Welcome back to This Week in Kickstarter! This week we've got an alarm clock that smells, a card game about one hit killing and a 4K digital window to see the world!
Post Replica - the 1st Tablet-Top Roleplaying Game
Play as an android in a dystopian tabletop RPG, with an integrated tablet app.
Post Replica aims to bridge a gap between tabletop gaming and app gaming on tablets. In this game, players will game on their usual table, but in the center of the action will sit a tablet running the Post Replica app, which lets you connect to missions, rumors and events. The app will offer procedurally generated missions, DLC written by guest artists, and more.
You play as an android on the run, hidden among humanity trying to remain undetected. The other androids have formed an underground railroad via a network of spies, operatives, and informers. The community will help you survive this harsh world. Players will need to face both humans and androids that have gone mad called Buzzers, twisted monstrosities that kill anything that moves.
In building your android players have three methods of customization. First you choose your Marque, the company that built you; then your Origin, what you did early in your life; and finally your Cover, how you choose to blend in.
Post Replica seems to, more or less, aim to take the DM out of the equation and put a more calculated machine in charge. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but the switch should bring something unique it its place. Procedurally generated dungeons are something you can really only judge once you've tried them as they could be something incredible or something boring and lifeless. I'll give the game the benefit of the doubt on that, but I still have to wonder, even if every segment of the procedurally generated dungeon is good, will it make a coherent whole or just be a random string of events in a logically unsound geography? The guest writers option is really cool and the idea of having some famous nerds write dungeons for the game is certainly an interesting prospect.Atmoph Window - Your Room Can Be Anywhere
A 4K display of beautiful scenery.
The Atmoph Window is a "digital window" that shows you gorgeous videos of nature and cities all over the world. Videos are shot with 4K cameras and high performance microphones. You can even choose a live stream of different places from around the world.
You control the Atmoph Window with your iPhone or Android phone. You can even synch it with your alarm clock and wake up every morning to the sound of birds chirping. All the information you need is displayed on the device. The device has a built in proximity sensor as well.
As silly as the prospect might be to some people, I could see some legitimate use, even health benefits, out of this thing. Waking up every morning at 6am to go to your boring job sucks, and it's not how humans are supposed to live. But maybe it could feel just a little less strenuous and stressful with a calming vista and chirping birds helping you up. Having a to do list right there by my bedside is pretty neat, but my phone already has that, and if that isn't big enough, my 7in tablet should be more than enough really. Still the live feed seems pretty novel, but the more I think about the idea of having a live feed of Chinese people as a display on my wall, the more weird I feel about it …
Perception
https://youtu.be/L_1zUXv5l7M A narrative horror game created by developers of Bioshock and Dead Space.
Perception is a horror game with a narrative focus where you play as a young blind woman who must solve mysteries and escape a "presence" that follows her. Players "see" via echolocation. Every sound creates visual information. To escape danger, players must run and hide. The game is played in first person as Cassie, the protagonist, who uses her hearing and wit to unravel the mysteries at the abandoned Estate at Echo Bluff. Cassie has no weapons, only her wit, her cane, and her smartphone.
While players can use noise to see, making too much noise will get you noticed by "The Presence." This means players will have to be smart about how much they rely on sound. Once spotted, you must run and hide until it leaves, Cassie can use ambient sounds like wind, pipes, and clocks to see as well, and can create "sound bombs" to distract enemies. Cassie can use her smartphone to examine evidence left behind. As she peices the world together she'll jump back in time. Through the game you'll see the house over several eras and generations. Architecture, décor, and even entire wings will come and go over the passage of time.
Perception has me intrigued from the start, and its echolocation is a fantastic idea for a horror game. Every footstep had me biting my nails wondering what is just beyond this girls "eyesight." Cassie feels like someone at this team said "let's take Ellie from The Last of Us and turn her into Matt Murdock." I had a slight worry when I read "narrative adventure," and that fear was confirmed during the trailer. Like several other narrative driven games (The Last of Us, Life is Strange) the main character needs to comment on everything she sees. Everything needs some quirky comment. I hope this is just for the trailer, because listening to Cassie do this for hours could really hurt the haunting atmosphere of this game. Still just the imagery alone makes me excited for this game, and I already want to play this game in full, based solely off what I saw in this trailer.
SensorWake - Wake Up Happy with the Smell-Based Alarm Clock
An olfactory alarm clock, wake up each day to the smell of your choice.
With SensorWake, users can choose from a variety of scents to wake up to each morning. Coffee, croissants, ocean, or even the smell of money (hell yeah baby). Changing scents is as simple as changing an N64 game, just swap out the cartridge. You even have different settings for the scents.
Some scents available are:
- Continental breakfast: Espresso & Hot Croissant
- Candy Rush: Sweet peach & Strawberry candy
- Enjoy the break: Seaside (monoi, tiare flower) & Lush Jungle (cut grass, leaves)
- Invigorating Aromatherapy: Purifying Tea Tree & Harmonious Chocolate
- Vitalization Aromatherapy: Stimulating Ginger & Invigorating Pepper Mint
- VIP lounge (Kickstarter Backers only): Dollar & Ebony Luxury
Like I mentioned earlier, the way humans live can be more stressful than need be and waking up with alarm clocks is a prime example of it. Finding ways to sleep and wake better fascinate me and I'd love to give this gadget a try. Having 60 uses per cartridge will mean I can wake up for many nights to really get a feel for how it might benefit me to wake up this way, and being 100% recyclable is always a bonus.
One Hit Kill
A card game of overpowered weapons and monsters.
The name of the game is a one hit kill (literally.) In OHK, players will race to build weapons that can kill their opponent in a single fatal strike. The game is easy to learn and fast moving. There are no hit points (since you're killing them in one hit anyway), no mana, and no need for a rulebook. The game is for players 8 and up.
Each player starts with two weapon cards, and each weapon has specific requirements like schematics and resources. The game takes inspiration from poker, and one of the ways we can see that are its win condition of needing the right cards in a row, "like a straight in poker."
I'm a man who likes simple party games that the whole group can learn, preferably while intoxicated. One Hit Kill looks like a great time for friends to get together and kill each other the old fashioned way, with cards. I can easily imagine the proud final moments of revealing your hand and blowing the opponent away with your overpowered beast.
GoFar: The First Gadget That Improves Your Driving
An easily installable car computer that gets you better milage and lower emissions.
GoFar is designed to get the most out of your car, while minimizing your carbon footprint. It combines rocket-tracking computing and a Formula One inspired display. With it you will visit gas stations less often, know the cost of your car to the cent, and cut your emissions while offsetting the rest.
Every engine has a "sweet spot" which is an optimum position of the gas pedal that maximizes your car's power and minimizes fuel consumption. Driving in this sweet spot will save you fuel and cut your emissions. Knowing this information is as simple as red vs blue (not the YouTube series.) If the light is blue, you're in the sweet spot, if red you need to adjust.
Cutting down on emissions while saving me money sounds like a win/win to me. If they can really track the metrics of every type of car, that's very impressive. The competition seems sort of meh, and something I doubt many people would actually care about. The team claims they were able to save up to 22%, which is also pretty impressive and makes this device seem like a practical thing to buy. Being easily installable is a must for things like car products where people don't want to screw up such a costly item, so kudos to the GoFar team on that.
Disclaimer: The author (Bryan Heraghty) does not back any Kickstarter projects he writes about, nor are any of these inclusions sponsoring TechRaptor. These projects are included solely because the author thinks they are interesting.What are your thoughts on some of the Kickstarters we saw this week? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below! If you have a game or technology Kickstarter you think deserves attention, you can either comment below, email TechRaptor, or tweet @techraptr or @greyhoodedbryan your suggestion!