Make My MMO: Ship of Character Customization (September 23, 2017)

This week in MMO crowdfunding, Ship of Heroes continued proving itself worthy as a City of Heroes successor with a new video demo of its character creation — which ought to look pretty familiar to fans of the pre-eminent superhero MMORPG.

In the realm of Star Citizen drama, we speculated on the game’s post-launch monetization plans and posted the team’s new count of bugs yet to fix before alpha 3.0 reaches the Evocati. (It’s 7.)

Meanwhile, War of Conquest has already achieved its Kickstarter goal, Project Gorgon teased its next patch, we learned about Pantropy, Crowfall stirred dissent over its harvesting plans, and Guardians of Ember, which raised $77000 in funding from players on Indiegogo, formally launched out of early access.

Read on for more on what’s up with MMO crowdfunding over the last week and the regular roundup of all the crowdfunded MMOs we’re following.

Ship of Heroes’ character creation

Recent MMO crowdfunding news

Star Citizen is down to only 7 must-fix issues before alpha 3.0 goes to the Evocati - What's that sound? That's the sound of Star Citizen's alpha 3.0 creeping ever closer, as the teams say they've made "substantial progress." In the latest edition of Around the Verse,…

Crowfall’s action harvesting makes it ‘waaay more fun to run around and harvest’ - Yesterday, ArtCraft posted a live Crowfall Q&A video showing off what the devs are calling "action harvesting" - and it caused a surprising amount of uproar in our comments. Essentially,…

Massively Overthinking: How will Star Citizen make money after launch? - During this week's Massively OP Podcast, Justin and I attempted to tackle a question sent in by commenter and listener Sally Bowls - specifically, she wanted us to speculate on…

Ship of Heroes shows off improved character creation in new video - Supporters for Ship of Heroes are going to be able to test out the alpha version of the game's character creator this year. That is awesome. But what will it…

Identity hires more devs, says it’s ‘full steam ahead’ for this life simulator - Two years after its successful Kickstarter campaign, the contemporary MMORPG Identity still has yet to produce any actual gameplay for its backers and fans. The talked-up Town Hall module has…

Albion Online’s Joseph patch arrives next week; check out the new trailer - Joseph is coming to Albion Online, and he's not interested in drinking tea or exchanging pleasantries or wearing anything akin to an amazing technicolor dreamcoat. No, he's the game's first…

The Stream Team: Getting a look at Guardians of Ember’s launch - [AL:GOE]Good-bye Early Access! It's a glorious day when a game can say that, and today Guardians of Ember gets to join the ranks of launched titles. Of course, Massively OP's MJ…

Pantropy brings base building and mechs to an alien world, plans November Kickstarter - At this point in the survival sandbox craze, it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack. We can't say that Pantropy is going where…

Crowfall puts the ‘action’ in its harvesting system - With Patch 5.3 on the horizon, Crowfall is striving to add more than just race and class options. One feature that's going to be worked into this newest alpha build…

Hack-n-slash MMOARPG Guardians of Ember launches today - [AL:GOE]After wandering the lands of early access since last December, the Runewaker-developed hack-and-slash Guardians of Ember has now gained enough confidence, experience, and (most importantly) development to officially launch. Even…

The Stream Team: Talking like a pirate in AQ3D with Artix - Arrrrgg! It be Talk Like a Pirate Day again mateys, and that be meanin' Massively OP's MJ be gettin' in the spirit. She'll be hoppin' aboard AQ3D for some adventure…

Chronicles of Elyria wraps up its PAX jousting jaunt - It might not have involved fluttering about on the back of a well-trained ostrich, but Chronicles of Elyria's jousting minigame did well enough for itself at PAX West. The team…

AdventureQuest 3D survives Hurricane Irma, embraces Talk Like a Pirate Day - You're probably well aware that today is that holiest of geek holidays, Talk Like a Pirate Day. AdventureQuest 3D is certainly not ignoring it; the cross-platform MMO is getting into…

Shroud of the Avatar stuffs in more dragons, preps for Halloween - Shroud of the Avatar's Release 46 is right around the corner, and when it arrives, so do the dragons. For the patch, the team has rebuilt the Northwest Blackblade Mountains…

Project Gorgon

The upcoming new GUI will bring many chat-management features to Project: Gorgon, including customizable chat tabs and much more. pic.twitter.com/mZEK0uNE8m

— Project Gorgon (@GorgonMMO) September 19, 2017

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.
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; launch planned for 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, now has donor platform. Alpha delayed.
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, multiple times now.
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. Currently in alpha.
Life is Feudal (Bitbox): Indiegogo ended. Currently in beta.
LUX (Chimera) – Kickstarter canceled.
Maestros of the Anthymn (String Theory) – Kickstarter canceled.
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.
Overpower (Hydrant Games) – Kickstarter unfunded; heading to early access.
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen (Visionary Realms) – Open donations, no end date.
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. In alpha.
Pumpkin Online (Monique) – Downgrading from MMORPG.
The Exiled (Fairytale Distillery) – fka Das Tal; 2015 KS unsuccesful. In Steam 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.
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.

Star Citizen lore