This week in MMO crowdfunding, Camelot Unchained is in the home stretch before open beta. Yes, really, open beta. This is happening, people! Clear your 4th of July!
As for live Kickstarters, TemTem is up to $320K and counting, far past its original goal with still a week left to go. Most recently, donors unlocked Nintendo Switch play and the replay system. Clubs (guilds) are set to unlock at $400K. And yes, the game is now registered on Steam.
The Flower of Knighthood, on the other hand, abandoned its Kickstarter in its final hours, seeing it would not complete. The devs haven’t commented on their next move just yet.
Meanwhile, Shroud of the Avatar was hit with layoffs, EVE Online got its revenge on Star Citizen, Chronicles of Elyria posted lore, Albion Online rolled out a small update, and Crowfall admitted it’s delaying soft launch into 2019 but showed off its procedural world generation. Finally, Fractured prepped for Kickstarter – get ready to see that name a lot in this column!
Read on for more on what’s been up with MMO crowdfunding over the last couple of weeks and our roundup of all the crowdfunded MMOs we’re following.
TemTem
Recent MMO crowdfunding news
‘The pressure is on’ for Camelot Unchained’s beta test - "The pressure is on, but in the best of ways. The energy in the studio is incredible, we are all excited about how close we are." With a week until…
Project Gorgon brings out catalog golems to help search player shops - One of Project Gorgon's old-school-made-new-again features is the incorporation of player vendors. And while that's all well and good to let players sell their own wares, it does present a…
Shroud of the Avatar suffers layoffs, saying ‘right-sizing’ is needed ahead of episode 2 - It appears as if Portalarium is suffering some layoffs and downsizing in the wake of the launch of Shroud of the Avatar: The studio's Starr Long admits to "adjusting [the]…
The Flower of Knighthood Kickstarter has been cancelled - Launching a Kickstarter is always a nerve-wracking experience. (Believe us, we know about it.) But then there are times when you see evidence that perhaps your Kickstarter is not going…
Star Citizen deep-dives its new grouping mechanics in a shortish Around the Verse - According to this week's Star Citizen Around the Verse, the team's been hard at work on facial rigging, mining, audio effects (yes, pew pew sounds), chat integration, ship power, overland…
Saga of Lucimia brings a new character creator and elemental magic to Release 10 - Mark your calendars for June 29th, because on that day Saga of Lucimia is going to turn back on its test server to give a brand-new build of the game…
The Repopulation details the changes for art assets and how they help players - The odds are high that when you walk through an MMO's landscape, you are not thinking about art assets beyond "this looks pretty" or "this looks awful." But the latest…
Crowfall shines more light on its day/night cycle - With a fully dynamic world that involves varied spawns, parcels that are moved around, and generated terrain, the Crowfall team had a tougher challenge than most to create good-looking lighting…
Fractured reaches 30k registrations and shows off building mode - As Fractured continues to ramp up to its hopefully successful Kickstarter campaign, interest ramps up from the MMO community about this indie title. The dev team announced that the game…
Star Citizen alpha 3.2 hits the PTU as backers play with mining, grouping, and pixel ships - The Star Citizen Reddit is abuzz today - and no, not just about EVE Online's "Venture Capitalist" skin bundle joke, although they're doing that too. Nope, they're buzzing because Cloud…
EVE Online sells a bundle of ‘Venture’ skins for 120 Plex, poking fun at Star Citizen - [AL:EVE]Someone at CCP Games is obviously having quite a lot of fun with the latest EVE Online skin bundle. The bundle of skins for the Venture ship might not seem…
Chronicles of Elyria brings its world to life with player chat and adorable bunnies - You just couldn't resist the bunny post, could you? The bunnies were there and your mind goes, "Aww, fluffy little hoppity hoppers!" and now you're reading a post on Chronicles…
Shroud of the Avatar goes all-in on Star Wars homages - With a revamp on the way with Release 55, Shroud of the Avatar's East Vauban Foothills is getting promoted from a Tier 3 to a Tier 5 area and is…
Dual Universe’s latest pre-alpha patch adds markets, scanning, and mining - Let's all take a moment for an appreciative round of applause to any studio that is considerate enough to post monthly round-ups of games in development. This is especially helpful…
Camelot Unchained doubles down on development in the beta home stretch - Saying that it needs to "double down" and push hard to get the beta build finished for next month's launch, the Camelot Unchained team noticeably increased its output this week…
Crowfall delays again: ‘Soft launch is not going to happen by the end of this year’ - Here's a slight damper for your weekend: Crowfall has decided to delay its soft launch into 2019 due to the additional work that the studio believes should to be done.…
Ship of Heroes discusses the difference between Alpha and Beta - What makes an alpha? If your answer is "marketing jargon," you're not entirely wrong. But the team behind Ship of Heroes is going for a slightly more formalized definition, and…
Fractured rallies fans for Kickstarter with a gameplay teaser - With hopefully all of the elements in place for a successful campaign, the team behind intriguing sandbox MMORPG Fractured said that it's ready to take the blossoming title to Kickstarter on June…
Pantheon gets ready for Pre-Alpha 3 and throws all of its features into a single zone - The third pre-alpha build (which will include four zones and a level cap of 40) is on the way for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, and the Visionary Realms team…
Star Citizen and EVE Online players unite to call out lookalike concept ship - Fancy staring at some pixel spaceships this morning to weigh in on the latest Star Citizen drama? 'Course you do. The ship on display today is Star Citizen's Vulture, the…
Project Gorgon overhauls its damage-over-time skills - While Project Gorgon prepares some larger content additions for the future, last week's patch was focused on shoring up the game and tackling some of the bug issues that have…
The Star Citizen subreddit is in the middle of a massive flamewar as a big backer loses faith - Star Citizen drama on the internet - who'd have seen that coming, right? If you run a search for Star Citizen drama just on the current version of Massively OP,…
Fractured
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, hit Steam May 2018.
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 allegedly 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): First Kickstarter canceled, second funded.
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.
Temtem (Crema) – Kickstarter ends July 2.
The Exiled (Fairytale Distillery) – fka Das Tal; 2015Â KSÂ unsuccessful. Early access.
The Flower of Knighthood – Kickstarter canceled.
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.
