Okay, I learned my lesson last month: These intros speak to millions of readers and I should treat them with the necessary diligence. With that said, Happy New Year! I'm a bit behind because I spent the first weekend of 2026 with my family, did I miss any breaking news? I hope so, because that's what vacations are for.

As a general rule we recommend only backing crowdfunding campaigns if you feel comfortable with your own security and stability. We have no insider information or financial interest in any of these projects (unless noted otherwise) and no one at Retronauts has been compensated for including anything on this page. To the best of my ability I have not (and never will) endorse any campaign built around AI-generated assets.

Lunar Mystery 2103 (ends January 7 estimated reward date March 2026)
Space exploration isn't proceeding at the same breakneck pace it did in my youth, but this Game Boy Color game about exploring a colony on Earth's moon predicts we'll have settlers there within 30 years. Sounds early but hey, if they're giving away trips I'll take one. You can take a look at a demo of Lunar Mystery 2103 on itch.io

Elevator (ends January 16 estimated reward date December 2026)
Don't confuse this upcoming project with last year's Mr. Elevator, as this "absurdist, comedy-horror multiplayer game" has nothing to do with that recent indie out of Japan. Rather, Pixeltail Games wants funding to revamp and reimagine Elevator: Source which they made in a 2013 game jam. You can try out their new version on Steam.

BLACK BOX (ends January 22 estimated reward date May 2026)
There's not much to see or play of BLACK BOX yet but if you write the words "analog horror FMV game" in your Kickstarter description I'm going to take notice. That goes double for a student-lead project which cites Local58 as an inspiration.

• kickstarter
• D Feit