Make My MMO: Shroud of the Avatar sheds its early access… shroud (March 31, 2018)

This week in MMO crowdfunding, Shroud of the Avatar formally launched with the release of R52 this week, which might be confusing to gamers who’ve been playing the soft launch since mid-2016, but this one’s official. Richard Garriott-backed studio Portalarium has since published details for its first three post-launch updates.

Meanwhile, Star Citizen’s alpha 3.1 went live, a former WoW designer is Kickstarting a huge coffee table book, Ship of Heroes talked engine upgrades, Dual Universe founder JC Baillie made the case for Ready Player One as reality, we chatted with the Legends of Aria team at GDC, Star Citizen dinged up to 2M accounts, Chronicles of Elyria showed off its character creation, Valiance Online teased auras, and Swedish crowdfunding platform FundedByMe passed half a billion SEK (about 60 million USD) in crowdfunding across all its projects.

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.

The WoW book Kickstarter

Recent MMO crowdfunding news

Star Citizen’s 3.1 alpha is live for the holiday weekend - If you're bored on the holiday weekend, and you happen to be a Star Citizen backer, you're going to be taking to the skies, thanks to CIG pushing live the…

Make My MMO: Shroud of the Avatar sheds its early access… shroud (March 31, 2018) - This week in MMO crowdfunding, Shroud of the Avatar formally launched with the release of R52 this week, which might be confusing to gamers who've been playing the soft launch…

The Stream Team: Project Gorgon’s big-headed bully - Can Massively OP's MJ escape Project Gorgon's newbie island? She's run the dungeon already, but she's not sure what other tasks are left for her in this revamped iteration of…

Shroud of the Avatar lays out a roadmap for its next three updates - Now that Shroud of the Avatar is officially launched, what's next? For the team, the pace of development and updates won't change, with a patch scheduled for the end of…

Star Citizen’s Around the Verse updates players on Squadron 42 and flight AI - This week's Star Citizen Around the Verse is only indirectly about Star Citizen. The episode instead centers on Squadron 42, which is either a separate game or the same game…

World of Warcraft’s first 3-D level designer is Kickstarting a massive behind-the-scenes book, and it’s already written - The Ancient Gaming Noob himself tipped us off today to a bizarre but intriguing Kickstarter that should appeal to that cross-section of our audience into World of Warcraft, coffee table…

Chronicles of Elyria eschews ‘silly stat-fest’ MMO gear in favor of ‘dramatic realism’ - Now that Chronicles of Elyria has got a handle on its flexible character creation system, the team has switched over to working in the area of inventory management and equipment.…

Need to be convinced about Project Gorgon? Let these videos try - With Project Gorgon's modest $40 price tag for early access, its crude visuals, and its "different" approach to MMORPG, this title might be a hard sell for some. Yet you…

Ship of Heroes’ Casey McGeever reflects on GDC 2018 - With GDC 2018 in the bag, Casey McGeever is back from showing off Ship of Heroes and has a few reflections about the experience. Among many observations, McGeever talked up…

Path of Exile is heavily revamping a bunch of skills this summer - [AL:POE]Path of Exile fans should block out June in their calendar, as Grinding Gear has big plans for the game this summer starting with the 3.3.0 update. Specifically, it's revamping…

Crowfall gives players better tools to build bigger castles - Before you can storm the castle, you must build the castle. And when it comes to Crowfall, that will be a pretty fun part of the game. Considering the sheer…

The Stream Team: Shroud of the Avatar has launched - And we have liftoff! SOTA has now officially launched and is a live game. That means nothing is holding Massively OP's MJ back from diving into the game and its…

Albion Online finally makes plans to launch on Steam - Crowdfunded indie PvP sandbox Albion Online technically launched last summer, finding so much initial success that its servers were hammered and it even suffered a round of extortion-centered DDOS attacks…

Over 2,000,000 people have now registered accounts for Star Citizen - Star Citizen hit another milestone this week: It's reached 2,000,000 citizens. Accounts, specifically. The game has been in production since before its Kickstarter launched almost six years ago. According to…

Shroud of the Avatar officially launches today - The sun is rising over New Britannia today with the official release of Shroud of the Avatar. While the game has been in a persistent world state for hundreds of…

Project Gorgon warns alpha users that their free ride is ending - For a very long time now -- we are talking years, here -- Project Gorgon has operated a free public alpha to anyone who wanted to enjoy the game and…

GDC 2018: The Legends of Aria devs talk closed beta, gankbox PvP, and the MMORPG genre - One thing I love about GDC compared to other conventions I cover is how many actual developers I get to talk to, especially without PR and Marketing handlers. Everyone has…

Chronicles of Elyria puts constraints on your character’s creation - "Character creation" is the watchword of the week at Chronicles of Elyria. In addition to a developer livestream that showed off the first iteration of the character creation system, Soulbound…

Chronicles of Elyria

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.) – Open donations.
City of Titans (Missing Worlds Media) – Successful KS; launching fall 2018.
Descent Underground (Descendent Studios) – Successful KS.
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.
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) – KS canceled; Indiegogo. Canceled w/ refunds.
Infinity: Battlescape (I-Novae Studios)
HEX (HEX Entertainment) – 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) – Open donations, no end date.
Novus AEterno (Taitale Studios)
OrbusVR (Ad Alternum) – KS funded March 2017. In early access.
Overpower (Hydrant Games) – Kickstarter unfunded; heading to early access.
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen (Visionary Realms) – 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; 2015 KS 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. Launch March 2018.
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.

Shroud of the Avatar launch

Valiance Online

We're working on auras! The female images showcase frost auras and the male ones, water auras. pic.twitter.com/b1Bd0Rdb4Y

— Valiance Online (@ValianceOnline) March 29, 2018