Over the past several years I have provided funding for a number of computer game projects at Kickstarter. Althought the start of these projects is spread out over time, it appears that they are all coming into working beta at about the same time.

The earliest game to catch my eye was Legends of Aethereus, a quest style adventure game with wonderful graphics. I discovered this project after they completed their funding campaign in July of 2012. Having discovered this project too late to be a backer, I got beta status by buying a pre-release copy. One of the reasons I was interested in this game was that they were producing a Linux version of the game. Early releases were basically unplayable, with the controls being too erratic to be useful. Now, in late 2015, they are in full beta release mode, and the game is much more playable than before, although fighting is a very clumsy interaction. This is a highly complex game with lots of territory and yet with a fairly simply interface. While this development has been slow, it has been steady, and the funding they received has been well used. While I would not give them points for speed, they definitely get points for persistence that leads to success. I feel like my small contribution was used effectively to bring this project to completion.

The next game project I found soon enough to become a backer. ELITE: Dangerous is a space adventure game for multiple players, providing on line interaction amongst the players. They reached their funding goals in January of 2013, and have been in beta for several months at this writing. I have found the ship controls a bit complicated, but the tutorial has been instructive and I can shoot things! This is going to be one of those complex multi-player space adventures that could consume all of your time and attention! However, only time will tell if it really gets to be popular game play.

The next interesting project to come along was Tangiers. This dark adventure game looked as interesting as any I had seen to this point, and may yet become an interesting game. The project met its funding goals in August of 2013, but has been compounded with problems that don’t seem to be technical, and a great deal of delayed communication. The last published date for a beta release came and went with nothing but additional excuses. The comments by backers seem to indicate a loss of hope by many that the project will even complete. Given all of that, there is still the chance that this project could be completed…some day.

Several years later the Descent Underground project caught my eye. Patterned after an earlier game, you fight in ships in underground tunnels and caves. They completed their funding in April of 2015 and have been doing beta releases over the past month or two. This game requires a pretty hefty machine to play the game, and has outstripped my current test machine. To enjoy this game I will need to invest in faster hardware including a quad core 2 gig processor with some good graphics card, so its time to start saving my allowance.

More recently I backed an Asteroids style game called SphereFace. As the name implies the game play is on the inside surface of a sphere. Once the sphere has been cleared of rocks and aliens, wormholes open to other spheres in the game. They completed their campaign in July of 2015 and released their first beta code two days after the completion of the campaign! More than that, the initial release was playable on my not-so-hot Linux computer! This has been the most fun for me of all the previous beta releases. The programmers are accessible and together got to dig into several interesting Linux problems. While the game started out pretty simple, the releases have been steady, and the improvements steady and interesting. New weapons and new alien capabilities have kept the game escalating at a steady pace.

When I saw the project BattleTech, even thought I was busy beta testing SphereFace I had to back this game at the beta testing level. I have many fond memories of playing the original incarnation of this game, and loved it! On the other hand, I am just as happy that they have not been as fast out the door as SphereFace, as I would be overwhelmed.

I have always felt like Kickstarter was a great place to get involved with interesting new technologies, and have been overall pleased with the success rate of the projects I’ve backed. In this area of computer games, it appears I have a fairly high success rate as well. While BattleTech can not yet be considered either successful or a failure, I would rate all the other projects as being successful, with the sole exception of Tangiers. While there is little expectation that this project will ever deliver beta code, that could still happen. Even if it doesn’t I consider it a good investment bet. I suspect the project failed to ask for enough funds from Kickstarter, expecting other funding sources to complete the project that fell through. On the other hand SphereFace asked for very little funding relative to some of the other projects and had no problem getting out of the gate early and strong.

Each of these projects have taken somewhat different tactics. The large funded projects appear to be using those resources to set up player communities even before the game code is released, while at the same time taking the time to build an elaborate game to support that community. Others appear to be putting their Kickstarter resources directly into game development, letting the player community grow slowly.

Whether you have an interest in computer games, new technology, or interesting social projects, you should take a look at Kickstarter