The Kickstarter campaign for AdventureQuest Worlds: Infinity has now surpassed US$2 million in funding, with over 27,000 backers throwing their support behind the rebuilt MMORPG. Set with a goal of just one dollar, the campaign became one of the most percentage-funded in Kickstarter history, and it is not done yet. The campaign officially ended on 7 April, but late pledges remain open for anyone who missed the initial window.

From A $1 Goal To Over Two Million

Artix Entertainment set their Kickstarter funding goal at exactly one dollar, a cheeky move that saw the project blow past 200,000,000% funded. The reasoning was straightforward: the studio was already committed to building the game regardless of the campaign’s outcome. The Kickstarter was designed to unlock stretch goals, fund faster content conversion, and bring more artists, animators, and creators onto the project.

It has since climbed past the US$2 million mark, with 27,642 backers contributing as of now. Late pledges are still being accepted for available reward tiers, so the final number could climb higher.

What Is AdventureQuest Worlds: Infinity?

For anyone who spent their teenage years battling monsters at AQ.com, the pitch is simple. AdventureQuest Worlds: Infinity is a ground-up rebuild of the original 2D fantasy MMORPG, rebuilt in Unity so it can run on phones, tablets, and PC via Steam. The original game launched in 2008 and built a massive following, but it was made in Flash and has been stuck inside a custom launcher ever since Flash became obsolete. There has been no way to play it on mobile or through any major storefront.

Infinity is not a simple port. Every monster, quest, cutscene, and item needs to be rebuilt and reintegrated into the new engine. The studio describes this as a full remastering process, with improvements to story pacing, map design, animations, boss mechanics, and loot systems. Scrolling backgrounds, parallax effects, 60+ FPS combat, and gamepad support are all part of the upgrade.

18 Years Of Weekly Updates, And Counting

One of the more remarkable things about AdventureQuest Worlds is that Artix Entertainment has released new content every single week for 18 years straight. New monsters, quests, gear, and story chapters have dropped without a single missed week. That cadence is set to continue across both versions of the game. The studio plans to keep updating the original AQWorlds while simultaneously converting and creating content for Infinity.

Existing players will be able to log in with their current characters and gear, though the studio has been upfront that art and animations will not be exact one-to-one matches due to the different technology and art format. Not every item may be convertible, either, but the team has committed to listening to community feedback throughout the process.

A Game That Defined A Generation Of Browser RPGs

There is a reason this campaign resonated so strongly. AQWorlds was a defining browser game for a generation of players who grew up in the late 2000s and early 2010s, logging in after school to grind classes, chase rare loot, and follow the Chaos Lords storyline. For many, it was their first MMO experience, and the fact that it has been effectively locked away from modern platforms for years made the prospect of a proper cross-platform version hit hard.

The campaign leans into that nostalgia deliberately. Remastered story sagas, returning characters, and the promise of reliving adventures like the DoomWood Saga and the Throne of Darkness arc are central to the pitch. But there is also a clear effort to make the game accessible to new players, not just returning veterans.

Founder Rewards And Stretch Goals

The Kickstarter reward tiers range from a free “Funded it Myself” badge at the $1 level all the way up to a US$5,000 “Mysterious Stranger’s Offer” tier that intentionally tells backers almost nothing about what they are getting. Three people bought it anyway, and all copies are now gone. Below that, the US$1,500 tier lets backers design a custom armour set in collaboration with the development team, while mid-range tiers include founder titles, exclusive gear sets, cross-game weapon unlocks, and a flying castle player house at the Legendary Founder level.

Notably, the studio has committed to using no AI-generated art anywhere in the project. All art and animation is human-drawn, a point they have emphasised throughout the campaign. The stretch goals are structured around converting more of the original game’s enormous content library, which includes over 60,000 items, 5,000 monsters, and 10,000 quests.

What Comes Next

Alpha testing on Steam was scheduled to begin shortly after the campaign’s 7 April end date. A similar port of AQWorlds was originally slated to launch back in 2016, so the project has a long history of delays, but the successful tech demos and the sheer momentum of the Kickstarter suggest the studio is further along this time than it has ever been. For the thousands of backers and the broader AQWorlds community, the hope is that 2026 becomes the year their favourite browser MMO finally breaks free of its launcher.

The post Nostalgic MMO AdventureQuest Worlds Infinity Hits $2 Million in One of Kickstarter’s Most-Funded Campaigns by Percentage appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Put on your New Kids on the Block CD and grip your console controller for a button mashing retro romp.

Developers Slipgate Studios and 3D Realms have released the kickstarter funded remaster of the old Apogee 90’s game Rad Rogers. A side scrolling platformer that video gaming was built on during the cartridge days of gaming.

Completely overhauled with 2.5D and in some environmental aspects, 3D, Rad Rogers sees a young kid, yes, called Rad Rogers, team up with his home console called Dusty (voiced by Jon St. John who also does the voice for Duke Nukem) after a waking dream where he is sucked in to the a video game world.

Rogers must find a way out, and with Dusty strapped to his back, the duo run, jump and gun Level by Level, avoiding traps, hazards and the cliche floating platforms, while collecting up weapon boosts and gems. Oh and then there’s 18 Hats to be found aswell.

The Hats do not actually do anything to the gameplay significantly – but Roger can wear them. So yeah… it’s a throwback I guess.

Slotted throughout your dominance of this gaming world there are what I liken to Bonus Levels, where Rogers is on a Pogo Stick and must jump from platform to platform, rising to the top, collecting Gems and other goodies, avoiding the ever increasing water level. Totally fun, and addictive. Then there’s a couple of predictable Bosses Levels too.

Each of the 8 Levels (10 if you include the Final Pogo Level and the games’ Final Boss) is presented by way of a mini-map within World 1. No, there is no further Worlds after the first one. Sadly.

Rad Rogers does not take itself seriously. There is no way it really could.

The game has been designed with the reflection that it is a remaster of an old cartridge game and so there are many quips and remarks from Dusty and other NPC’s that either hearken back to games of the 90’s or just do a complete piss-take of the old but still enjoyable 2D platformers.

An option at the start of the game is to select whether you’re an Adult or a Child. This naturally tones down the euphemisms, course language and gore for the younger gamers. But I can see kids opting for the Adult selection right away.

Gameplay is super simple.

Jump, Shoot and Run. I found that Rad Rogers is best played with the D-Pad, and when needing to shoot in any direction use the Right Trigger to fire and the Right Analogue stick to aim.

Your arsenal of weapons are not a wide variety. Your normal gun, a laser gun, grenade launcher and flame thrower. Your normal gun can receive timed Rapid Fire upgrades if you find them hidden in each Level.

There’s also a Spiked Bat which is hidden on each Level. This gives a small timed amount of invincibility coupled with Bat wielding melee combat.

Enemies are not varied either and come in three classes.

The normal sized ones aimlessly run from one end of a platform to another. One that sits still but fires projectiles at you and giant sized hammer wielding creatures, all derived from the same species it seems. Then there’s the armoured and exploding Jellyfish / Squids and of course a lot of environmental hazards. Water is deadly.

Throughout each Level you will encounter a myriad of puzzles to solve to make your way through. It most definitely is not all run and gun. There are also hidden areas, mini-game Glitch zones where you play as Dusty and secret rooms where NPCs await with in-game goodness.

To complete each Level and to exit you need to find four pieces of a jeweled disc.

The duration of your gameplay in each Level is timed and points are either rewarded or removed accordingly. Much like the old skool games that would do a Points tally at the end of your adventures.

Rad Rogers is a must play. A modern take on 16BIT soundtrack the game is expectedly short and repetitive. It’s a classic rework that gamers of the 90’s will appreciate how it used to be and new comers will find a quick and tasty adventure, retro styled .

Beautifully animated with equally detailed and vividly coloured environments, each individual Level will boast around 15 to 20 minutes of play. If you wanted to rip through the entire game you could do so in just a couple of hours. I’d hoped for better longevity and I’m currently hoping for a World 2 DLC in future.

Still, Rad Rogers is a totally radical adventure.

The post Rad Rogers (PlayStation 4) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Phantasmal: City of Darkness is a procedurally generated survival horror where every playthrough is completely different. If you have played through Phantasmal once, do not expect a repeat and certainly do not be off guard, as the game auto generates, making each playthrough a new experience.

You will need to face off against lurking, otherworldly horrors in the perilous, run-down Kowloon Walled City before its destruction in the early 1990s.

You are fragile. Not just physically, but mentally as well. The grotesque creatures will challenge your very sanity and losing your mind can be a fate worse than death… The odds are stacked steeply against you, but you can prevail through sheer cunning. You must scavenge for resources carefully, sneak past and distract your enemies. If you are caught, you can fight back, but don’t expect to live for very long.

The environment has been carefully crafted by none other than Brian Bell, critically acclaimed lighting lead of several Hollywood movies, including Riddick, Life of Pi, and Ring 2.

Recently Shane the Gamer was invited to have an exclusive chat with New Zealand based games developer Joe Chang on his input into the unique horror survival title; Phantasmal (just released on Steam).

Shane: Hi Joe, thanks for meeting with us today. Can you please give us a rundown of your background and how that lead into Phantasmal.

Joe: I’ve only been in game development for three years or so, starting off with a IT background. I was working within Corporate Software development before this, but video gaming has always been my passion When I was very young, my very first memory of anything was playing a video game. And I had it in my mind that that’s all I wanted to do (video game development)  After my Corporate IT career and I was sure I wanted to do something on my own. I started off with mobile and realised that I hated making mobile games, so I asked myself again, what am I really passionate about, and that was PC Gaming. I’m a hardcore PC Gamer, so I decided to give it a crack and a couple of years back I took part in Game Jam (Game Jams are like 48 Hour Film Destivals, where you need to create a video game from scratch and have it completed and playable within two days), and a game came out of it and people really seemed to like it so I decided to go further with it and long story short, managed to get a team together, started a Kickstarter project, we won the very first New Zealand indie games development awards and were excepted on to the Xbox Developers program and that’s where it all went and got us to where we are today.

Shane: Can you tell us what your role within the upcoming horror survival game; Phantasmal is and also tell us about the game?

Joe: Yeah sure. I am the Team Leader, initially there was just me, but there’s three of us now, myself, well in a nutshell, I do all of the stuff that no one else wants to do. So there’s me, Geoff who is the Dev Lead and Brian who is the 3D Artist and then there’s 4 other people who just do stuff every now and then. But the core team is just three people.

Shane: What was the inspiration in creating Phantasmal, a horror survival game and how this title differs from others in the same genre?

Joe: The two key games that I use for my inspiration are Binding of Isaac and Silent Hill. Binding of Isaac is a rogue type game and a bit like the old Zelda on Super Nintendo. It’s a very mature game, and Silent Hill is probably one of the most venerated horror games ever. Super creepy but it has never really been outwardly gory, it’s really around these perverted and twisted imagery and themes, like the mannequin characters in Silent Hill II. It’s really screwed up. So it’s all about the subversive stuff and those two (games) would be the biggest inspiration. Phantasmal is a cross between Silent Hill and the Binding of Isaac.

Shane: What can gamers and even newcomers to horror survival titles expect in gameplay terms with Phantasmal?

Joe: So yeah, you can dive straight into the game, we have provided a tutorial  When the game is first started up there’s a few comic book panels which explain the story and then your character wakes up having fallen through the roof of a ramshackle apartment in Kowloon City. And this starts the game where you will need to work your way through the Kowloon City (before it was pulled down in the 1990s), a really gross place, filled with drug addicts and on top of that lots of supernatural denizens and (environmental) hazards. The game itself looks like it is a first person shooter but there are not alot of guns, there are make shift weapons and you can use wood off the walls and use that (as a weapon). Alot of the time it is better to not get into fights, you are better off to actually sneak around creatures or distract them with flares and due to the random generation there’s no one single approach to do everything – there’s always a few different ways in which to approach things. And wiuth Phantasmal that’s what we really encourage players to do, to think on the fly as they play. Be smart about it and the game will reward intelligence as you proceed.

Shane: What is the future of Phantasmal, is there a sequel already in the works?

Joe: Well there’s two parts to that, the full game launch is by no means the end of the story. We’ve been approved for the Xbox One Dev Program, so that means that we will port it to Xbox which shouldn’t be too hard as we already have partial gamepad support (on PC) and one for me personally, is to use the Oculus. We have had one for a couple of years and we have always done one-offs with Oculus for Expos and things but I’m a massive fan of VR (Virtual Reality) and I think it is a logical place to go with horror. I think it is really a logical step for us and as a Studio I want us to become a Horror VR Specialist. The other part of that question is that yeah we do have another game. It wont be Phantasmal it will be multiplayer horror game that we have already done some very early concept stuff with so we will be furthering and testing that out more. I’m really keen to work on something new.

Shane: Thanks Joe for speaking to us today, Phantasmal is now available, having released on the 14th of April, 2016.

The post Interview with Joe Chang – Developer of Phantasmal appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Shiness is an RPG developed by French independent studio Enigami.

Through the passion and talent of the studio, Shiness already seduced a community with its successful Kickstarter campaign, and attracted attention from specialized press, thanks to its enthralling universe and an atypical, hyper-dynamic combat gameplay.

Studio Enigami needed support to finish the game and release it in the best conditions possible at the beginning of 2016. Focus, impressed by the project, answered favorably to the studio.

Cédric Lagarrigue, Managing Partner of Focus: “Focus Home Interactive is working with international studios, but also naturally partners with French studios now renowned such as DontNod, Cyanide, Eugen Systems, Spiders Games, and more. Discovering and supporting new talented local studios, and helping them grow is something deeply anchored in Focus’ DNA. Enigami is one of these young and passionate French studios Focus Home Interactive would love to see emerge in this very competitive industry.”

And now, as Gamescom 2015 wields it’s gaming prowess to the world we are given a Trailer (above) for the upcoming Shiness.

Further details including release date and platforms will follow soon.

The post The Journey that IS Shiness appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Yacht Club Games has announced that a physical version of Shovel Knight is coming to retail.

It’s been a year since Shovel Knight dug into the hearts of people everywhere.

With more than 700,000 copies sold and over 100 awards including much Game of the Year accolades, Shovel Knight’s phenomenal success is something the creators never dreamed possible.

Now, they are ready to bring it to console (and PC).

The physical version of Shovel Knight contains everything released so far. First, there is the original Shovel Knight campaign with all the content you know and love! Also included is Shovel Knight’s first content update: Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows.

Finally, there’s a full-featured Challenge mode with more than 50 crazy challenge Levels to explore!

Oh, and one more thing: every boxed copy of Shovel Knight will include a lavish instruction booklet similar to the Kickstarter reward.

Shovel knight will be releasing for 3DS, Wii U, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on October 16th, 2015.

The post Shovel Knight is on it’s Way to the Real World! appeared first on Shane the Gamer.