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Welcome to Lobster's List for August 15th 2012.
#1 Planetary Annihilation is a real-time strategy game for PC and Mac brought to you by a team with members that worked on Total Annihlation, Supreme Commander and Monday Night Combat.
Self-replicating machines of war still wage battles that destroy entire worlds.
In this game you can do things like utilize a planet's moon or build engines onto an asteroid to smash it into a battlezo
Pre-ordering can be done at the $20 pledge level.
The angular art-style of the robots and buildings looks good, and I enjoy a good RTS, so I am excited about this one.
The first laptop I ever bought I made sure it had the specs to be able to play the Supreme Commander demo, that was before Supreme Commander had been launched.
The goal is a large $900,000 but right now it has the momentum to be able to reach it.
#2 Mercenary Kings from Tribute Games is a 2D arcade platformer from a team that worked on Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game.
The story has a mercenary sent into an island to defeat a criminal organization that was responsible for the assassinations of his past teammates.
One feature is there is a gun crafting system utilizing materials dropped by enemies.
They also have up to 4 player local co-op with the possibility of online co-op being added.
By contributing a $15 pledge you can get a copy of Mercenary Kings for PC and, one of their past games, Wizorb.
The creator of Scott Pilgrim has even designed the hoodie they are offering.
More funding means more missions and bosses will be added, so I hope this project achieve Kickstarter superstar status.
#3 Sidius Nova is a strategy game for iOS.
Two species are at war after the destruction of their homeworlds by an ancient powerful entity known as Sidius Nova that is observing them.
Fleets of ships carry the remaining survivors and try to acquire resources from nearby planets.
This game describes itself as a hybrid of the turn-based and real-time strategy genres.
On a map screen level gameplay has turn-based control of fleets.
When fleets battle, the gameplay changes to a real-time form of deploying ships to counterattack.
To win you must destroy your opponents mothership that does not have to stay in one place.
One stretch goal is for adding multiplayer support.
You can get a copy of the game for $5 with your name listed on a website.
The presentation has an impressive feel, especially for the battles, but it would be nice if it supported more platforms than iOS.
#4 David Crane's Jungle Adventure wants to make a jungle sidescrolling adventure game with modern technology.
As it says in the title, this video game project is from David Crane who created the game Pitfall and was a co-founder of Activision.
For $15 you get a copy of the game for PC or Mac and access to the community that will help shape the game.
GameTrailers.com will also have a behind-the-scenes documentary available to backers at the $25 tier.
Now onto honourable mentions.
Super Off-Road is a new racing game from the creators of *** *** Racing.
It is targeting PC, Mac, iOS, Android and BlackBerry 10.
This project's pitch video was introduced by the Francis character from the Boogie2988 YouTube channel.
For some reason they only have screenshots on the project page and no videos of the game.
At $15 you can receive a copy of game, a copy of Big *** Racing and named in the credits with other Kickstarter backers.
The Common Cult is a comedy webseries project trying to raise $1,500 to fund its first season of 6 episodes.
The premise is that a blood cult is trying to summon a Lovecraftian god while getting sidetracked by modern life and also dealing with growing into their thirties.
Previously, the project creators made a webseries called Mermates on YouTube.
You can be listed as a contributor on the website and in the DVD's credits for $5.
At the $35 tier you can choose either a copy of Mermates or The Common Cult on DVD.
Higher rewards include cult membership cards and signed props.
Bits of the writing actually impressed me
and this should be really good if the humour can match the level of the first part of the Mermates Christmas special.
Time Viking Extreme is a 2D sidescrolling shooter with a viking riding a flying penguin while firing a M16 assault rifle.
An interesting mechanic is that if you do not collect the eggs, dropped by defeated enemies, the eggs can hatch in the lava into stronger enemies.
It is being developed for PC with an Xbox 360 port possible if it reaches a stretch goal.
Behind it are two teachers who have worked in the video game industry on titles such as the Ratchet & Clank and Spyro series.
Funds will go towards employing a group of students to finish the game.
For contributing $5 you get a copy of the game and your name in the credits.
Theres an Octopus in Your Head is an animation project seeking $2,000 to make a rock opera.
What you are watching is past work from the project creator.
The protagonist is a master pancake maker that asks the devil to tell him the reason why he obsesses about creating pancakes.
$10 gets you a thank you card and a download of the film.
Island Forge is a MMORPG with a big focus on players being able to add their own content.
Version 1.0 is in a playable state and since it uses Java it works on PC, Mac and Linux.
The story has an evil fog and creatures threatening villagers.
Players can create their own islands and visit the islands of others by using the dock.
They can program quests, NPCs and design their own towns.
A new member gets 1000 points to spend on making their island, then it has a subscription of $5.95 per month for you receive 500 points each month to spend.
A $10 pledge gets you a 90 day subscription.
I really like how intuitive the dialogue editor and some of the other features look.
The site also accepts the BitCoin currency.
What I am concerned about is that a lot of the funds are intended towards marketing the game.
Sometimes marketing is just a pit where you throw money into for little return.
HELLOCITY: Escape From Heaven from Art Game Thunderdome is trying to be a mixture of an art game and a brawler.
Play as Winston, an escapee from a maximum security installation.
Beating a level is more about reaching a high enough velocity rather than defeating a specific number of enemies.
You can grab onto a target from the top, bottom or sides.
Instead of being restricted to a flat plane like most brawlers, you can move, attack and defend from above and below too.
The combo system currently has 60 moves already.
There is a copy of the game at $7.
The graphics may scare away some backers, but it looks like there is some good game design beneath its surface.
Underground Kingdom is an interactive book project for iOS.
The creator of the Choose Your Own Adventure book series is allowing the project creators to adapt some of the better known books into apps.
The first book being adapted is Underground Kingdom with at least 50 interactive animated illustrations planned for it.
You can get a copy on iOS for a $5 pledge which includes your name on a thank you page on their website.
mPrinter is a technology project about a thermal paper using printer that can print out tweets, other social media notifications and sudoku puzzles in 200dpi.
With thermal paper there is a clear coating that will turn black in the spots you apply enough heat to, so you don't need to refill printer ink.
Thermal paper is commonly used by machines that print receipts, so replacement rolls can be bought at office supply stores.
At the $80 tier is version using a USB cable while at the $125 tier is an upgraded version with Wi-Fi that can function like a small web server.
I've seen another printer like this before called Little Printer, but I looked at the site and you still can't pre-order a Little Printer.
It has already met its minimum funding goal, but there is a stretch goal to get it a wider print head for 3 inch wide paper.
Defcon YUM! is an online gourmet Internet bakery seeking $10,000 so it does not need to worry about paying the bills for the first few months when it opens this September.
Each day there will be a pastry on the website available for only 24 hours and your order will be shipped by priority mail to your address.
I've seen this type of business model used by t-shirt sellers before.
Defcon YUM! already had a cookies only 2 week beta last February and it plans to add other baked goods like cupcakes and muffins in its future.
$25 gets you one batch of cookies, a wristlet and a postcard.
For now, their baked goods can only be shipped within the US.
This was the third project that has asked me for help before I even backed it, so I was happy to see it get a Staff Pick
Thank you for watching and I hope this helps those projects.