Make My MMO: Dual Universe funds, Hero’s Song doesn’t, and CitizenCon begins (October 8, 2016)

This week in MMO crowdfunding news, Star Citizen has begun its pre-CitizenCon festivities with multi-hour streaming yesterday and today, culminating in a grand presentation by CIG’s Chris Roberts tomorrow. The sale of the Polaris concept ship during the hoopla raised a million and a half bucks in less than a day, marking the second biggest crowdfunding day in the game’s history.

We also have two big crowdfunding campaigns winding down this weekend. Hero’s Song, the John Smedley-backed pixel sandbox, failed to make its $200,000 Indiegogo goal, but it did pull in $94,000, which the studio gets to keep. “While it’s short of what we were looking for, it’s helping us immensely,” Smed wrote. In happier news, it does appear that sci-fi sandbox Dual Universe is going to fund; as I write this, the game’s campaign has pushed past its $560,000 goal with just a few days to go.

Meanwhile, The Exiled (Das Tal) got a new community director, Crowfall flipped its pledge packages, Grim Dawn teased a large update, Valiance Online showed off gear designs ahead of its alpha, Shroud of the Avatar kicked off a housing deco contest, and Antraxx joined our Kickstarter list.

Read on for more on what’s up with MMO crowdfunding this week and the roundup of all the crowdfunded MMOs we’ve got our eye on!

CitizenCon streaming

Recent MMO crowdfunding news

Albion Online extends its beta deep into 2017 - To the chagrin of its playerbase, Albion Online has announced that it's significantly extending the duration of its current beta phase deep into next year. "Compared to Beta 1, we have…

Camelot Unchained tests grouping and fidgeting in prep for guilds - Stress testing continues in Camelot Unchained this week, according to a dev post from CSE Producer Tyler Rockwell. "This is something that just needs lots of vetting in order to…

Crowfall’s crafting stations will remind you of Star Wars Galaxies - If you're going to spend your precious playtime standing by a crafting station, you want it to be awesome, right? Hell yeah. Crowfall is aiming for that goal, says a…

Star Citizen’s CitizenCon kicks off today - Star Citizens are focused on exactly one thing this weekend. (Well, two if you're in Florida, in which case you're probably fleeing for your life, and godspeed.) I'm talking about…

Dual Universe shows off character customization and group ship building - The end of the Dual Universe Kickstarter is just a couple of days away, and the project has a little bit further to go before it hits its goal as…

Smed’s Hero’s Song Indiegogo is down to its last hours - Hero's Song's Indiegogo is coming to a close in less than 24 hours, having raised (as I write this) just shy of half of its $200,000 flexible goal. The Indiegogo…

AdventureQuest 3D heads into open beta on October 18 (more or less) - The date of AdventureQuest 3D's public debut is imminent, as the team announced that the cross-platform MMO will be going into open beta on October 18th-ish. Wait, "ish?" What's that…

Eco delays its Alpha 5 update to October 24th - Eco's Alpha 5 brings in its comprehensive ecosystem mechanics, but as a result of polishing those mechanics, it's going to take a little longer to push those systems live. An…

Edengrad’s newest additions may ‘bug’ you - All wasteland adventurers must start somewhere, and if that somewhere is "beating up on giant mutant bugs," then so be it. Do your duty and count your blessings that you…

Check out Chronicles of Elyria’s gorgeous living environment video - Chronicles of Elyria has a fresh flythrough video out this afternoon showing off some of the game's landscapes and critter animations in its pre-alpha build, from herds of trison racing…

Valiance Online will launch free-to-play, heads into alpha - Valiance Online Creative Director, Programming Director, and Executive Producer IronSight has penned a dev blog today explaining that the game is finally moving on from pre-alpha to alpha and revealing…

Star Citizen thinks someone will still pay $750 for a concept ship - If you have $750 burning a hole in your pocket, here is a list of things you could do with it: You could give it to your friendly neighborhood MMORPG blog,…

Wild Terra plans PvP and skill revamp ahead of December 1 early access launch - Indie sandbox Wild Terra has a Steam early access launch date: December 1st. The devs behind the "massively multiplayer life simulator" told players today that in the next two months,…

Massively multiplayer mech shooter Antraxx seeks $33K on Kickstarter - If you're a fan of robots and can handle pixel graphics, point your eyeballs at Antraxx, which bills itself as a next-gen, massively multiplayer online, arcade-esque mech shooter inspired by…

Brad McQuaid’s Pantheon team expands yet again - Visionary Realms, the Brad McQuaid-led outfit building Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, announced this morning that it's expanded again with the hire of two new team members: AI specialist Tod…

Shroud of the Avatar outlines its plans for the rest of 2016 - Following the rollout of Shroud of the Avatar's Release 34, the team took a breather to lay out its plans for the remainder of the year. The long and the short…

Dual Universe’s Kickstarter pitch

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1949863330/dual-universe-civilization-building-sci-fi-mmorpg

Campaigns and crowdfunded MMOs we’re watching

3001SQ (Société des Mondes Virtuels) – Kickstarter unsuccessful. Work continues.
AdventureQuest 3D (Artix Entertainment) – Raised 368k; plans October launch.
Antraxx (Team Antraxx) – Kickstarter ends November 1.
Ascent: The Space Game (Fluffy Kitten Studios) – Fully launched!
Camelot Unchained (City State) – Open donations/packages.
Caribbean Conquest (Invenio) – Kickstarter canceled (site has been taken offline).
Contested Space (Zon)
Crowfall (ArtCraft) – Open donations/packages
Chronicles of Elyria (Soulbound) – Kickstarter successful.
Citadel of Sorcery (MMO Magic, Inc.) – Open donations.
City of Titans (Missing Worlds Media)
Descent Underground (Descendent Studios)
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 live now, ends October 11.
Eco (Strange Loop Games)
Edengrad (Huckleberry Games) – Kickstarter funded June 2016; early access coming Sept.
Elite: Dangerous (Frontier Developments) – Funded and launched.
Empyrionn Online (Eleon) – Kickstarter canceled; launched on Steam early access.
Epic Space (EpicSpace.net)
Ever, Jane (3 Turn Productions) – Now in open beta.
Gloria Victis (Black Eye Games) – Open donations, no end date.
Greed Monger (Greed Monger) – Abandoned, multiple times now.
Grim Dawn (Crate Entertainment) – Funded and launched.
Guns of Icarus (Muse) – Funded and launched.
Hero’s Song (Pixelmage) – Kickstarter canceled; Indiegogo pulled in $94K.
Infinity: Battlescape (I-Novae Studios)
HEX (HEX Entertainment) – Successful Kickstarter, now playable.
Life is Feudal (Bitbox): Indiegogo ended.
LUX (Chimera) – Kickstarter canceled.
Midair (Archetype Studios) – Kickstarter successful.
Neo’s Land (NeoJac Entertainment) – Open donations, no end date.
Novus AEterno (Taitale Studios)
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) – Successful Kickstarter.
Pixel Starships (SavySoda)
Project Gorgon (Elder Game, LLC)
Pumpkin Online (Monique)
The Realm: Reawakened (Stephen Nichols) – Ongoing GoFundMe.
The Repopulation (Above & Beyond Technologies) – In middle of engine do-over.
ROKH (Darewise) – Kickstarter canceled; early access delayed to 2017.
The Stomping Land (Alex Fundora) – Abandoned.
Sacrament (Ferocity Unbound) – Kickstarter failed; Patreon ongoing.
Shadow’s Kiss (Clockwork Throne) – Ongoing Patreon.
Shards Online (Citadel Studios)
Shroud of the Avatar (Portalarium) – Final wipe was in 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.

Antraxx’s Kickstarter pitch

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649966326/antraxx-multiplayer-arcade-mech-shooter