Kickstarter's Latest Round of Games, March 2014

Kickstarter has become a gateway for fans to selectively choose which games they would like to see developed. You want Tim Schafer to make an old school point-and-click adventure game? So did over 87,000 people donating 3 million dollars. You want Keiji Inafune to bring back Mega Man? 67,000 people were willing to donate close to 4 million to fund a spiritual successor.
 
There are so many choices on what to fund these days, I'm going to make it a point to showcase a few at least every month. This month we have a naked cosmonaut, a busty axe princess, and a new turn-based strategy game from an industry legend.
 
 
AXE PRINCESS
 
One morning I woke up... and I thought to myself-- “how come nobody is making a version of Golden Axe with boobs?”. Well, apparently the Axe Princess Team has a machine that reads my thoughts and they've been working on the game for a year. There's definitely a gap in the market waiting to be filled by a good old-school 2D beat/slash em' up. Did you know it has been 6 years since Castle Crashers came out?
 
Unfortunately it doesn't seem Axe Princess will be able to reach its goal... with less than 2 weeks to go and only 1/10 of the way there. The odds of $20,000 being thrown at an unproven 3 person team were stacked against them from the start. Speaking of stacked... I doubt this will be the last we see of the Axe Princess.
 

CHAOS REBORN
 
The last several years have seen the excellent XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM: Enemy Within... but twenty years ago it all started with X-COM: UFO Desense from Julian Gollop. A Kickstarter has launched for Chaos Reborn, a new turn-based strategy title from one of the true masters of the genre. Rather than taking the sci-fi approach, the game is more fantasy based: with wizards who summon creatures onto the map in a variety of online multiplayer, co-op, and single player modes.
 
The mythos of the game is based on a cult classic ZX Spectrum title... but the real draw is this is finally a new game from the freaking creator of X-COM! If that wasn't enough, he even has Ken Levine in his Kickstarter promising he'll reform Irrational Games and make another Bioshock if you just fund this game.



COSMOCHORIA
 
Where we're going, we don't need underpants. Armed only with a jetpack and blaster... Cosmochoria lets you blast off in between procedurally generated planets to plant your seeds and fight crystal pooping aliens.
 
The game is currently in Steam Greenlight, and will be launching their Kickstarter the first week of April. Design, challenge, good music, naked Cosmonaut: all the elements needed for an indie game hit. You can play the alpha version of the game now at the Cosmochoria website.



CHROMA SQUAD
 
Lastly is a game that has successfully been funded through Kickstarter and is nearing release. Chroma Squad managed to secure close to $100,000 in funding from Power Ranger Pixel Art enthusiasts. In the game you play as a manager in charge of recording episodes, hiring actors, and creating special effects... all using a turn-based system. Get your mighty morphin' pre-order on now for just $15.