What "early access" or crowd funded games have you spent money on? How are they coming?

Just curious. How many have met their claimed potential?
Dodged any bullets with some that you DIDN'T buy into that are dead now?


DayZ...even the dev creator said it's never going to be right
Rust...a half thought out game with no point, changed direction midstream, but seems to still be in progress
7 Days to Die...good progress
Kenshi...bought in on a whim, so hard to grasp I have no idea if it's what it's supposed to be
Star Citizen....my grandkids will love this one when it comes out.


Bullets dodged:
Miner Wars...followed for over a year, decided not to pay in. Big promises, sounded great, but very slow progress. Game came out, very limited and dropped by the devs to move on to another project, Space Engineers. Far from the potential promised.

Elite: Dangerous....easily dodged due to the price of entry. The more money I put in, the sooner I want results. I've preserved this game as something to enjoy in the future by NOT going in on it and getting frustrated with it. Looking forward to release.

Shadowrun Returns met their criteria and more than that.

Wasteland 2 is coming along well.
Star Citizen is coming along like it should also, looking forward to the dogfight module which should be out soon.
Project Eternity I haven't paid much attention to, but it's progressing from what I gather.
Elite: Dangerous - Hope it'll be decent...

I didn't pay for it but I'm glad I didn't contribute any money for Rainbow Six: Takedown. A friend who did contribute got an extra free copy so he gave it to me to try out.

Meh, I'd rather just reinstall Raven Shield.

Why the gaming world considers Dean Hall a hero is beyond me. Guy creates a broken gimpy sketch of a game, then abandons it. And he's a hero?

Gamers have low standards.

Star Citizen: It's a big project and they should certainly take their time. Gambled a lot of money with them ( $250 ) as the entire premise sounds amazing and the background they have is equally incredible. High hopes but also the biggest place to get burned for me.

Spintires: Love the tech demo and the developers seem nice but the fanbase is filled with with very unintelligent boobs and tons of people that don't speak a word of English which just makes it unpleasant to visit the forum. Progress also seems slow and the "Special backers forum" for the people who backed $100 and more is just dead with little 'bonus' to be part of.

Kingdom Come: Looks amazing and can't wait to see what these guys can do. However the forum they have built, its functionality and appearance is just rubbish - A simple wordpress forum would be 10x nicer, so I avoid that at all cost.

Carmageddon: Reincarnation ( From Steam ): Tried it for like 20 minutes and the performance is in the toilet, seems very basic and I'm kinda regretting it. However I remain hopeful.

Next Car Game: This game has massive amounts of potential, handling is sweet as butter and visually it's very pleasant. The physics are also hilarious! I have high hopes for this one.

Project Cars: It's amazing, incredibly beautiful and I already spent an insane amount of hours in the game. Nothing but confidence in these days.

IL2 - BoS: Amazing, best thing I've purchased and backed. It's coming along nicely.

As for 'how are the coming along' on most of them, I must admit I don't follow them very closely. I usually wait until an email ticks in about major happenings, beta releases etc.

Dayz. Crap.

Wargame Red Dragon. Probably will be great fun.

You have those mixed up...

I haven't spend any money on early access games
But I very nearly did on DCS WW2.Kickstarter but there's nothing to indicate it wont be finished but
There seems to be a lot subscribers very unhappy, promises were made by the developer in relation to updates/Freebies and some are not getting what they paid for, But I don't know the whole story
From what I have seen progress is being made its hard to keep milsim fans happy I guess.
We always seem to want more, ( me included) the fact is it takes a long time to make a decent milsim

DayZ

Kerbal Space Program

Still waiting for both to go somewhere.

DayZ - I think with the scope of what they're trying to do its coming along nicely since late December. At least it has huge potential.

Rust - A very nice member here bought me a copy and I think its another title that also has great potential.

IL-2: Battle of Stalingrad. It's getting better but it ain't worth the $100+ price tag to get in.

Kerbal Space Program. Dunno. I haven't looked at it in over 6 months. I couldn't get it to work with my joystick when I bought it and never went back to it.

War of the Vikings. Technically it runs well. I just really, really suck at this game.

Broken Age- 1st part released, so far happy with the result.
Shadowrun Returns- have only had time to play the 1st part, happy with the result. Need to play 2nd part (Berlin campaign) soon!
IL2: Battle of Stalingrad- alpha gameplay is excellent, am very pleased so far.
Star Citizen- waiting for the dogfighting module
DCS: WW2- takes time but seems to be on track
Pillars of Eternity- every update makes me want to play this RPG even more!
Wasteland 2- waiting for the release, so far looking very good
Torment: Tides of Numeria- same as with Pillars of Eternity
DayZ- much slower progress than I hoped for. Still believe this will get good.
Cube World- seems basically abandoned by its creator
Kerbal Space Program- awesome since the earliest versions!
Kenshi- interesting but somehow I lost interest
Space Engineers- recently got a big update, fun

So far I'm happy with my investments.

rFactor2 - glacial pace, mod system sucks, almost regret but good for occasional lap in specific car/tracks
Project Cars - glacial pace on developing physics - regret supporting, physics not satisfying to drive, maybe if I reset sim expectations to Shift3 then I can be happy with it.
Assetto Corsa - developing quickly, already worth it, awesome physics, tracks, cars A++ would buy again
Shadowrun Returns - finished, worth it, A++ would buy again
Wasteland2 - waiting for release, looking great, going to be A++
Torment: Tides of Numeria - coming along ok so far
DayZSA - underwhelmed by the progress, not happy to hear Dean Hall is leaving before it is finished
Rust - ok so far, some good bones, will wait to judge
7 Days - ok so far, will wait to judge
Hegemony Rome Rise of Caesar - good bones already, fun, looking great, going to be A++
NEO Scavenger - almost finished and still adding features, good fun A++ would buy again
Project Zomboid - ok so far, too early to tell, will wait to judge
Star Citizen - glacial pace, regret buying into it so early, starting to wonder if it's a ponzi scheme
MechWarriorOnline - glacial pace, dev team is incompetent, but been enjoying it for 18months, B-- stopped buying more, but play often
Arma3 - decent pace, still hope they improve the engine more, but good value

Likely to join once the price is reasonable:
Elite:Dangerous - gameplay videos look amazing but entry price is way too high, if they do a $40 fee I will be in

Overall I am happy with my investments support spends, a couple of regrets but a couple of real gems, almost all of them have been fun to play at least for a while and show promise and could turn out great.

Glad to have an alternative to EA and Activision publishing just the yearly versions of COD, BattleField, NFS, Madden and FIFA.

Project Zomboid: Ive had a tough time getting it to run at a decent frame rate. Newer versions supposedly address this. Its fun for about an hour. Kinda slow paced.

Kerbal Space Program: Great game! It gets much deeper once you learn how to get a craft into orbit and start exploring the solar system.

Starbound: Pretty interesting 2D side scroller. The survival element is pretty weak. Tons of planet types to explore once you get enough minerals to fuel your starship. Weird mix of medieval and modern weapons and settings.


Does Fighter Ops count?

rFactor 2 :- Don't know wth they are doing with this but doesn't look like it is getting anywhere soon. It's been nearly 3 years ! My copy won't run after an attempted patch update. Short of a PC format, I cannot seem to fix the problem. My lan group have gone back to racing rFactor 1. Can't help feeling that ISI appear so completely disinterested with this one.

DayZ Standalone Alpha :- Played a couple of hours. Buggy and boring as hell. I bought it more out of curiosity than anything else. Wasn't expecting much. Of all the games I have on Steam, this one got the least amount of playtime, a dubious distinction that won't change anytime soon

Rust :- A lot of fun if you are into anarchy but needs a lot of polishing to get out its potential. right now, most servers are a bunch of folks doing 'kill-on-sight' and barricading inside large impenetrable bases since they disable C4 on most servers. You're either a 'have' or a 'have-not', so you're wither cannon fodder or not.....nothing in between...

7 Days To Die :- I really like this one. The one Alpha I have backed that has lot of playability and polish with development and updates at a breakneck pace.

Stuff that are in my sights which I have not backed by cash :-

Star Citizen :- Oversubscribed and more typical self-handjob from the master promoter himself, Chris Roberts. But it does look and sound good. Just that I haven't seen cr*p from them and won't put down any cash until they is something concrete and tangible.

Elite and Dangerous :- Looks real good with actual play testing by early subscribers showing off good combat dynamics and ship management systems. Very impressive. Exorbitant entry price dressed up in the usual sales spin BS. Would have respected them more if they were honest with their monetary motivation but obviously telling everyone "I do this for big bucks" is not exactly the most politically correct way to liberate money from investors

Wasteland 2 is the only crowd-sourced game I've helped fund. I think it's slipped its schedule by quite a bit but to be honest I've not been keep up with the progress. Looks good though, from the beta versions they've released.

Interstellar Marines - Last updated a week or so ago.

DCS: WWII. I wished more would have kicked in, but I hope it works well so we can get more modules.

I really want a DCS: Tornado, F-111, or Apache with Single Craft Co-Op.

The other Sim I'd kick in a lot for Kickstarter would be a Mig Alley or Vietnam DCS level sim.

Kerbal Space Program - Probably the best game ever made - there's an entire generation whose interest in space exploration and science in general has been sparked by KSP, and I am sure that if the game had existed in the 70's we would have colonies on Mars by now.

BeamNG Drive - Development on this is seemingly quite slow. I've got my $15 worth already as it is a fantastic crash simulator, but it needs more vehicles and maps, as well as fine-tuning of the vehicle handling.

ARMA III - Got the Alpha, but haven't played it much since release. It might not be my kind of sim, but It's very well done, and I have no regrets purchasing it.

DCS WWII - By the makers of Cliffs of Dover, which could have been great if the game engine was more robust. Fortunately, this time Eagle Dynamics has supplied the game engine, so I'm optimistic.

Asseto Corsa race sim, good updates nearly every two weeks, and it's already a blast to drive with great physics and beautiful cars. Still needs MP and damage modeling, but...



rFactor 2, not sure why some have trouble, mine has worked nearly perfectly since I installed it. Updates are a bit slower than Asseto Corsa, but to me it's close to being finished anyway with a ton of working content like AI, MP, working pit stops, driver swaps (MP), awesome physics, accurate courses, road rubbering (changing track conditions), and I've driven some good 2nd party mods already. I just updated to a lifetime subscription last week.

7 Days to Die: Feeling pretty meh about it right now.

ARMA 3: Got the expensive pre-order version. Almost never play it. Bit disappointed.

Assetto Corso: Could have potential, and feels great with a wheel.

Betrayer: Don't like it.

DayZ: Mixed feelings. It's so clunky and entirely up to the players whether you'll get any enjoyment out of it. Will probably never feel like anything other than an ARMA 2 mod.

Dead State: Might have potential. Got frustrated with it during first early access.

Door Kickers: Haven't played much. Not really big on it.

Expeditions: Conquistador: Great game. Probably my favorite out of all the early access/crowdfunded games.

IL-2 Sturmovik BoS: Great potential, mostly waiting for a more complete product to mess around with.

NEO Scavenger: Got 5 hours of entertainment out of it so far. Hard to recommend though.

Project CARS: Been with it since the start. Probably has the biggest potential of any of them so far.

Shadowrun Returns: Good game.

Star Forge: Got it on a Steam sale. Regretting it now.

Takedown: Red Sabre: Worst piece of crap I've ever had the misfortune of pre-ordering.

Victory: Age of Racing: Got it in a bundle deal dirt cheap. Don't feel so bad for not liking it.


So yeah, not a very good success rate with me personally, but I'm probably pickier than most people.

Assetto Corsa - Developing at a rapid pace, defiantly worth every penny, very good physics so far. A little short on tracks and racing cars (Lots of street cars) but more are in the pipeline. The street cars and drifting are probably what helps it sell, so no complaints. This is what kept me from selling my wheel.

rFactor2 - The demo was bad enough I almost quit sim racing on the spot because for me it was RF1 with some new clothes and a bad UI, but against my better judgement I got a minimal license for the historic cars and tracks to run off line. I two upgrades so far, so it was kind of a waste of a subscription price for me. Doubt I do it again.

DCS Mig 21. I contributed in July 2012 thinking it might be along by xmas.

Getting close now, though!

A mixed bag it seems but Asseto Corsa is a consistent feature in a lot of these posts. I will have to spring for that one.

Mount & Blade - probably the best 12$ investment in a game (I "joined" at v0.623 iirc), at a time when this kind of funding wasn't as widespread as today.

ArmA3 - as an OFP veteran of the first weeks after official release it feels almost like an obligation to support an ongoing project that gave me so many hours of entertainment.

DayZ - as others have already noted, progress is rather slow and not always in a direction that i would prefer, but overall I am still optimistic that something good will come out of it.

OOps yeah forgot that one

Interstellar Marines -- MP only on one map as far as i can tell.

Project CARS - so close and yet so far; however if they get multiplayer and physics right, it will be an almost perfect game.

rFactor 2 - haven't installed it in the last 10 or 12 months; dunno why, but I have a childlike confidence they will get it right and racing against other slow, old men will be lots of fun. In 2018. Maybe.

Just sent $100 to a lady raising money for a double lung transplant, but I'd raid the couch cushions for a new Mig Alley.

Is pCars like forza / GT (PS) ? Or is it just another rFactor clone?

FTL was my first crowd funded game and it was a success and a lot of fun to play.

That new R6 game (takedown) was a complete bust. What a steaming pile of sh it. I think the community funded the wrong game with that one because the RogueSpear guys were doing Ground Branch which seemed like it was a better game by a better team.

Planetary Annihilation it really shaping up to be a fun game. I played it yesterday for a few hours and had a blast.

Castle Story is ok but I am not sure they know what to do with the game. I thought it would be more RTS but really it is just a sandbox building game with yellow plushies. Granted the game is playable and fun but it is pointless unless you just like building things.

StarCitizen is shaping up with the dogfighting module coming out soon. They have sunk so much money into the game I cant see it flopping but to date they have not really shown any gameplay (other than that #%&*$# DF video a few months back to show why they were delaying). I remain hopefully optimistic.

7 days to die is fun but it is also brutal and I get bored with it before I really get crafting or building... or the zombies keep killing me and I rage quite.

Nether is a joke. I wish I would not have bought into that one. I dont like the devs or the game or the direction the game is going. But I bought it one rainy saturday when I was bored so I guess it served it's purpose.

The Dead Linger is also a joke. It has potential but it is just not fun to play at all nor is it optimized even slightly. I have a feeling that this game will die before it is released.

Battle of Stalingrad - Devs lied to us to secure preorders then refused refunds when the truth came out. Slowly they have fixed the limited access but the whole thing has left me not trusting the devs and not interested in the game. The game itself is pretty good and progressing fairly fast. So as long as you are ok with the dev's shady tactics I guess it would be considered a win.

For years we complained about new games that were buggy or unfinished, well now devs sell games, or parts of games that we know will be incomplete or buggy and we love it.

I do have a brief smile cross my face while flying in my heavily modded IL2 when I think of those that spent 100 bucks to fly two planes around a small map for a year.

Star Citizen & Wasteland 2.

I'm starting to get concerned about SC due to the scope creep and that they are already several months behind schedule. In this case I think they got way too much money and now they are blowing through it like crazy. Don't they have a hundred or two employees now? And they can't get something out on time?

I wanted to back Elite but it was too late - that's when I started cutting costs due to my soon-to-arrive twin girls

The silver lining for SC is that by the time it comes out I might actually have time to play it

W2 at least have an excuse for slipping - less money, small team - but they still have a lot of work to show for it.

Assetto Corsa: looking good!

Il-2: BoS: I paid $50 back in Oct/Nov, looking good!

Arma 3: just as good as Arma releases before it but I paid only $38 for going in early, win-win!

Takedown: Should be called Letdown. Obviously they needed more money than their investors gave them, a LOT more, but they got shafted and so we did too.

MiG-21bis: Almost there...(we're too close!!)...almost there...(loosen up!!)



Not looking to go for anything else right now, waiting for AC, MiG, and BoS before I'd consider it.




The Jedi Master

Yeap, humans are weird. The two I got was because of the low price.

Kerbal Space Program. Hard to beat the $20 deal and they had a demo for you to try for free. Don't regret it for a minute.

Planetary Annihilation. Again 20 bucks. So far looking good... although their always online beta version sucks big time (should be removed for final version).

MechWarrior online 120 for me 60 for one boy... That's to start, not mentioning Phoenix packs or Hero Mechs...

BattleTech is my bread and butter. Is this game what it should or could be? No. Is it my precious? Yes.

Kerbal Space Program is without a doubt one of the best games I have ever played. I've been playing it since 2011 after seeing a post about it here on SimHQ. KSP has a great modding community, so there is a lot of player created content available. Some of it is very well done and greatly enhances the game.


I have been caught up in the whole Zombie survival genre recently (probably because I enjoyed watching the Walking Dead tv show so much). I like DayZ SA, although it seems buggy at the moment. Rust was fun for awhile but soon became monotonous. 7 Days to Die though has been a lot of fun.

Warning..DayZ and Dean fan here

He hasn't abandoned it, you just have not followed what is happening or have read snippets of what passes for gaming 'journalism' these days. As already stated before launch he said when he wanted to back away, not many picked up on it until after launch via that shoddy intervoiew which was then taken down and rewritten owing to ..shoddy interview making a mountain out of a molehill, if it bleeds it leads.

I have never played an Alpha that has been so blatantly shoved in every ones face by the devs as ' DO NOT BUY THIS UNLESS YOU CAN PUT UP WITH A MESS ! MOST PEOPLE WILL NOT ENJOY IT'

As one of the launch screen states... ' Thanks for participating in the DayZ early access.This game is in Alpha and will be so for some time. This means you experience bugs, unfinished features, problematic design decision and many more things that will disrupt your gaming experience.'

Dean stated way before launch that it was not going to be something most people wanted, bare bones and broken, glitchy and terrible etc. Then people whine when it is.

To me he comes across as a solid guy, he has made mistakes and then stated he has, he is active across the forums, reddit, twitter, the dev site as well as accessible at places like Rezzed and others. He just seems stand up and is trying to make something a bit different than the normal cod type games

The biggest problem was the mod was out of control popular and i think most people thought the SA was good to go on day one.

What can i say, i like the guy, he gives as good as he gets and he doesn't rant and rave or chocolate coat stuff, he says it how it is and it is cool to see a young dev trying keep it real

You know far more than I on this, so I'll bow to you on that subject. I read a piece on Eurogamer about his leaving the game. I spent a few days with the mod last year and it was one glitchy, janky, unfinished bugfest, taht looked like ass and played like ass. Though admittedly I was a clueless newb in the game world.

For everything dayz does bad it does an equal amount brilliantly else it would not be as popular as it is. The SA is a step up to the mod and once they get all the systems working it should be loads of fun. But it is far from a perfect game. Dean seems like a stand up guy. I talked with him for a bit one before dayz was big. Good guy and I look forward to what he comes up with on his own. I dont think he expected dayz to be a hit and I dont think he expected BIS to take over the way it did. But that is life.

Also, back to PCars. Can someone explain to me what it is? is it just rFactor or is it more like Forza?

Here's another dislike for Nether. I spent 30 dollars on it as it "looked" good but that was about three months ago and I have yet to even play the game. That's right. A whole 30 dollars in the toilet. Some activation issue through their website prevented me from playing the game I just purchased and I have yet to try it again as I just don't care anymore. I'm hoping that one day it'll be magically completed and repaired and that I'll actually get something for my 30 dollars other than another non-highlighted name in my game list.

Betrayer I bought before release and thought the premise interesting. Recently I saw it went retail and it was majorly upgraded. I like it, very cool concept but maybe an acquired taste because of the graphical presentation. But it does create an otherworldly atmosphere visually and audibly when playing.

Arma3 - a little weird buying this title piecemeal as I'm an old OFP guy who always looked forward to the game's release on the store shelf but it is definitely heir to the OFP sim line. Still challenging but full of quality and content.

Star Forge - I think this was my first "early access" purchase in my life. The demo was interesting. The procedural nature of especially altitude was quite appealing. I recently tried it again after the update but it still feels extremely incomplete and just meh. I think its a small team but the pace is too slow for something I bought probably a year ago.

War of the Vikings - MaceUK gave me a beta key trial way back. I tried it and didn't like it. Ran like a turd on my machine and didn't look or play that great. Following it later on and seeing some of its progress I preordered it before release.(not early access) Looks and plays much, much better but like someone else said I too stink at it. It has an odd parry system tied to mouse movement.

Overgrowth - I don't remember exactly how I found this. Probably through a forum or video but I bought this early access and it really has an odd yet interesting concept and more importantly, a really tight, high quality physics and animation system I'd say that is at least on par with the Euphoria engine. The graphics and textures are quality seem quite polished for an early access. There's nothing in the way of a story or missions other than a sandbox and pre-programmed areas. If they can create a story and mission system it'll be awesome.

Planet Explorers - I played a demo awhile back and didn't care for it. I followed it for awhile and perused the forums and jumped in. The early access was much more than the demo I played. Basically a huge land mass that you can mine and harvest from ala Terraria to gain resources for crafting stuff. But it has a basic story mode and characters you can talk to and interact with. You can dig and the terrain actually morphs similar to the old Red Faction game. Its sort of like Terraria in a 3D world. I've enjoyed it but I have to be in the mood for it. Partly because like some many other mining games, its quite tedious especially at the start. It takes time to get to the fun stuff.

I really, really want BOS but have been waiting.

All good man..it is janky and glitchy but it's the best gaming journey i have had since i started gaming and i attribute that to what Dean has done with a shooter type game and made something different

cheers.

Feetwet, Snapdad and myself are on the same 24hr server almost every night. You are most welcomed to join. We have a cozy base that is quite safe although we get visited by a large horde almost nightly. Plenty of room and food for another survivor and we are working on finishing the farm by tomorrow.