Frank Brian Fargo is an American video game designer, producer, programmer and executive, and founder of Interplay Entertainment, inXile Entertainment and Robot Cache.
Palladium Books is a publisher of role-playing games (RPGs) best known for its Rifts series (1990–present). Palladium was founded April 1981 in Detroit, Michigan, by current president and lead game designer Kevin Siembieda, and is now based in Westland, Michigan. The company enjoys the support of a small but dedicated fanbase who praise its various game series for their innovative settings and ease of adaptability to various personal preferences, play styles, and power levels.
The Ouya, stylized as OUYA, is an Android-based microconsole developed by Ouya Inc. Julie Uhrman founded the project in 2012, bringing in designer Yves Béhar to collaborate on its design and Muffi Ghadiali as VP of Product Management to put together the engineering team. Development was funded via Kickstarter, raising US$8.5 million, becoming one of the website's highest earning projects in its history.
Planetary Annihilation is a real-time strategy PC game originally developed by Uber Entertainment, whose staff included several video game industry veterans who worked on Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander. The game was released in 2014, and the stand-alone expansion Planetary Annihilation: Titans was released in 2015.
Pillars of Eternity is a role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Paradox Interactive. It was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux on March 26, 2015. The game is a spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series, along with Planescape: Torment. Obsidian started a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for it in September 2012. The campaign raised over US$4 million, which was the highest funded video game at the time. The game uses the Unity engine.
Star Citizen is an in-development multiplayer, space trading and combat simulation game. The game is being developed and published by Cloud Imperium Games for Microsoft Windows. An extended retry of unrealized plans for Freelancer, Star Citizen is being led by director Chris Roberts. The game was announced via a private crowdfunding page in September 2012, and was later joined on October 18, 2012 by a successful Kickstarter campaign which drew in over US$2 million. Pre-production of the game began in 2010, with production starting in 2011.
Godus or Godus Wars is a god video game developed by 22cans and published by DeNA. The company launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds and met their funding goal on 20 December 2012. Godus was designed by Peter Molyneux, who described it as the spiritual successor to his earlier creation, Populous. While the mobile versions of the game continues to be updated, Steam Early Access release has yet to see an updated beta since 2016. The contract of the lead developer of the game, Konrad Naszynski, expired 28 June 2016, and it has been reported that there is no one left working on the PC version.
Torment: Tides of Numenera is a role-playing video game developed by inXile Entertainment and published by Techland Publishing for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is a spiritual successor to 1999's Planescape: Torment.
HEX: Shards of Fate was a massively multiplayer online trading card game (MMOTCG) by Cryptozoic Entertainment. It is the first game in the MMOTCG genre. It was funded via Kickstarter, and raised US$2,278,255 while its campaign was active. As of October 28, 2013, Hex was the 11th most-funded video game on Kickstarter. The game was officially released on January 26, 2016, and was playable on Windows, OS X and iOS.
The Virtuix Omni is an omnidirectional treadmill simulator for virtual reality games and other applications. It uses a platform to simulate locomotion i.e. the motion of walking, requiring both special shoes or shoe covers and a surface that reduces friction. It works in conjunction with the HTC Vive, and allows a Vive user to physically walk within a limited number of supported games.
Mighty No. 9 is a 2016 action platform video game developed by Comcept, in conjunction with Inti Creates, and published by Deep Silver. The game was crowdfunded through Kickstarter and incorporated heavy input from the public. Mighty No. 9 closely resembles the early Mega Man series in both gameplay and character design, on which project lead Keiji Inafune worked, and is considered a spiritual successor.
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, stylized as Shantae: ½ Genie Hero, is a platform video game developed and published by WayForward Technologies. It is the fourth game in the Shantae series, following Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (2014), and the first to be specifically developed for high definition game platforms. The game was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, Windows, and Xbox One in December 2016, for Nintendo Switch in June 2017, for Amazon Luna in October 2020, for Stadia in February 2021, and for PlayStation 5 in November 2021. Versions for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were initially announced, but cancelled during development.
Defense Grid 2 is a 2014 tower defense video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and published by 505 Games. As a sequel to the 2008 Defense Grid: The Awakening, the game was crowd-funded on Kickstarter in 2012 and released on Windows, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on September 23, 2014. Linux and OS X versions were released on October 15, 2014, and the Nintendo Switch version was released on February 7, 2019.
Exploding Kittens is a casual dedicated deck card game designed by Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal webcomic, Elan Lee and Shane Small, and first published by The Oatmeal in 2015. Beginning as a Kickstarter project seeking US$10,000 in crowdfunding, it exceeded its goal in eight minutes.
Fig was a crowdfunding platform for video games. It launched in August 2015. Unlike traditional crowdfunding approaches like Kickstarter, where individuals can back a project to receive rewards, Fig used a mixed model that includes individual backing and the opportunity for uncredited investors to invest as to obtain a share of future revenues for successful projects. At the end of 2017, four projects had begun generating returns, returning 245% to Fig investors.
Xenonauts 2 is an upcoming turn-based tactics video game developed by Goldhawk Interactive and released on July 18, 2023 through early access. It is the sequel to 2014's Xenonauts.
Stonehearth is a 2018 city-building game developed by Radiant Entertainment. After an early access phase beginning in 2015, the game was released for Microsoft Windows and macOS on July 25, 2018. A tentative port for Linux was canceled, along with several "stretch goals" from its crowdfunding campaign.
Session: Skate Sim is a sports video game developed by Montreal independent developer Crea-ture Studios for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The game was considered by many as the spiritual successor to the Skate series.
Gloomhaven is a cooperative board game for one to four players designed by Isaac Childres and published by Cephalofair Games in 2017. It is a campaign-based dungeon crawl game including a narrative campaign, 95 unique playable scenarios, and 17 playable classes. Since its introduction the game has been acclaimed by reviewers, and has been described as one of the best board games ever made.
Town of Salem is an online multiplayer game with social deduction and strategy elements. It was developed and published by indie game developer BlankMediaGames, and released on December 15, 2014. Early alpha and beta versions were browser-based and free-to-play. On October 14, 2018, the game was released for iOS and Android mobile devices after a successful and long-supported Kickstarter fundraiser.
