Cool Summer Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding can often be a maze, and tricky to navigate for creators and backers alike. Like it or not, however, most game designers are reliant on crowdfunders in some form. With promotion becoming harder and harder in an era of social media platforms collapsing and corporate advertising monopolies, some of your favourite indie RPG makers are getting together to make sure that independent games still get their section of the spotlight.

From August to September, a curated selection of five new games by beloved creators are funding on Kickstarter and Backerkit. Every single one deserves a place on your bookshelves. Combined, you’ll have an RPG for every occasion, and be the coolest person running a game at any convention or meetup. Don’t miss out on a single one of these campaigns this Cool Indie Summer!

Funding first, and finishing its campaign on August 29th, is Dragon Reactor by Nova of Dinoberry Press and Quinn of 200 Proof Games. Dragon Reactor is the mech RPG you’ve been looking for. Gigantic in stature and scope, it provides the big stakes you want in a big robot game. You’ll create pilots in control of the biggest, scariest war machines in the world, and explore the inevitable tragedy of conflict on a grand scale. 

Next up, is Kassandra King: Devil’s Dice by Michael Elliott of Not Writing Games. If you’re a fan of noir, detective thrillers, or characters in over their head, this game is for you. It’s also the one single-player offering of this group of games for all the soloists out there. You play as a terrible private investigator who's about to get in over her head and make a deal with the devil. It's a Michael Mann film scored by Halsey and K.Flay, fueled by Ironsworn and Blades in the Dark. Play to find out if Kassandra King gets better or worse. This game is funding until September 2nd!

Serving Up Disaster by Molomoot finishes its campaign on August 31. Perfect for fans of Kitchen Nightmares and other cooking reality shows, the game presents a chaotic comedy about a famous and fiery TV Chef visiting various failing restaurants across the country, identifying problems and working with the staff to transform the struggling restaurant into a successful business.

Full Send by Laurie O’Connel, the author of indie faves Lichcraft and Hieronymus, is the first of these projects to be running significantly into September. Launching on August 27, O'Connel breaks ground in a completely new genre with a tarot-based game about mountaineering, guaranteed to tickle fans of Free Solo and Touching the Void. In Full Send, you take on the role of climbers risking it all to summit more and more dangerous peaks, competing against each other for glory, and struggling to get your whole party to the top. O'Connel has developed all new mechanics, including a method of procedurally generating summits using tarot cards, and a technical trick taking game which takes the place of skill checks as players make their way up the mountain.

Finally, A Hunt through The Bittercold is funding until September 20th. For those looking for a two-player experience, this the new two player analogue roguelike is produced by Biscuit Fund Games, the team behind Tournament Arc, Goblin Country, and Skirmish: Wallet Friendly Wargaming. You play as a lone survivor trying to escape a blasted wasteland while fighting off the things that inhabit it, all while the other player chases you down. Made in the Fight Card system designed by Rat Wave Game House, and inspired by roguelike card battlers like Inscryption, Slay the Spire and Nowhere Prophet, the Hunt will take you on a winding journey through a grim, cold place at the heart of a strange, nightmarish world.

So clear your schedules and reach for your wallets: the TTRPG's cool summer isn’t over yet. In fact, it’s only just beginning!

For enquiries about the Indies Helping Indies campaign, get in touch with Laurie O’Connel at oconnelgames@gmail.com