up" game, The FEWW (Fire, Earth, Wind and Water), launched earlier this week. The game is a nod to the arcade scrollers of the past and is being worked on by an experienced team of former AAA developers. We had the chance to chat with founder and lead animator Floyd Bishop to get more details about his ambitious project. Floyd is most recently known in the MMO community for his work on Sony Online Entertainment titles such as EverQuest Next/Landmark and Free Realms, with his animation also landing in TV and movies such as Ice Age.
At the time of writing, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen has raised a little over half of its target on Kickstarter with only 24 hours remaining. After a well managed and well publicized campaign, over 3000 backers (including myself) will be disappointed by the result. Of course, that pales in comparison to the feelings of Brad McQuaid and the team at Visionary Realms. All is not lost, however, as the team is committed to seeing their vision come to life. Perhaps Rise of the Fallen will turn out to be an apt name indeed.
So how did we end up in this situation? After the success of Kickstarter campaigns for other MMOs with old-school flavor, one helmed by a titan of the genre like McQuaid seemed to be a sure thing. Maybe that was the problem, perhaps potential backers are just burnt out, unwilling to shell out with so little tangible game to show, or maybe the star billing had the opposite effect on some.
Maybe, just maybe, there aren't that many people who are desperate to play a new game that is just like EverQuest.
