Happy New Year, Retronauts fans! Got any pocket change left over from the holiday season? Did you stumble onto a bag of cash on New Year's Eve? We've got a few retro-flavored Kickstarter projects that we think you might be interested in and we've rounded them up as is our monthly habit. As always, these selections were not based on any insider information nor are we being compensated for including any projects in these posts.
Bless The Demon Puppets
Platform: PC
Campaign ends: January 26
Estimated delivery time: December 2019
Minimum pledge to receive the game: ¥2300 (about $21 USD)
Battle royale games are hot right now so this project is less retro than it is nowtro, but Bless the Demon Puppets is a "hardgore" free-for-all wherein all the combatants are "miserable dead souls...raised from hell" and forced to fight each other to gain strength and "earn the Devil's recognition." It's a rare Kickstarter project from a Japanese studio who make a living on mobile/social games yet clearly have a vision for something more stylized. Even if that vision is extremely not for me, I'm enthralled by anything titled "Bless the Demon Puppets" with campaign tier names like "Fetus" and "Meatfiend."
Gun Crazy
Platform: PC
Campaign ends: January 26
Estimated delivery time: May 2019
Minimum pledge to receive the game: £5 (about $6 USD)
Gun Crazy might be the most high-concept video game Kickstarter campaign I've seen to date: a run-and-gun 2D shooter "inspired by the classic shooters made by Treasure / Capcom / Konami" which is precisely what I expected with a name like Gun Crazy. There isn't much material to look at so far, but what there is looks and sounds nice. The creator isn't asking for a lot of cash and seems to think it'll be ready by this summer.
The Cat and the Box
Platform: PC
Campaign ends: January 27
Estimated delivery time: immediately?
Minimum pledge to receive the game: $1!
Sometimes when I make these posts it can be difficult to find a Kickstarter project that properly embodies the "retro" spirit but a 3D game made with ASCII graphics positively screams it. With scrolling text forming the shape of objects in the game, The Cat and the Box looks like something out of The Matrix (which is turning 20 years old this year, prepare yourself readers). The project began as a solo effort but the developer has begun hiring outside help as its scope increased. The Kickstarter campaign is for a mere $100 to cover the publishing fees for Steam, and $1 backers should receive the finished game next month. For a $10 pledge, you can have "access to the 3D ASCII engine, useful for whatsoever you please" as soon as the campaign ends.
Carrier Trail
Platform: PC
Campaign ends: February 22
Estimated delivery time: December 2019
Minimum pledge to receive the game: $5
Children of the 1980s no doubt remember The Oregon Trail as a shining example of edutainment, a game that could just barely be completed in a single class period provided you and your party did not succumb to disease or perish while fording a river. Carrier Trail looks to remove the educational aspect and just deliver "thousands of possible experiences" on your purely fictional journey to "deliver a package to the royal family." The game's pixel art is "GameBoy inspired" and while the base goal has already been met, there is a stretch goal for "NES palette" color graphics. The developer does seek to port the game to multiple platforms in the future but makes, and I quote, "no promises."