This week in MMO crowdfunding news, John Smedley tweeted a few teasers for his upcoming pixel MMORPG Hero’s Song. “We’re at 5400 items in our game now. It’ll easily be over 10,000 when we’re done. Maybe more like 20k,” he told his followers. “21 classes too. none of our items are randomly generated [‘even the common stuff,’ he added later]. We’re taking the time to craft each one. All kinds of cool stuff in there too. Can’t wait to share.” Since its canceled Kickstarter earlier this year, there is still no way to pledge early for the game; Smed says the team is still working on it.
Meanwhile, Elite: Dangerous players are swimming in conspiracy theories thanks to an intriguing discovery of what may be an alien map, sandbox ECO released its 4.2 alpha, and Das Tal has offered testers the chance to be in the game’s trailer. [Thanks to Defector1980 on the Elite tip!]
Read on for more on what’s up with MMO crowdfunding this week and the roundup of all the crowdfunded MMOs we’ve got our eye on!
Elite: Dangerous mystery
Recent MMO crowdfunding news
Star Citizen’s Around the Verse: Procedural planets, GrimHex, and free-fly - The fourth and final 100th episode of Star Citizen's Around the Verse is up -- OK, so it's really 103, right? But they are calling it 100.4, just to confuse…
Albion Online details the Artifact system - When Albion Online's final beta kicks off on August 1st, players are going to deal with Artifacts. They're the most powerful items in the game, the sort of equipment that…
Crowfall: The art and death of the Minotaur Myrmidon - Crowfall's posted up videos of some of the reveals from its last livestream, which demonstrates the creation of the Minotaur Myrmidon and its lengthy, epic death animation. They're a freebie…
Gloria Victis adds short spears and client improvements - The long spearless nightmare that has affected Gloria Victis is finally over. With the game's most recent patch, players can craft all of the various short spears found within the…
City of Titans cosplay takes a turn for the heroic - City of Titans cosplay has taken a turn for the heroic. Missing Worlds Media's Terwyn told forumgoers this week that work continues on one of the game's main characters, Anthem,…
Project Gorgon overhauls its pet system - Pet lovers, perk up: Project Gorgon is grooming its animal handling skill to be better than before. According to a new dev diary on the subject, the old skill wasn't…
Das Tal devs doubles server capacity, apologizes for alpha’s technical issues - "Thousands of players heeded our call and stormed onto the Das Tal servers on Saturday." So sayeth Fairytale Distillery's Alexander Zacherl in a postmortem on the game's first summer alpha…
Crowfall authorizes RMT program for retired goods - In trying to anticipate the demand for reselling retired Crowfall goods and heading off some of the shadier aspects of third-party RMT transactions, ArtCraft announced that it is authorizing two sites…
Shards Online AMA covers permadeath, community servers, and the Steam launch - Citadel Studios' Derek Brinkmann hopped on Reddit yesterday for an AMA revolving around Shards Online. Among the highlights: The game does have hunger, but no one's going to starve to…
Test new skills in Wild Terra’s recent update - It's all about the skills in Wild Terra's recent update, and devs look forward to hearing testers' comments on the changes. The early-access survival game has new mechanics in place for…
Shroud of the Avatar prepares for its final wipe and another telethon - The last data wipe for Shroud of the Avatar is coming very soon. On July 27th, the final wipe will take place, new player-owned towns will not be accepted, and…
Survival sandbox Fragmented adds vehicle weapons, ruleset GUI for custom servers - Patch 16.7.1 is live on the Fragmented servers today. The Repopulation-themed survival sandbox is getting two big improvements as part of the update, chief among them a first pass on vehicle…
Chronicles of Elyria gets its new website up and running - Fun fact: Chronicles of Elyria's web programmer is also the game's creative director, producer, and CEO (among other jobs). Yesterday, Lead Developer Caspian penned a post in which he admitted that…
Campaigns and crowdfunded MMOs we’re watching
3001SQ (Société des Mondes Virtuels) – Kickstarter ends August 18.
AdventureQuest 3D (Artix Entertainment) – Raised 368k; plans October launch.
Ascent: The Space Game (Fluffy Kitten Studios) – Fully launched!
Camelot Unchained (City State) – Open donations/packages.
Caribbean Conquest (Invenio) – Kickstarter canceled (site has been taken offline).
Contested Space (Zon)
Crowfall (ArtCraft) – Open donations/packages
Chronicles of Elyria (Soulbound) – Kickstarter successful.
Citadel of Sorcery (MMO Magic, Inc.) – Open donations.
City of Titans (Missing Worlds Media)
Descent Underground (Descendent Studios)
Divergence Online (Stained Glass Llama) – Three campaigns; now in KS early access.
Dogma: Eternal Night (Prelude Games Factory): Kickstarter over, donor preorder packs.
Dragon of Legends (Thrive Games) – Successful Kickstarter.
Eco (Strange Loop Games)
Edengrad (Huckleberry Games) – Kickstarter funded June 2016; early access coming Sept.
Elite: Dangerous (Frontier Developments) – Funded and launched.
Epic Space (EpicSpace.net)
Ever, Jane (3 Turn Productions)
Gloria Victis (Black Eye Games) – Open donations, no end date.
Greed Monger (Greed Monger) – Abandoned, multiple times now.
Grim Dawn (Crate Entertainment) – Funded and launched.
Guns of Icarus (Muse) – Funded and launched.
Hero’s Song (Pixelmage Games): Kickstarter canceled; game launches in October.
Infinity: Battlescape (I-Novae Studios)
HEX (HEX Entertainment)
Life is Feudal (Bitbox): Indiegogo ended.
LUX (Chimera) – Kickstarter canceled.
Midair (Archetype Studios) – Kickstarter successful.
Neo’s Land (NeoJac Entertainment) – Open donations, no end date.
Novus AEterno (Taitale Studios)
Overpower (Hydrant Games) – Kickstarter unfunded; heading to early access.
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen (Visionary Realms) – Open donations, no end date.
Pathfinder Online (GoblinWorks)
Planet Nomads (Craneballs) – Successful Kickstarter.
Pixel Starships (SavySoda)
Project Gorgon (Elder Game, LLC)
Pumpkin Online (Monique)
The Realm: Reawakened (Stephen Nichols) – Ongoing GoFundMe.
The Repopulation (Above & Beyond Technologies) – In middle of engine do-over.
ROKH (Darewise) – Kickstarter canceled; early access planned for Sept. 2016.
The Stomping Land (Alex Fundora) – Abandoned.
Sacrament (Ferocity Unbound) – Kickstarter failed; Patreon ongoing.
Shadow’s Kiss (Clockwork Throne) – Ongoing Patreon.
Shards Online (Citadel Studios)
Shroud of the Avatar (Portalarium)
Star Citizen (Cloud Imperium) – Ongoing donations/packages.
TUG (Nerd Kingdom) – In middle of year-long revamp after funding surge.
Vigor Roads (NeuronHaze) – Kickstarter unsuccessful; early access planned for 2017.
