This week in MMO crowdfunding news, we’ve got a new addition to the Make My MMO list: Book of Travels, the “tiny multiplayer online” MMO from Might and Delight, a Swedish studio with multiple games to its credit. The studio sought $25,500 US to finish the painterly social fairytale MMO but has already raised over twice that much with a month left to campaign.
Meanwhile, Elite Dangerous postponed its fleet carriers patch, Pantheon posted its new video-style newsletter, City of Titans released its character creator, SOTA dropped R71 on the PTS among other things, Project Gorgon teased the Warden skill, Valiance Online touched on its next big thing, Seed announced its alpha is coming next year, and we took a peek at Albion Online on mobile.
Read on for more on what’s been up with MMO crowdfunding over the last couple of weeks, plus our roundup of all the crowdfunded MMOs we’re following!
Book of Travels
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bookoftravels/book-of-travels-a-serene-online-rpg
Recent MMO crowdfunding news
‘Unique social roleplaying experience’ Book of Travels begins Kickstarter - If you've often promised that you would support online RPGs that broke from tropish traditions and took risks, well, it's time to put your money where your mouth is. Book…
Elite Dangerous delays fleet carriers to 2020 in favor of multiple clean-up patches - Frontier hasn't had the best year when it comes to Elite Dangerous. After a line of patches that were plagued with many issues, notable community members banded together to craft…
Inside Star Citizen shows off its procedurally generated space stations and food courts - In order to populate the universe of Star Citizen with various rest stops and space stations, the devs are going to have to put together some procedural generators to expedite…
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen details racial passives with new video newsletter - Hey, kids! How do you like to take your newsletters? Do you like them in neatly organized and well-written text format, or do you prefer 30+ minutes' worth of video?…
Shroud of the Avatar works on bards, complains about negative press coverage - It's no secret that many of us here aboard the Good Ship MOP love us some Bard classes or support classes in general, so when word that Shroud of the…
City of Titans’ character creator, Titan Create, is now available for backers - If you'd been wondering what that countdown on City of Titans' Twitter last week was, well you probably just overlooked the announcement earlier this month that the pre-alpha superhero MMO…
OrbusVR will let players become Tinkerers on November 5 and customize their house on November 19 - OrbusVR has been hinting at its new crafting profession and house customization features for a little while now, but only recently have we gotten a better look at what's on…
Star Citizen brings the interdiction-fixing alpha 3.7.1 online and shares the schedule for CitizenCon - With the newest update to Star Citizen, the game has hopefully fixed its little space rock vs. face problem (spoiler: space rock wins). Alpha 3.7.1 is now live, introducing a…
Legends of Aria is halting taxes and auctions ahead of its next patch in November - Citadel Studios is clearly hoping that the next update for Legends of Aria brings people to the game to stay, but there's a bit of a problem there. See, if you've…
Vague Patch Notes: Scammers, grifters, and amateurs in the MMORPG market - There are two apparent truisms about scams in the MMO marketplace. The first is that players are quick to call anything that vaguely stinks of a scam as such. The…
Albion Online kicks off its Allhallows event with a themed dungeon and an upcoming death race - You may not be afraid of any ghosts, but that won't help you with Albion Online's new Allhallows event kicking off today with the inclusion of a new thematic dungeon. Yes,…
Space colony MMO SEED announces ‘Pioneers’ alpha coming in 2020 - With SpatialOS titles bailing out of the genre left and right, it falls to games like Seed - now being marketed as SEED - to pick up the slack, and…
Project Gorgon adds Halloween quest, adjusts the Giant Bat skill in latest update - There's nothing quite like reading the patch notes for Project Gorgon because what other game lets you not only become a giant bat but also seriously addresses the issue of balance with…
Hellion launches out of early access unfinished and ends development - If you point your brain back at 2017, you'll recall that an ambitious survival sandbox called Hellion braved the Steam early access waters. Zero Gravity Games' sci-fi thriller had caught…
Camelot Unchained nears the finish line for NPC pathfinding and shows off a new texture editor - If you look over our Camelot Unchained tag, you'll probably see a number of variants to the same story of City State Entertainment's work on "navmesh" and making sure the…
Star Citizen Q&A livestream touches on mining, caves, quality-of-life tweaks, and more - It's Q&A time for Star Citizen's developers in the most recent Star Citizen Live livestream that took place. As one would expect, this Q&A session was all about the update…
Crowfall’s ACE Q&A talks War of the Gods as the game readies up Decapathon 2 - October's ACE Q&A for Crowfall is up and online, and to perhaps nobody's surprise, it's all about the upcoming War of the Gods milestone. Specifically, the Q&A touches on the…
Ship of Heroes’ character creator is adding so many glowing eyes you guys - Did you miss the body morphs video Ship of Heroes pumped out over the weekend? Don't fret; it's still watchable, even if Heroic Games is already moving on to the…
Fight or Kite: Albion Online has the potential to be the perfect mobile MMO - You know, I am regularly sitting in a waiting room for my turn to be called back to the doctor or at the lube shop to get my car serviced…
Garbled pirate transmissions are playing in Star Citizen’s 3.7.1 PTU - While the primary purpose of alpha 3.7.1 in Star Citizen is to test random asteroid interdiction, that apparently doesn't mean that CIG isn't eager to inject a little intriguing mystery…
Shroud of the Avatar claims move from Portalarium to Catnip will bring ‘positive change’ - Honest-to-goodness hope or trying to put a brave face on things? We'll let you decide when you read Catnip Studios' letter following the recent sale of Shroud of the Avatar…
Ship of Heroes shows off the power of morphing body shapes with its newest video - The upcoming test for Ship of Heroes' character creation is arriving on November 1st, and that means plenty of new superheroes running around on a spaceship. Hence the title. But…
Oath’s developers show the receipts and its own evidence in the ongoing art studio payment controversy - "We never wanted to take this to the public," starts the opening of Oath developer Ready-Up Studios' statement. "However, since Ocean Spark decided to make it public, we have no…
Albion Online outlines plans for improving its mobile client UI - Good news for players excited by a mobile client for Albion Online: The game's development team now has someone dedicated specifically to the game's mobile version, starting with an in-depth exploration…
Chronicles of Elyria shares another pre-alpha video that focuses on environmental sound - There are plenty of ways for MMOs to set a scene. Visuals are certainly one of the more important, but audio plays just as big of a factor, whether its…
UK art studio accuses Kickstarted MMORPG Oath of incompetence and failure to pay for work - Last spring, we covered an incredibly ambitious new MMO called Oath. Developer Ready-Up Studios rolled out a $35,000-ask Kickstarter to build a free-to-play, action-combat sandbox MMO using Unreal Engine 4…
Into the Super-verse: Catching up with Valiance Online - So far in the Into the Super-verse column space, we have touched base with two of the three upcoming City of Heroes spiritual successors: namely, Ship of Heroes and City…
Camelot Unchained has solved the problem of animating a cow corpse being thrown by a siege weapon - Only in the games industry will you consider how to animate a cow corpse thrown from a catapult as a problem and not, say, a worrying hobby that would get…
Pantheon
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.
Book of Travels (Might and Delight) – Kickstarter ends November 24.
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.
Day of Dragons (Beawesome) – Kickstarter successful.
Descent Underground (Descendent Studios) – Successful KS.
Destiny’s Sword (2Dogs) – Kickstarter successful June 2019.
Divergence Online (Stained Glass Llama)Â –Â 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) –Â 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) –Â 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) –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.
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;Â 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; 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.
Seed (Klang Games) – Kickstarter launching in 2020.
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.
Zenith (Ramen) – Kickstarter successfully funded.
Seed
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?
