This Week In Kickstarter we have a 2D platformer with inspirations from Oddworld,  a tabletop game where you play as a sketchy pharmaceutical company, headphones that bring true 3-dimensional sound, and rechargeable batteries that will replace the next 500 batteries you buy from Walmart.

Gaming

Orphan

@WindyHillStudio

A 2D platformer for Windows, Mac, Linux and Steam, following a young boy surviving an alien invasion. Our own Don Parsons recently interviewed the designer of Orphan.

Coming from inspirations like Oddworld, Another World, and Journey to Silius, Orphan has a lot to live up to. Sharing elements close to Limbo, Orphan follows a young boy over the course of a single night as he attempts to survive an alien onslaught. With a focus on item collection, stealth and strategic combat, Orphan certainly looks the part of its inspirations, and its visuals are sure to catch the eye.

Orphan looks like the next indie darling on my radar, and if it can deliver on the stealth and strategy, while keeping an engaging story, Orphan could stand with the greats. Its visuals are stunning, and its atmosphere is near poetic.

At the time of writing, Orphan has raised $8,208 of its $32,000 goal. Funding closes March 3, 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bad Medicine

A tabletop game where you play as a sketchy pharmaceutical company, pitching a drug with awful side effects.

Bad Medicine works by combining cards to invent the drugs name, what it does, and what are the side effects. One card will appear face up in the center of the table, and your job is to invent a drug that will cure it. Everyone votes and the drug with the most votes wins, and its side effect becomes the new ailment to cure in the next round. The game has special rules for different amounts of players.

Bad Medicine looks like good fun. It looks to stay out of the fun singularity that many games fall prey to when they overcomplicate or weigh down the game with needlessly complex rules or an overabundance of features and things to do. The best tabletop games are ones that are easy to learn, but the fun is in seeing how far you can take things, and Bad Medicine looks to allow that as you come up with crazier and crazier types of medicine and side effects.

At the time of writing, Bad Medicine has raised $6,580 of its intended $8,000 goal. Funding for the game closes March 18, 2015.

 

 

 

 

Strength of the Sword Ultimate 

Strength of the Sword Ultimate is a fighter style brawler game for Windows, Mac and Linux.

SotSU features a story mode with 4 worlds and 11 stages, as well as a survival mode that pits you against enemies and the clock itself. Each kill will earn  you points and time, and there are 40 waves of enemies.

SotSU also has a list of features they want to include, such as PVP and a very interesting "dark swordsman mechanic." With the Dark Swordsman mechanic, you will encounter said swordsman if you are fairing well in pvp. But the Dark Swordsman will have entirely different set of powers. Defeat him and you will get a dark token. Get three of those and you can play as the Dark Swordsman in an asymmetrical fight against others. You have a full health bar yet it never regenerates.

SotSU brings some interesting ideas to the indie space, and looks like a fun adventure with an old school vibe. If its fighting mechanics can grab me, I could see myself getting lost in it. The Dark Swordsman mechanic in particular has me interested, as well as one of the stretch goals of the game bringing it to vita ($30,000) and Wii U($40,000).

Strength of the Sword Ultimate has managed to raise $18,230 of its intended $14,000 goal. Funding for the game closes March 11, 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

Technology

NEOH

@3DSoundLabs

A truly 3D headphone set that reacts to your movements, bringing the 3-dimensional spacing of a home stereo on the go.

NEOH is a spatial sound rendering system, creating immersive, dimensional sound on the go.  Described as a "wearable home theater system", NEOH creates 360 sound with high quality headphones.

Bringing an 18 hour battery life, NEOH takes your listening to the next level using motion sensors, gyroscopes, accelerometers, and magnetometers. The data is transmitted to your phone through bluetooth, where the audio adjusts to your movements. Currently it only comes in black, but there is possibility for other colors in the future.

For $160, NEOH could be a fantastic value provided the headphones last a decent amount of time. The Kickstarter page says that, as of now, there is no support for Xbox One and PS4 games, but "maybe in the future."

At the time of writing, NEOH managed to fully fund itself, raising $98, 945 of its $80,000 goal. Funding will continue until March 3, 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Shrimp Cloud

Sometimes, you simply don't have enough shrimp in your life, you need more, you can't live without it. Don't worry, The Shrimp Cloud is here to save the day!

The Shrimp Cloud offers you access to a terabyte of shrimp wherever you are. Never get caught leaving the house without a few pictures of shrimp on you; now, with The Shrimp Cloud, anywhere you go is a potential hot spot for some shrimp viewing action.

Ok real talk, The Shrimp Cloud is pretty much in this article because it's hilarious. But even still, hilarious or no, raising 6x your intended goal is a noteworthy achievement. We saw a Kickstarter with a similar idea in Zack Brown's Potato Salad. Taking the p*** out of Kickstarter campaigns is always a joy to see. Some might see Kickstarters like these and cry foul, saying they take money away from more purposeful, noteworthy projects, and I can't blame them for thinking that. However, if people are choosing to fund shrimp and potato salad over your Kickstarter,  I can't imagine your Kickstarter was going to succeed either way.

At the time of writing, The Shrimp Cloud has managed to raise $599 of its $100 goal. Funding for The Shrimp Cloud ends March 11, 2015.

 

 

 

Lightors

"The world's first monster batteries." Lightors is a rechargeable, super battery that can be reused over 500 times.

Lightors is an eco-friendly, rechargeable, long lasting battery. Lightors come in AA and AAA sizes and can be recharged through its micro 5-pin USB cable. The light lets you know when its finished charging. Lightors transfer no data between devices and lasts well beyond the lifespan of standard batteries.

Next to health technology, green technology is my favorite category of tech on Kickstarter. As tech becomes more important in our lives with each passing day, finding ways to greenify the industry should take more precedence than it does. The utility of Lightors as a portable charger makes it a pretty good deal.

At the time of writing, Lightors has raised $27,486 of its intended $15,000 goal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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!