This week in MMO crowdfunding, Elite Dangerous players scoped out the dirty doings of the paid HCS voice pack plugin, which was apparently intentionally and maliciously sabotaging other programs and packs – whose makers happen to be embroiled in a legal dispute – to stop them from working together. The best part is the name of the function that has everyone up in arms: “wanker.” One of the coders ‘fessed up on Reddit and fell on his sword as patches undoing the mischief were rolled out, but the community is pretty miffed and talking chargebacks. Either way, maybe triple check the third-party mods you install on your system, yeah? (Thanks, Risen Aegis!)
Meanwhile, Star Citizen brought back a round of ship sales and opened alpha 3.2 features up to a vote, we reported on our trip to Shroud of the Avatar’s launch party, Pantheon teased its character modeling, City of Titans released more Scorpion lore, Albion Online tweaked its Lancelot update, and we chatted up Ship of Heroes’ devs at GDC 2018.
Read on for more on what’s up with MMO crowdfunding over the last week and the weekly roundup of all the crowdfunded MMOs we’re following.
Project Gorgon early access
Recent MMO crowdfunding news
Star Citizen brings back old ships for sale, asks backers to vote on alpha 3.2’s priority projects - Do you have too much money? Awesome. Star Citizen has some ideas for where you can spend it - say, on some new ships? Some old ships? Some reskinned ships?…
Shroud of the Avatar: Partying with Portalarium, countering pay-to-win, and the state of the game - The day is finally arriving: Shroud of the Avatar is formally launching next week. It's been a long journey. The path to this new old-school MMO started back on Kickstarter on…
Here’s how Star Citizen’s character customizer is coming along - Sea of Thieves' character customization got you down? Star Citizen won't be making that mistake. This week's Around the Verse details the game's roadmap for the character customizer arriving with…
GDC 2018: In the crow’s nest with Ship of Heroes’ CEO Casey McGeever - Let me be upfront: I've never gotten into a superhero MMO. I love comics; outside of work, it's probably the only fiction I willingly read these days. It's just the…
Ship of Heroes’ map is ‘larger than the starting maps in City of Heroes’ - If you're a City of Heroes fan - or any kind of superhero fan - then you're gonna want to check out the brand-new and never-before-revealed early-game Ship of Heroes…
Camelot Unchained rescues lost souls trapped underground - In one of the quieter weeks for Camelot Unchained as of late, the dev team nevertheless made progress toward this July's beta test. Among the projects that were worked on…
Chronicles of Elyria demos its character creator in front of a live studio audience - Who's ready to look super-duper freaky? Chronicles of Elyria, that's who! The in-development indie MMO demonstrated the first iteration of its character creation system in a livestream yesterday. The character…
Crowfall Q&A turns its focus to NPC creation - Don't be fooled by the PvP nature of Crowfall -- the game world (or worlds, plural) will feature many NPCs to add flavor and interaction in these campaign settings. For…
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen’s devs take you spelunking in the pre-alpha - Here's a neat two-for-one deal for fans of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. The developers recently hosted a livestream in which they showed pre-alpha spelunking in Halnir Cave while also…
Ship of Heroes turns a critical eye to February’s combat alpha - Last month, Ship of Heroes ran its first alpha combat test with backers, and it was a blast (literally). With enough time to process the test, the studio put together…
Legends of Aria is pushing out a quality-of-life patch ahead of PAX East - The next big patch for Legends of Aria does not signal the start of the next beta phase. Instead, it signals moving to a more robust version of the game…
The Stream Team: Project Gorgon’s newbie dungeon is dark and full of terrors - Last week Massively OP's MJ entered Project Gorgon's first dungeon, but she didn't realize it would be a dungeon! There was much more to it than one stream could cover,…
Shroud of the Avatar addresses account migrations and teases R52 content, including female vendors - Shroud of the Avatar's next-to-last newsletter before its final launch is here, and it's chock-full of release 52 teases - that's the patch that'll signal the launch. The team features…
Saga of Lucimia will fight wiki infodumps with sparse patch notes - You know how when it's patch day in your favorite MMORPG and you're skimming the patch notes trying to figure out what exactly changed, but it's all cryptic hints and…
Camelot Unchained works on crafting and building prototypes - Building blocks and baby steps: This is the approach that Camelot Unchained is taking in developing some of its key systems for the upcoming beta test. The idea is that…
Ship of Heroes’ map
Campaigns and crowdfunded MMOs we’re watching
3001SQ (Société des Mondes Virtuels) – Kickstarter unsuccessful. Work continues.
AdventureQuest 3D (Artix Entertainment) – Raised 368k; beta began Oct 2016.
Albion Online (Sandbox) – Launched July 2017.
Antraxx (Team Antraxx) – Kickstarter canceled.
Ascent: The Space Game (Fluffy Kitten Studios) – Successful KS. Fully launched 2016.
Ashes of Creation (Intrepid Studios) – Successful KS. Alpha zero.
Broke Protocol (Cylinder) – Unsuccessful KS. In free early access.
Camelot Unchained (City State) – Kickstarter successful; open donations/packages.
Caribbean Conquest (Invenio) – First KS canceled, second ended unsuccessfully.
Contested Space (Zon)
Crowfall (ArtCraft) – Kickstarter win, open packages, Indiegogo crowdfunding ongoing.
Chronicles of Elyria (Soulbound) – Kickstarter successful, open packages.
Citadel of Sorcery (MMO Magic, Inc.) –Â Open donations.
City of Titans (Missing Worlds Media) – Successful KS; launching fall 2018.
Descent Underground (Descendent Studios) – Successful KS.
Divergence Online (Stained Glass Llama)Â –Â 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.
Dual Universe (Novaquark) – Kickstarter funded, donor platform. Pre-alpha.
Eco (Strange Loop Games) – Funded, now in alpha.
Edengrad (Huckleberry Games) – Kickstarter funded; in early access.
Elite: Dangerous (Frontier Developments) – Funded and launched.
Empyrion Online (Eleon) – Kickstarter canceled; launched on Steam early access.
Epic Space (EpicSpace.net)
Ever, Jane (3 Turn Productions) – Now in open beta.
Global Adventures (SubaGames) – Kickstarter funded.
Gloria Victis (Black Eye Games) – Open donations, no end date; in early access.
Greed Monger (Greed Monger) – Abandoned, now in refund process.
Grim Dawn (Crate Entertainment) – Funded and launched.
Guardians of Ember (Runewaker) – Funded and launched.
Guns of Icarus (Muse) – Funded and launched.
Hero’s Song (Pixelmage) –Â KS canceled; Indiegogo. Canceled w/ refunds.
Infinity: Battlescape (I-Novae Studios)
HEX (HEX Entertainment) –Â Funded and launched.
Legends of Aria (Citadel Studios) – Kickstarted as Shards Online. Alpha ended.
Life is Feudal (Bitbox): Indiegogo ended. Currently in beta.
LUX (Chimera) – Kickstarter canceled.
Maestros of the Anthymn (String Theory) – Kickstarter canceled.
Maguss (Maguss) – Indiegogo successful; open beta.
Mekria (Infinity Online Studios) – Kickstarter canceled.
Midair (Archetype Studios) – Kickstarter successful.
Nebula Online (Mizar Games) Kickstarter canceled; launched in November.
Neo’s Land (NeoJac Entertainment) –Â Open donations, no end date.
Novus AEterno (Taitale Studios)
OrbusVR (Ad Alternum) – KS funded March 2017. In early access.
Overpower (Hydrant Games) –Â Kickstarter unfunded; heading to early access.
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen (Visionary Realms) –Â Open donations. Pre-alpha.
Pantropy (Brain Stone GmbH): Kickstarter canceled.
Pathfinder Online (GoblinWorks) – Doom, mostly.
Planet Nomads (Craneballs) – Kickstarted, early access launched sans multiplayer.
Pixel Starships (SavySoda)
Project Gorgon (Elder Game) – Kickstarted in three tries + Indiegogo. Early access.
Pumpkin Online (Monique) – Downgrading from MMORPG.
The Exiled (Fairytale Distillery) – fka Das Tal; 2015Â KSÂ unsuccessful. Early access.
The Realm: Reawakened (Stephen Nichols) – Ongoing GoFundMe.
The Repopulation (Idea Fabrik) – Kickstarted twice by A&B. Back in alpha.
ROKH (Darewise) – Kickstarter canceled; now in early access.
RUiN (Tarhead Studio) – Kickstarter successful.
The Stomping Land (Alex Fundora) – Abandoned.
Sacrament (Ferocity Unbound) – Kickstarter failed; Patreon ongoing.
Shadow’s Kiss (Clockwork Throne) – Ongoing Patreon, Kickstarter funded.
Shroud of the Avatar (Portalarium) – Successful KS. Soft launch July 2016.
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.
War of Rights (Campfire Games) – Successful Kickstarter; in alpha.
