Kickstarter: Relic Knights and Steam Bandits

We don’t talk about Kickstarter much, because we really can’t afford to spend too much money. But there are some really AWESOME games (and other) kickstarters out there. Some of most exciting kickstarters were games, and while we managed to get on the bandwagon for some (Sedition Wars, which is the brainchild of one of my favourite minis creators), we didn’t realize that some others (like Zombicide and OGRE) were being kickstarted until much too late.

But this isn’t the case for the next two, and they’re games that we (and maybe YOU) find interesting, Relic Knights and Steam Bandits!

Relic Knights are from Soda Pop miniatures, or the same people that brought you Super Dungeon Explore (which I am incidentally still painting). A miniature game (similar to Warhammer, Warmachine and the like), What I want from it is (like SDE) they’ve got an anime aesthetic that is seldom seen in other miniatures. They’ve also got an interesting card battle mechanic, but really I’m just here for the anime boobs.

They’ve got quite a bit of funding already (140k out of the apparently required 20k, and they still have more than 3 weeks to go), but the trick that CMON does is that there’s a bazillion tiers and unlocks that you can get to, and that gets you to commit and fund. For example, while $45 gets you the rulebook and $50 gets you a starting faction, $100 gets you TWO Factions AND the book! And the more it’s funded, the more freebies you get. For example, the $100 pledge gets you two free minis, and the more tiers broken, the wider a range of minis you get to choose from. Plus we’ve already seen an upgrade from basic cards to high quality casino cards. I really want to see the plastic tokens at the $160k range. The only thing that’s preventing me from instantly slapping down the money is that I took a good hard look at some of the minis, and they’re not as great as they could be. Super Dungeon Explore is ok with its cutesy proportions and general lack of detail, but it will take a defter hand and a better sculpt to translate the admittedly wonderful art into equally wonderful minis. But I REALLY want freebies. That and the look is why I’m thinking of getting the set (and you might be too).

Second up is Steam Bandits. Steam Bandits is what I feel a true Free to Play game should be. As some of my personal friends may know, I kind of hate Facebook games. I don’t like imposing on my friends to send me energy or pokes or I have no idea what so that I can play a game. I used to play some FB games, but after a while I just tuned them out. They seemed to engender too much annoyance (on my end as well as on my friends). So imagine my interest when I see someone trying to kickstart a TRUE free to play game? One where you’re not forced to beg (or pay) for energy, and where you spend money just to style yourself (they do say it’s styled after LoL and TF2 and the like)?

Plus it’s a steampunk buildy game?

PLUS it will eventually weave with more steampunk games? That are RPGish and the like?

PLUS ITS FREE AND STEAMPUNK????

Sign me up.

I’m honestly much more likely to pledge a little bit to Steam Bandit than I am to Relic Knights, because I do believe in the possibility of good free to play games, and they only have 6 more days to get funding. And… well a $1 or $5 pledge is a lot easier to swing on my current funds than $50 or $100. Any chance you guys are going to fund anything?