6

Double Fine Adventure

This is the one you've probably heard about: the big story that launched Kickstarter games into the limelight. The unerring Double Fine Productions wanted to make another adventure game, but those things apparently sell like hot, wet death these days. They couldn't imagine a publisher taking interest, so they put one finger dramatically into the air and yelled "To the Internet!" Not only did they make their budget in record time, but they finished funding at over $3 million -- nearly 10 times what they were asking for.

Huh.

I guess that means we like our death piping and soggy, publishers.

But hold up, we don't have to go overboard and proclaim the death of the establishment just yet. Kickstarter or otherwise fan-funded games will probably never replace the publisher model, just like e-books won't kill conventional publishing. Just because a new and different way to do things comes along, that doesn't mean the old way should be cast adrift in a flaming longboat. What this is, however, is an alternative. And any alternative to an established system doubles as something else: a weapon. Now if a publisher wants too many changes, asks for a drastically slashed budget or wants to install their bullshit DRM, developers don't necessarily have to do the Charlie Brown walk all the way down to the unemployment line; they can point to Kickstarter and say "Maybe we'll give that a shot."

5

Auditorium Duet

Rez was an art project/music game/rail shooter made back in 2001. It was incredible, and there's never been anything like it since -- mostly because nobody tried. It did decent sales, but was by no means a blockbuster, despite it being so desperate to please that it would literally jack you off if you asked nicely.

Alas, there would never be a sequel to Rez, but that's OK -- not everything needs one. I mean, the appeal was in the novelty; where would you even take it next?

How about multiplayer?

This is Auditorium 2: Duet, a sort of cooperative, puzzle-based Rez. More a sequel in spirit than mechanics, Auditorium is also all about the synesthesia of making music with visual elements.

So why am I so pumped about something only tangentially related to one of my favorite games? Well, when it first came out, I was playing Rez with a wily Asian gentleman known only as "Chad" in the basement of one of those conglomerations of shiftless 20-somethings that existed after college. In a way, the game was already important to me because of the implied cooperative element. We would take turns going through the single player, one after another, marveling at how our different play styles created wholly different games. In another way, it was important to me because I was ludicrously high and it had pretty colors.

4

FTL

Hey, remember when Notch, the developer of Minecraft, mentioned that he wanted to make a "space game that's more like Firefly," where you deal with space battles and exploration as a crew member on the inside of the ship?

It was practically inevitable that the Internet would collectively dork their khakis over the concept. I have to admit, it is one of the more brilliant "I have a game" moments. It's something I never realized I always wanted until the second he said it, and now I can only wonder how I've gone through this hollow pretense of a life without playing it.

Well, here you go:

This is FTL. It's like Firefly meets Star Control: an interior-of-the-ship-based space exploration game, where you control the crew as they repair the damage, work the controls, man the battle stations and dramatically fling themselves about with every hit in a Kirk-esque display of pantomime. It certainly doesn't seem to be a graphical monster, but if Minecraft itself proved anything, it's that gamers don't necessarily need that to have fun. We're just fine fighting square monsters on a vast plain of squares with our trusty square, thanks.

3

Guncraft

If you liked the idea of Minecraft -- a simple, flexible game about construction and teamwork -- but you really missed shooting people in the face, then either Guncraft or anger management courses might be for you. Guncraft is a Voxel-based game, which means that the same principles as Minecraft apply: The environment is totally customizable, and can be altered at whim. You can build whatever you want, and explore a vast world full of yours and others' creations -- it's just that now you can blow their shit up, too.

2

The Banner Saga

1

Wasteland 2

OK. I'm going to be very careful here, because I've rewritten this section 10 times now, and every time it just turns into a sloppy curry of swear words, exclamation points and affirmatives. So here goes: Thanks to Kickstarter, they're making Wasteland 2. Yes, you fucking heard that right. Wasteland goddamn fuck yes shit god fuckin' A right motherfucking Wasteland 2!

YES. BALLS.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, and therefore not swearing prolifically at your co-workers and/or loved ones right now, Wasteland was the godfather of the Fallout series -- Interplay only made Fallout in the first place because they couldn't get the rights back to the Wasteland brand. Which means that a Wasteland team is, by default, going to be much of the same team from the first two Fallout games, working on what is essentially a new installment of the Fallout series. And even though I loved Fallout 3 and New Vegas dearly, those were Elder Scrolls: The Apocalypse games, not actual Fallout games. No, a true Fallout sequel would be a top-down, strategically based tactical combat game with extremely nonlinear game play, infinite replayability, sharp writing and absolutely merciless mechanics. And that's what this is:

And if you're quick, you can help fund it right now.

If, uh ... if you have any money left. Shit, this really shouldn't have been the last entry, should it? Sorry about that. Just tell your landlord that Cracked spent your rent money this month; we'll send them a voucher or something.

You can buy Robert's other book, Everything Is Going to Kill Everybody: The Terrifyingly Real Ways the World Wants You Dead, or follow him on Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook.

For more from Brockway, check out In Defense of Games as Art and 5 Bizarre Ways Video Games Are Screwing Up Your Health.