Make My MMO: City of Titans devs release lore novel, Ship of Heroes talks character creation beta

This week in MMO crowdfunding, Kickstarted City of Heroes spiritual successor City of Titans released a novel penned by Jack Snyder from Missing Worlds Media’s own lore team. The ebook, Wondertale, runs $2.99 on Amazon’s Kindle store.

“Explore the world of City of Titans, the MMO of superpowered adventure, in this first tie-in novelette! Discover an unrevealed side of Titan City’s history in a tale of adventure, romance, and the quest to forge an identity. Today, Vodnik, the swashbuckling aquatic hero, is a respected member of the Paragons, but he didn’t reach that pinnacle alone.”

Missing World posted an update on game progress on Friday too, saying it had “achieved a major milestone” in the production of the avatar builder. As of Tuesday July 30th, Jamie ‘GeeksGoneBad’ Cunningham succeeded in getting Dresser to work in the new, rebuilt, ready to be extended and distributed environment,” the studio wrote. “The UI and other hooks unique to the Avatar Builder is the next, relatively simpler, step.”

Meanwhile, Ship of Heroes teased its own character creator with a mini-beta likely in August, Starfighter Infinity marched into early access, Legends of Aria previewed next week’s patch additions, Elite Dangerous advanced its in-game arc, Path of Exile posted a small patch, Valiance Online uploaded an internal update, Chronicles of Elyria guild Bordwell released a new set of game maps, and we dipped into Crowfall’s latest update.

Read on for more on what’s been up with MMO crowdfunding over the last week, plus our roundup of all the crowdfunded MMOs we’re following!

Elite Dangerous

Recent MMO crowdfunding news

Inside Star Citizen talks New Babbage, item misfires, and the law and lore of the Stanton system - The weekly video digest from Star Citizen is out there once more, and this week's episode has some pretty interesting topics. We get a look at an early build of…

Camelot Unchained’s 57th newsletter discusses how features are kept in and cut from MMOs - Camelot Unchained's 57th newsletter dropped this week, providing a run-down of what City State Entertainment has been up to the last month for those who haven't been keeping up with…

Cyberespionage MMO Spycursion plans a hackable media system with blackmailable journalists - Earlier this spring, I was disappointed by the failed Kickstarter for Spycursion. Defun Games had put up an MMO intended to support a "living world, a player-driven economy, and realistic…

Player questions about the Star Citizen Ballista and air defense gameplay are answered - So there's a new vehicle in Star Citizen. Now while that might elicit rolling eyes and totally original commentary about that news, this new vehicle actually seems to add a…

Legends of Aria’s new bard and vitality regen system sounds an awful lot like Star Wars Galaxies’ - Let me just put it out there: Bards are the best class archetype in all of RPGs, let alone just MMOs, which is why my eyes lit up when Legends…

Albion Online introduces challenges and consolidated timers with today’s GvG patch - The seventh season of GvG in Albion Online is getting some pretty big shifts with the introduction of Guild Challenges. Players can head out into the world and just... gather,…

Ashes of Creation previews its cute pangolin-esque creature, the quarrior - Is he a pangolin? A hedgehog? Nay, he is a quarrior, and he is the freakin' adorable critter on display in Ashes of Creation's latest bestiary dev blog. Unlike the…

Ship of Heroes is eyeing a late August launch for its character creator beta - Going from your mild-mannered alter ego to your superpowered persona is the most important thing you can do in any superheroic MMORPG. Ship of Heroes certainly understands this, and the…

Kickstarted MMO Temtem overhauls critter breeding in its latest alpha update - Among 2018's Kickstarter triumphs relevant to MMO players was Temtem, a Pokemon-inspired "massively multiplayer creature-collection adventure," which raised over half a million bucks on the platform and then proceeded to…

The Stream Team: Alien invasion, AdventureQuest 3D-style - It's an alien invasion! With a special AQ3D twist, of course. Massively OP's MJ has many more adventures awaiting her throughout Lore, and that might just require some interstellar sidekicks…

Kickstarted space MMO Starfighter: Infinity is heading to early access - If you are in the market to try out a new space sim and aren't that discriminating when it comes to graphics or a price tag, you may want to…

Camelot Unchained says it’s actually ‘ahead of schedule on some fronts’ - Hold on to your skepticism: The very much behind-schedule beta MMO Camelot Unchained is apparently "ahead of schedule on some fronts." That's according to the game's most recent dev blog,…

Fight or Kite: Exploring Crowfall’s banking, newbie, and God’s Reach update - This past week Crowfall patched in update 5.100 (that’s right - we’ve gone from 5.9 to 5.100, as one does), which wiped existing characters and added in a handful of…

Ship of Heroes will open some of Apotheosis City in its upcoming character creation beta - Earlier this week, we reported on the upcoming August beta for the Character Creation Tool (CCT) in Ship of Heroes, alluding to the fact that players would be able to…

Guild Season 7 kicks off in Albion Online with new challenges and mount skin seasonal rewards - Today marks the moment in Albion Online where guilds can duke it out for bragging rights, glory, and very likely a whole bunch of shinies. Season 7 of the sandbox…

Starfighter Infinity

Campaigns and crowdfunded MMOs we’re watching

3001SQ (Société des Mondes Virtuels) – Kickstarter unsuccessful, dev halted in 2018.
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.
Codename Reality (Orode) – Kickstarter unsuccessful.
Contested Space (Zon)
Crowfall (ArtCraft) – Kickstarter win, open packages, Indiegogo crowdfunding ongoing.
Chronicles of Elyria (Soulbound) – Kickstarter successful, open packages.
City of Heroes Homecoming (Homecoming) – Monthly donation rounds.
City of Titans (Missing Worlds Media) – Successful KS; Issue 0 delayed into 2019.
Descent Underground (Descendent Studios) – Successful KS.
Destiny’s Sword (2Dogs) – Kickstarter successful June 2019.
Divergence Online (Stained Glass Llama) – Three campaigns; now in KS early access.
Dogma: Eternal Night (Prelude Games Factory): Kickstarter. Probably dead.
Dragon of Legends (Thrive Games) – Successful Kickstarter.
Dual Universe (Novaquark) – Kickstarter funded, donor platform. Backer alpha.
Eco (Strange Loop Games) – Funded, now in alpha.
Edengrad (Huckleberry Games) – Kickstarter funded. Abandoned, then not?
Elite: Dangerous (Frontier Developments) – Funded and fully launched.
Empyrion Online (Eleon) – Kickstarter canceled; launched on Steam early access.
Endless Trials (Fire Hurts) – Kickstarter canceled.
Epic Space (EpicSpace.net)
EverFeud (PSB) – Kickstarter canceled.
Ever, Jane (3 Turn Productions) – Now in open beta.
Fractured (Dynamight) – Kickstarter successful. Alpha 2.
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) – 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. Early access.
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)
Oath (Ready-Up) – Kickstarter funded.
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): First Kickstarter canceled, second funded.
Pathfinder Online (GoblinWorks) – Doom, mostly.
Path of Titans (Alderon) – Indiegogo.
Planet Nomads (Craneballs) – Kickstarted, early access launched sans multiplayer.
Playcraft (Bebop Games) – Kickstarter funded May 2019.
Pixel Starships (SavySoda)
Project Gorgon (Elder Game) – Kickstarted in three tries + Indiegogo. Early access.
Project Oasis World (POW) – Kickstarter unsuccessful.
Pumpkin Online (Monique) – Downgrading from MMORPG.
RAW (Killerwhale) – Kickstarter canceled by Kickstarter.
Starfighter Infinity (Ben Olding) – Kickstarter funded. Early access.
Temtem (Crema) – Kickstarter fully funded; now in alpha.
The Exiled (Fairytale Distillery) – fka Das Tal; KS 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; in  early access but not active dev.
RUiN (Tarhead Studio) – Kickstarter successful.
The Stomping Land (Alex Fundora) – Abandoned.
Sacrament (Ferocity Unbound) – Kickstarter failed; Patreon ongoing.
Saga of Lucimia (Stormhaven) – Indiegogo. Intermittent pre-alphas.
Shadow’s Kiss (Clockwork Throne) – Ongoing Patreon, Kickstarter funded.
Ship of Heroes (Heroic) – Kickstarter canceled, beta expected before 2020.
Shroud of the Avatar (Portalarium) – Soft launch July 2016. Launch March 2018.
Spycursion (Defun) – Kickstarter unsuccessful.
Squadron 42 (Cloud Imperium) – Beta delayed until at least 2020.
Star Citizen (Cloud Imperium) – Ongoing donations/packages. Backer alpha.
TUG (Nerd Kingdom) – Totally abandoned without a word. Now considered a scam.
Vigor Roads (NeuronHaze) – Kickstarter unsuccessful; early access planned for 2017.
War of Rights (Campfire Games) – Successful Kickstarter; in early access.

Ashes of Creation

Yes, some crowdfunded MMOs most definitely do succeed. But others crash and burn, and you need to hear about the whole spectrum of games that sought your money early in exchange for the promise of input and transparency. And that’s exactly what Make My MMO does every Saturday. Help us keep ’em accountable, would ya?