5 Kickstarter Indie Games Worth Following
From great stories to interesting game mechanics, these are some titles worth following.
Over the past few years, Indie developers have created some really amazing games — Stardew Valley, Cuphead, Hades, Bastion, etc … — every year new interesting projects are announced on Kickstarter, this platform has become one of the main ways for Indie developers to cover the development costs.
At the moment there are some very interesting projects — that achieved their funding goals — I think are worth following so ill be sharing my overall thoughts on them here.
1.Prim
Prim is a 2D point & and click adventure game in the style of Monkey Island — the game revolves around storytelling and puzzles — where you play as death’s daughter Prim who is trying to help a little boy in the human world.
The creator of Prim describes the game like this :
Drop-dead charming, creepy but cute, point & click adventure.
It’s like Monkey Island but Tim Burton made the art, Terry Pratchett wrote the story, inspired by Greek mythology, and oh, it's in black and white. — Creator of Prim
This seems like a very strong hook to me and from my experience playing the demo, it is indeed accurate.
The character you play with — Prim — is the perfect blend of cute and satirical, you always want to hear her comments when you perform or complete a puzzle. This makes the game very engaging which is something I enjoyed.
Good visuals, good story, good puzzles. So far from the demo alone, the game clearly has the potential of being a very memorable title, definitely one worth following.
The Kickstarter and Website of Prim.
2.Kinder World
Kinder World has a very interesting premise, it’s a game about houseplants, healing, and kindness. In an industry where most titles focus on action or storytelling, this seems to be a refreshingly different style of game.
It’s not the first of its kind —Kind Words for example — but it definitely has a unique take on the idea of a positive and relaxing game.
The whole concept of the game revolves around three core principles, Kindness to Self, Kindness to Community, and Kindness to the World.
Kindness to self is the core mechanic where you take care of different house plants. Each plant has its own set of tasks that revolve around things you do to be kind to yourself in order for them to grow.
Kindness to Community has you interact with other players by sending kind messages to each other.
Kindness to the World is essentially a tree that will grow depending on how players interact with it.
This may not be a game for everybody, but without a doubt has an interesting and different concept that makes it worth following.
The Kickstarter and Website of Kinder World.
3.Pine: A Story-Driven Game
Pine is a story-driven game about loss and letting go, told from the perspective of a grieving woodworker. A blend of illustration, animation, music, and sound, Pine tells its story wordlessly through interactions that pull you into the woodworker’s experience as he struggles to hold on to his past.
Pine is a title I'm very excited to play. I love good storytelling and the hook this game presents seems very interesting to me. Loss and letting go are two things everyone experiences eventually so it’s immediately relatable.
I really want to see the perspective of the woodworker on this since the illustrations the creators have shown are already very strong and compelling. With only a couple of images and animations, I'm already feeling sorry for the character and want to know more.
The combination of great visuals and a lot of feeling behind the story makes me think this is going to be a very memorable game, definitely, this is one title that is worth following.
The Kickstarter and Website of Pine: A Story-Driven Game.
4.Roots of Pacha
If you are into games like Stardew Valley, Roots of Pacha is definitely one to look out for. Also inspired by the classic Harvest Moon title, this farming and life simulator set in the stone age looks beautiful.
I can't get over the fact of how gorgeous this game looks, just for that alone I already want to play it. But that’s not all the game has to offer, even though it features most of the mechanics you expect from a game like this — farming, fishing, mining, etc… — it does seem to have a unique take on how those mechanics work.
On the farming side for example it seems like you don't straight out buy seeds or animals like usual, you need to explore and find them, then breed them to have more which makes sense because it goes with the Stone Age theme.
This different take on the farming simulator experience makes the game interesting to follow and honestly, I can't wait to play it so I can try it out for myself.
The Kickstarter and Website of Roots of Pacha
5.Coral Island
Ever wondered how Stardew Valley would look like if it was done in 3D? Most likely it would be something like Coral Island and that's a good thing.
I'm looking forward to trying out this title and clearly, I'm not alone in this. The Kickstarter campaign asked for 70,000$ and it raised way over a million dollars really fast, people really want this project to succeed which does not surprise me.
The game looks good, and it does remind me a lot of Stardew Valley, the mechanics are very similar but in 3D and personally, I find that to be a good thing since Stardew is such a good game, for that alone, I think it's worth following Coral Island.
I’m very curious to try it out when it releases to see if the game is as good as it promises to be.
The Kickstarter and Website of Coral Island.
