The latest big-name-developer Kickstarter comes from Chris Taylor's Gas Powered Games. They want to make Wildman and they need your money to do it. The video above explains the pitch.
For those who prefer to read, this is from their press release:
Imagine a game where you control a single hero unit—the "Wildman"—in the middle of a raging battle between opposing forces in a specially designed War Zone. You engage the enemy and see your opponent switching tactics, forcing you to reconfigure your army to counter. You push the enemy back to their base before facing your opponent's champion. Over the course of this battle, you upgrade your armies with new technology, execute special abilities, construct defenses, change your army composition, and shape-shift into new forms that grant you new abilities. This is Wildman.
Now imagine that between these War Zone battles you can go on role-playing adventures. You can explore fantastical environments. You can discover ancient dungeons full of mystery and treasure. You can earn new skills. You can discover and equip new weapons and armor. You can collect materials. You can craft new items. You can fight relentless onslaughts of men and monsters. This is also Wildman.
The idea is to combine Gas Powered's real-time strategy chops (Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander) and their action-RPG chops (Dungeon Siege).
The game is PC-only and will support both solo play and online co-op.
Gas Powered Games has made some very well-received games in the past—and for big publishers like SquareEnix, sans crowdfunding. But GPG chief Chris Taylor told PC Gamer that it was beginning to make more sense to go to Kickstarter to make this new game, as publishers lose interest in taking risks or find themselves less able to afford to.
Taylor also told PC Gamer that there's a chance his wife would "cut [his] balls off" if the game doesn't get funded.
He was joking. That said, he'd probably be happy if you chipped in.
Wildman: An "Evolutionary" Action RPG [Kickstarter]