Default Dan on Kickstarter - The Anti-Platformer!

When I say "platformer", what do you think of? A game where you run to the right, stomping on enemies heads, collecting coins (or whatever item you might have to collect), avoiding spikes and carefully jumping across holes? Default Dan does stick to one of those things - running to the right (or left sometimes) - and you do dodge things, but it's not enemies or holes... It's coins! That's right, in Default Dan, coins are fatal.


What makes a platformer unique enough to talk about on Kickstarter? A crazy sense of humor mixed with platforming execution! While it's funny enough that it mocks other platformers with style, it also looks like a solid, challenging platforming game. The Kickstarter page even has a couple 9+ minute videos where you can watch people playing it! That's pretty unheard of for a Kickstarter game, you're usually lucky to get a couple minutes in one video trailer.

Aside from that, there are some really fun perks! It's only $5 for the game on a platform of your choice, $15 adds the mp3 soundtrack, a short comic pdf and other digital goodies, $25 adds a tshirt and beta access... Then it gets AWESOME! $50 adds Bobble Head Mode, where you send in six photos of your face and they make a special version just for you (Which looks HILARIOUS!), and the rest is fantastic as well.

There's a video, too, and it's amazing!!!

Estimated Completion Date: May 2014
Goal Platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android (maybe OUYA too!)
Lowest Price Point for Game: $5 ($25 for beta)

Treasurebear: Humor, Exploration, Platforming, Treasure and Food!

Treasurebear combines two incredibly awesome things: good platforming action and LOTS of treasure! The game focuses on a duo of unlikely "heroes" - [From the Kickstarter page] "The greedy and unpredictable Chester, a charismatic treasure chest forever condemned by the treasure hunter's guild, and his sleepy sidekick Barry, a hungry bear who prefers sauce battles over boss battles." The story is driven as such: "Barry teams up with Chester following the promise of visiting foreign lands in order to locate and sample exquisite and tasty foods. Determined to locate his blackmailer and exonerate himself, Chester utilizes his uncanny talents for finding shiny and potentially valuable items while upholding his promise to Barry."

While the story is humorous and intriguing, it's the gameplay concepts that really sold me on the game. See, because of the way the two team up, you're able to do some really awesome things together! As you can see from the image below, Bear & Boar (the developers) have had no shortage of creative ideas! And this goes far beyond abilities, the depths of the story, crazy levels and treasure hunting all appear to go just as deep.

Concepts for upgrades. Why hasn't anyone come up with the gold coin machine gun before?

The DLC Quest Duology - Earn that DLC!

DLC has become something nearly every game has available these days. Heck, some companies even have season passes available before the game releases! Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, for example, was boasting extra missions for Adewale, the Jackdaw's first mate, before the game itself came out, and I wanted it! DLC can not only add to the game, it can make the game easier, unlock things quicker, change the graphics around or simply give your avatar something cool to wear. The DLC quest games manage to not only mock all of this in a genius manner, they're a load of fun!

Elliot Quest - Kid Icarus Meets Platformer Action RPG

When I first saw Elliot's Quest I was a bit worried by how the developer mentioned a few times that it was inspired by Zelda II. I always thought there were a few cool parts to the game, but I really didn't like it - it was too difficult and I just never really got into it. The completionist side of me wanted to level everything up, and the way the battles happened, it would take foreeeeeever to do it! There was something about Elliot's Quest, though, that I was really interested in, and I'm really glad I gave the demo a try. Note: it's a web demo so there's no install or download, although I did have to refresh the page a couple times to get it running properly.

Angvik Review - The Epitome of Difficulty

"Angvik is a platform action game set in a joyful but unforgiving land."
         - Alastair John Jack, the developer of the game.

Boom! My review is pretty much done, those 13 words explain most everything about the game. My only suggestion would be to put 'UNFORGIVING' entirely in bold, capital letters. In fact, while you're at it, throw a bunch of exclamation points after it.

"... set in a joyful but UNFORGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! land." There we go.

LOOK AT ALL OF THAT POTENTIAL DEATH!

Magicite - A Multiplayer RPG (Roguelike) Platformer on Kickstarter

Note: Although the game is on Kickstarter, it's just shy of the 400% mark as I write this! Since the Kickstarter was officially successful, you can get the perk goodness through Paypal as well.


Magicite (raise your hand if you've heard that term before!) is a Multiplayer RPG Platformer, and you'd may as well through Roguelike in there as well. The concept sounds rather simple - you create a character, fight baddies through procedurally generated instances and if you survive, you can move on to a randomized town to do all the awesome stuff that RPG towns are famous for before doing it all over again. Oh yeah, and you can put your hand back down now... Sorry, I forgot about that.