10 crowdfunding giants – highest-funded games on Kickstarter

Kickstarter has grown into a massive platform in the past couple of years, receiving praise from gamers and developers alike.

The world of crowdfunding has resulted in some amazing games and concepts which would otherwise be too unrealistic or risky for conventional publishers. Kickstarter has revolutionised the indie gaming industry, allowing developers to actively create the game they envision without interference or pressure from publishers.

Let’s take a loot at the highest-grossing Kickstarter games to date:

Star Citizen – $110,000,000

Star Citizen is the biggest success story on Kickstarter, raising an unsurpassed total of over 100 million dollars.

The open-universe space simulation is one of the most ambitious crowdfunding initiatives ever conceived and is the creation of Chris Roberts, developer of the Wing Commander space-combat series.

Star Citizen surpassed all previous crowdfunding efforts and is easily the biggest success the realm of crowdfunding has ever seen.

Shenmue III – $6,591,000

Shenmue III is a relatively recent Kickstarter entry which has raised a massive amount of support in a short time.

Shenmue III is an open-world adventure game set in China, and will be the third installation in the series. The game is set to release at the end of 2017 for PlayStation 4 and PC.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night – $5,545,991

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a Kickstarter project for a dark, gothic game proposed by Koji Igarashi.

The game is a spiritual successor to the Castlevania series, and has been met with a great deal of success on Kickstarter, raising a record amount for a fairly niche genre.

Torment: Tides of Numenera – $4,188,927

Torment: Tides of Numeria is a successor to the classic role-playing game, Planescape: Torment.

The game draws its inspiration from older role-playing games such as Baldur’s Gate and Arcanum, and is similar to the recent Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity. The developers have released the game on Steam’s Early Access program.

Mighty No. 9 – $4,031,550

Mighty No.9 is a massively successful Megaman successor which is being developed by Comcept.

The game gained momentous support on Kickstarter due to its resemblance to Megaman, and although the title has experienced various developmental delays, it is expected to release in 2016.

Pillars of Eternity – $3,986,929

Pillars of Eternity is an old-school role-playing game created by Obsidian and Paradox Interactive.

The title of the game originally appeared on Kickstarter as “Project Eternity”, and was the first in a number of old-school games that gathered large amounts of support on the platform. Pillars of Eternity was released in 2015, and highlighted the possibility of successfully publishing niche games.

Broken Age – $3,336,371

Broken Age is a massively successful point-and-click adventure game developed by Double Fine Productions.

Double Fine Productions began with the reasonable goal of raising $400,000 in order to develop Broken Age, although they ended up raising over $3 million by the end of the Kickstarter campaign.

Wasteland 2 – $2,933,252

Wasteland 2 is another successfully crowdfunded role-playing game which surpassed expectations.

The game emulates the setting and gameplay of the early Fallout titles, placing the player in a wasteland with a party of unique characters. The game features the complex skill systems which are a defining characteristic of the classic RPG genre.

BattleTech – $2,785,537

BattleTech is the proposed revival of a classic mech-strategy title.

The concept was met with success and interest on Kickstarter, as the project surpassing its goal with ease. The game will be a homage to the original series and BattleTech universe, aattempting to bring the classic title into the modern gaming industry.

Elite: Dangerous – $2,239,859

Elite: Dangerous is one of the more well-known titles on this list, as the game is part of an established franchise and is available on Steam.

The game was first launched on Kickstarter due to the lack of interest from publishers, and after raising a staggering amount of support it has since grown into one of the top-selling games on Steam.