First, I should mention that since the last Highlights article, we launched on a brand new “Kickstarter” page a crowdfunding discovery tool for game projects. Updated about once-a-week, the Kickstarter page provides a full list of tabletop game and game-related projects on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, along with brief descriptions and details on their current funding and time remaining.

Finished and Finishing

Puzzle Strike successfully funded this week with $74,118, or nearly 5 times the project goal, even though it was for a 3rd edition of an already published game. Then again, Ogre Designer’s Edition, also a previously published game, which was to be produced anyway, closed at $923,680, 46 times its goal.

Sentinels of the Multiverse: Infernal Relics successfully funded at $111,258, 5½ times its goal.

Serpent’s Tonge – Become Magi closed this week with $195,101 of funding. The publisher, however, is now taking preorders on its website and still offering the “Kickstarter exclusive bonuses and rewards.”

Closing in the next week but not yet funded are Off Your Rocker and Titans of Industry. Off Your Rocker I’ve talked about before. We played it here and it was a lot of fun. The project needs $2,000 in the next 3 days. Titans of Industry is a worker-placement game from Gozer Games. It needs $12,000 in less than 72 hours.

Prismatic Art Collection, which I actually missed when creating the big list, is a library of illustrations for fantasy roleplaying games. Its goal is to promote diversity among the characters that show up in such games by recruiting paid artists to release their work under a Creative Commons share-alike license. With 3 days remaining, Prismatic Art Collection has already reached its funding goal.

Ace of Spies, which I did mention last week, was canceled by its creator. Albino Dragon’s announcement blamed itself for overpricing the game and underpricing shipping.

The Good, the Bad, and the Strange

Another canceled project was Tentacle Bento, this one amid quite a bit of controversy. What at first glance appears to be a simple, anime-styled card game was described by Kotaku as playing at rape, albeit with a veneer of alien abduction. Tentacle Bento was well past its funding goal when the furor erupted. Kickstarter cancelled the project but its creator, Soda Pop Miniatures, promises to publish it without the service.

A Knights Quest is an adventure game with a three-level board and a strong trading element. But what’s interesting is that I discovered that the creator has duplicate projects for the game posted on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. When I asked why, his answer was:

I thought I might increase orders so that I can make a minimum order. I was hoping Kickstarter would be further along by now! I guess it’s not going to happen anyway. So please make a pledge. As you know it does not cost you anything unless I reach my goal which is a million miles away!

True, he’s only raised $347 on Kickstarter and nothing on Indiegogo, so there doesn’t appear to be much danger of overfunding. But still, the practice seems deceptive to me.

Eugene Schaeffer claims to be a professional game designer but on Kickstarter he’s asking for $180 to help him print Yu-Gi-Oh play mats.

Bucketo is a yard game where the players throw plastic chains in to a bucket. It’s creators are asking for $5,000.

Non-Trivial Quest is a roll-and-move trivia game, where the questions are supposed to be about important information, rather than trivia. Its creator is asking for $20,000 to fund a second print run, where he’d change the name to “Non-Trivia Quest” (no “L”—because Hasbro objected to his original trademark), and to fund development of a mobile app.

Do not despair, though. There are a few projects that I really liked…

Dice Chuckers aims to produce a documentary film about roleplaying gamers and their hobby. The project has recruited a number of industry notables, but so far has garnered less than 10 percent of its $41,000 goal.

12 for ’12 (3.0): Dangerous Games Novels is a fiction project from Matt Forbeck. The book will be a murder mystery taking place at Gen Con.

Rappan Athuk and Nystul’s Infinite Dungeon are both large, classic-style dungeon crawls for the Pathfinder RPG.

And last but not least, Tahiti is a light, introductory-level pickup-and-deliver game, and a place I’d love to visit.

Stuff From Around the Web

An article on Mashable Business outlined the author’s 9 Essential Steps for a Killer Kickstarter Campaign. If you’re looking for that kind of advice, though, don’t forget our How to Succeed or Fail on Kickstarter.

Chris Pramas posted a list of Top Five Reasons I Won’t Support Your Kickstarter.