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Which ones? Where's Adblock Plus for iOS? :P

Here it is

Enjoy.

Well, if it is Hobbits, at least we'll know how to feed them: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/783115992/medium-rare-and-back-again-a-tolkien-cookbook

Another promising game in the genre: Limit Theory.

It reached its first stretch goal at $75K, at the next goal at $100K (which it most probably will reach during the next week) it will bring Linux & Mac versions.

Kickstarter demonstrates again that it is a fantastic vehicle for game development. It's not always about the Mega Millions. For instance The Pinball Arcade used Kickstarter to get financing for The Twilight Zone and Star Trek: The Next Generation tables (both closed and made target). Pinball is a bit of a niche market and there's a pretty good free pinball simulator out there.

Without Kickstarter to pay the high upfront licensing cost, these tables would not have seen the light of day. There's really no shame in using Kickstarter to both test the waters and raise "venture capital" that you don't pay back in cash but in product.

Kickstarter demonstrates again that it is a fantastic vehicle for game development. It's not always about the Mega Millions. For instance The Pinball Arcade used Kickstarter to get financing for The Twilight Zone and Star Trek: The Next Generation tables (both closed and made target). Pinball is a bit of a niche market and there's a pretty good free pinball simulator out there.

Without Kickstarter to pay the high upfront licensing cost, these tables would not have seen the light of day. There's really no shame in using Kickstarter to both test the waters and raise "venture capital" that you don't pay back in cash but in product.

:-) Okay. It's called XDev ( http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1102382800/xdev-the-new-standard-in-hobby-development-boards?ref=live) . It's using an XMOS processor to develop a full-blown extensible embedded processing system. The developer is targeting it to address some deficiencies with the Arduino platform.

But I still don't want to throw away money on a game that won't ever materialize.

Neither do most of us (it is a gamble, no matter how hard we try)... but I tend to stick to the established guys (like Wasteland 2) so I have at least a better than 50/50 shot of getting good stuff.

I also think this is great... :)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cheapassgames/unexploded-cow-from-cheapass-games

They're still working on Carmageddon Reincarnation: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stainlessgames/carmageddon-reincarnation

They sent emails with youtube video a few weeks ago with some game play and map information

BlindSide

I've never heard of that game and I know it's not to my tastes, but damn, I gotta hand it to you guys for daring to try an entirely new gaming experience. It sure is atleast innovative if nothing else! Good luck with your game and remember to have as much fun developing it as your eventual gamers will have playing it :)

BlindSide was an early Kickstarter success, raising only 200% of our goal, about $14,000, but we released our beta on time, as promised.

Granted, it was the last day of the month and we stayed up 36 hours straight doing it, but we did it.

Maybe it's time for a little "how to manage slipped release dates" guide. I think it would look like this:
1) Communicate
2) Communicate
3) Communicate
:-)

Please take a quick look at the soon to be available board being proffered at Parallella.org. or you can enjoy their videos. Now you can get the 16+2 core super computer for $99, or the 64+2 core super computer for $199. The board comes with plenty of I/O options and two GPIO bus board expanders. By the way the board is expected to run under 5 watts in use.

It comes with linux installed. I could easily imagine a computer dramatically smaller than an Mac Mini running at lower power with the selection of peripherals that nobody expects. This little machine is going to redefine computers and I hope Intel can hear those tiny feet running up behind them at this very moment.

Things are going to get more interesting by the day.

I'm making a hard science fiction space colony simulator. I'm not a big celebrity, but I do have a lot more to show than half the "big names" that keep turning up to cash in.. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1438429768/maia

Larry got his funding, why not contribute to another classic Sierra team trying to put out a new game? Lori and Corey Cole, the couple behind Quest for Glory, have a kickstarter ending in THREE DAYS. They have $311K out of $400. That's nearly 80% of the way there. This can happen if you pitch in.

Please contribute to the Quest for Glory reboot: Hero-U.

I really didn't like X3. I mean in many respects it was TERRIBLE. I've been an Eve player since Beta 6, but I find that game more of a second job.

I'm hoping now SC has made it, people will turn their attention to Elite: Dangerous. Braben posted a video recently talking about procedural generation showing some wonderful volumetric clouds :).

Anyway, it's here if you're interested. I love space sims and I hope both projects are concluded successfully. Competition is good!

I really didn't like X3. I mean in many respects it was TERRIBLE. I've been an Eve player since Beta 6, but I find that game more of a second job.

I'm hoping now SC has made it, people will turn their attention to Elite: Dangerous. Braben posted a video recently talking about procedural generation showing some wonderful volumetric clouds :).

Anyway, it's here if you're interested. I love space sims and I hope both projects are concluded successfully. Competition is good!

Star citizen has no procedural content generation. How are they going to fill a whole galaxy without that? I don't see how could possibly a hand-crafted galaxy even remotely compare with procedurally generated one like in Elite.

Also in Elite gas giant planets (like jupiter) will really have atmosphere where you could fly and harvest fuel (and possibly get crushed due to pressure).

For these reasons I put my funding on Elite :)

If I had my druthers, I'd go for LLL remake by Al Lowe...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/leisuresuitlarry/make-leisure-suit-larry-come-again?ref=live

According to the Kickstarter page, it currently starts at $115 (which I find WAAAAY too expensive for a single purpose firewall.)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen

The guy who gave us Wing Commander and Privateer is working on a new game that provides off-line single-player space combat, as well as online campaigns, a persistent universe and Eve Online-like trading/economy.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen

There's previous Kickstarter projects like this one that have failed to produce feasible support merely because of how it was presented. Even though it was evident they involved reputable people working at it, and to many people it'd appear that would be enough to garner it enough trust and reputation from the masses, but in reality it dropped because people were not given assurance just what they were putting money towards. With the DFA they kicked it off (no pun intended) with videos and other material providing solid evidence of what they wanted to accomplish and how. Planetary Annihilation was also exemplary at this, with an initial video that already demonstrated the art and gameplay direction they had for the game with a pre-rendered trailer of what they expect to create. Displays like this show an already existing dedication towards the goal before funding even comes in, which will encourage people to contribute towards it.

Elite may end up getting the funding it desires, but I wonder just how much more an impact they'll gain had they of started with an appropriate presentation. Unless it's a script for a movie, you don't go selling your project to any publisher with nothing more than a bunch of words and hype, and neither should you do the same to the public.

There's previous Kickstarter projects like this one that have failed to produce feasible support merely because of how it was presented. Even though it was evident they involved reputable people working at it, and to many people it'd appear that would be enough to garner it enough trust and reputation from the masses, but in reality it dropped because people were not given assurance just what they were putting money towards. With the DFA they kicked it off (no pun intended) with videos and other material providing solid evidence of what they wanted to accomplish and how. Planetary Annihilation was also exemplary at this, with an initial video that already demonstrated the art and gameplay direction they had for the game with a pre-rendered trailer of what they expect to create. Displays like this show an already existing dedication towards the goal before funding even comes in, which will encourage people to contribute towards it.

Elite may end up getting the funding it desires, but I wonder just how much more an impact they'll gain had they of started with an appropriate presentation. Unless it's a script for a movie, you don't go selling your project to any publisher with nothing more than a bunch of words and hype, and neither should you do the same to the public.

There's previous Kickstarter projects like this one that have failed to produce feasible support merely because of how it was presented. Even though it was evident they involved reputable people working at it, and to many people it'd appear that would be enough to garner it enough trust and reputation from the masses, but in reality it dropped because people were not given assurance just what they were putting money towards. With the DFA they kicked it off (no pun intended) with videos and other material providing solid evidence of what they wanted to accomplish and how. Planetary Annihilation was also exemplary at this, with an initial video that already demonstrated the art and gameplay direction they had for the game with a pre-rendered trailer of what they expect to create. Displays like this show an already existing dedication towards the goal before funding even comes in, which will encourage people to contribute towards it.

Elite may end up getting the funding it desires, but I wonder just how much more an impact they'll gain had they of started with an appropriate presentation. Unless it's a script for a movie, you don't go selling your project to any publisher with nothing more than a bunch of words and hype, and neither should you do the same to the public.

Didn't these guys do this last year with the Global Village Construction Set on Kickstarter?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/622508883/global-village-construction-set

ARM is the future. Period. Atleast for the mobile segment and for those who want to cut down development costs, save on energy efficiency and on top of all that "increase in processing power" ( LOL din't I just covered every "major" aspect of the needs of our immediate future?) More and more ARM SoC's are having better and better GPU's in them which are coming up quite well. Also, you should have a look at the Adapteva's Kickstarter Project Parallella. Its based on a dual-core ARM A9 SoC. Now this might spark enough ideas to convert this baby into a ARM based server..idk for what not but it'll be cool enough for scientific applications.

If there is such a large support for the space-flight sim. genre in the Linux community, then they might consider Strike Suit Zero, with a stretch goal of $180k that will make them deliver a Linux version.

The developers of the futuristic racer Distance (12 days to go on Kickstarter) has tried a beta of Unity 4 on Linux, and now says that they will definitelly bring the game out on Linux as well.

Those guys are building a neat metal casing for the Hi-Tec-C ink cartridges: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/205734763/pen-type-a-a-minimal-pen

£500 to the first person to supply a 1U filled to the brim with Raspberry Pi's (or equivalent)

I think the Parallella board would be perfect for this, much better than the Raspberry Pi.

I believe you are thinking of light table.

That is why I don't understand Kickstarter. If you want to give some random guy a few hundred quid to support him as he sits at home writing a book, I suppose that's up to you, but if there is no possible profit involved you shouldn't be allowed to treat it as a business transaction. It's just a donation to an individual who sounds ethically highly dubious.

I think you're missing what Kickstarter is. As a pledger, you definitely get something in return.

Look at today's "project of the day", 36 Dollars Magazine. Pledge $6 and you get a copy of the magazine. Pledge $36 and you get "Two copies of $36 Dollars Magazine, and a over-sized "study" format of the analysis of the production process including a reference guide, time and cost projections, and a summarized differential analysis of direct paper recycling via various means over traditional waste collection services.".

It's up to you whether you think that's a good deal or not.

If not enough people pledge, the product doesn't get made, and nobody pays anything.

The only difference between this and normal commerce, is that the producer gets a firm measure of demand, and some actual funds, before committing money to producing the goods.

In case seeing Dan's Kickstarter listing might help inform the debate.

I think the Kickstarter campaign is at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/teachrdan/how-to-teach-adults-a-free-beautiful-e-book

A quick skim of the pledge rewards gives

1. Recognition in the ebook.
2. A handwritten thank you note.
3. A special copy of the ebook with a different cover.
4. Teaching diagrams.
5. A printed copy of the book.
6. A 30-minute, one hour, or five hour interview with the author via Skype.

To get back to the question asked, Amazon will pay participants in their lending library a fee when their books are downloaded. Also, Amazon offers print on demand services.

Can I point out that it makes more sense to me if you treat the book as an advertising expense? Then sell advisory services. Or create an advertising-supported website where you can offer advisory services. This would be more consistent with how open source software is funded. One usually gets the software for free but pays for related services, like installation and custom modifications.

There is no good reason not to develop on OpenGL, especially if you only have resources to develop for or the other, since OpenGL runs on anything, but DirectX restricts you specifically to Win* systems.

Major studios, however, can't seem to see the writing on the wall, much less read it, which is why indie studios and crowd-funding projects are taking the industry by storm, as witnessed with the recent campaigns for Planetary Annihilation, Project Eternity and the still-in-progress Star Citizen. On all of these projects (and many others besides), the number one request by backers or potential backers has consistently been for Linux and Mac support.

Add to that the fact that from the very beginning of the Humble Bundle program, Linux users have consistently donated more for their games (and significantly so) than Windows and Mac users, and there can be no question that just because they use a free OS, Linux users are more than willing to pay for games they can play natively, and developing for it is just a good idea all around: better performance, wider market, less licensing hassle... what's to lose?

There is no good reason not to develop on OpenGL, especially if you only have resources to develop for or the other, since OpenGL runs on anything, but DirectX restricts you specifically to Win* systems.

Major studios, however, can't seem to see the writing on the wall, much less read it, which is why indie studios and crowd-funding projects are taking the industry by storm, as witnessed with the recent campaigns for Planetary Annihilation, Project Eternity and the still-in-progress Star Citizen. On all of these projects (and many others besides), the number one request by backers or potential backers has consistently been for Linux and Mac support.

Add to that the fact that from the very beginning of the Humble Bundle program, Linux users have consistently donated more for their games (and significantly so) than Windows and Mac users, and there can be no question that just because they use a free OS, Linux users are more than willing to pay for games they can play natively, and developing for it is just a good idea all around: better performance, wider market, less licensing hassle... what's to lose?

The teensy 2.0 is very convenient indeed.

But, what do you know, the teensy now has a new generation 3.0, based on ARM Cortex M4! Just out!

Check this out:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulstoffregen/teensy-30-32-bit-arm-cortex-m4-usable-in-arduino-a

"It can even play back WAV files without any help."

Well, ZPUino does this for a long time (14.4KHz, stereo, and more), and it's also opensource (actually, BSD for hardware, and GPLv2/v3 for software). Runs at 96MHz, and it's fully customizable (even the chip is customizable: see SoundPuddle for example, or the Rectrocade synth).

What Arduino users were actually expecting (well, I was), was a proper IDE. I don't think writing proper applications for the Due platform with current Processing IDE is feasible. So far everyone has been quiet about this (there were rumours other IDE would be on the forge).

But the price tag is indeed attractive.

Alvie

There are some nice projects on KS. See git-annex assistant; a very talented guy (Debian 'oldtimer', wrote git-annex) which is delivering a real free and open source program for a fairly low "salary".

The Form 1 argues against that:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/formlabs/form-1-an-affordable-professional-3d-printer

Amazing quality at that pricepoint.

CNC Milling has also come a long way since the Navy first looked into it (I recall seeing a story about a huge contract and multi-million dollar machines ~30 years ago):

https://www.inventables.com/technologies/cnc-mill-kits-shapeoko

$999 for a compleat (premium) kit

Okay, it won't mill tool steel, but it also doesn't weigh the several hundred pounds that a mill which can does.

William

Personally, I'd make it part of the feature set up the Pebble watch, or something similar.

Really? You've seen other board games built around the syntax of some computer language? Please tell me about them! I'd love to play them. I had thought this game was innovative and interesting, but if there's a whole collection of similar board games, I'd love to get into them. Didn't find anything on boardgamegeek.com.

True (to my knowledge anyway), few boardgames use the syntax of computer languages, but there are many board games that use programming as a core mechanic in the game. The game of Rambots comes to mind as an example.

Perhaps games using computer languages are more suited to computers in the first place? In that case, I can point to The Schemaverse based on SQL, and Code Hero based on Javascript.

your wish on the clusters has been answered. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adapteva/parallella-a-supercomputer-for-everyone/posts/323994

i agree that the 64core versions is far more exciting than the 16core version. i guess maybe they think there is a lot higher risk there (they have already made and tested a small number of 16core chips, http://www.adapteva.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/adapteva_mpr.pdf )

I checked their front page and they have a kickstarter going to fund further development.

Might want to check it out and chip in if you're interested.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adapteva/parallella-a-supercomputer-for-everyone

Sounds like what you're hoping for is for movies like C to be made. Hopefully you pledged for it when it ran, then:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1282316546/c-299792-km-s

It's slowly, but surely, coming along.

It may be a total bust, mind you. But at least they've got your dislike for CGI budgeting covered.

I agree, lets http://www.kickstarter.com/ that bitch!

Did you happen to see the Formlabs Form 1 printer? They were at Maker Faire too. They're running a Kickstarter right now, and from the photos and video on there the parts that machine produces look far better than most anything else I've seen. I watched the video of the Tinkerines Ditto on IndieGoGo and the parts didn't look anywhere near as finely-detailed.

I'm quite interested in learning more about the Form 1 and it would be great if someone had a first-hand experience from maker Faire (I'm in Seattle and couldn't attend).

I'm especially looking forward to this printer, which uses stereolithography:
TheIr kIckstarter page

The Dollyrots were able to record and produce their forth album on their own label with Kickstarter, and I'm so glad I got to be a part of it. They initially set a goal of $7500 and achieved it within a week, eventually getting more than $33,000. I chipped in $75, which got me an autographed copy of the album, an exclusive T-shirt with the new album art and my name on it, and a personalized video from lead singer and bassist Kelly Ogden teaching me how to play one of their songs. The Dollyrots were in Minneapolis last Sunday, and I got to hang out with them and watch them set up two hours before the show, then hang out and chat with them afterwards. They quickly shot up the charts to become one of my favorite bands, and it's all thanks to Kickstarter. They love making those personal connections to their fans, and Kickstarter was how they made it happen; it's awesome.

Kickstarter is a great idea, but I think it will soon become difficult to fund projects due to lack of quality control. I think there will be too many projects that get funded but fail to deliver (like this one), people will become wary about what they fund, and eventually it will be almost as difficult to get a Kickstarter funded as it is to just find an investor.

I think this DEVO App Kickstarter is a good illustration of the problem. As an iOS programmer and I can tell you that this project will almost certainly end in disappointment. He basically wants $15k to redo the graphic assets of his failed colorforms-like app, but I think it takes an expert to see this through the clever sales pitch.