14 DAY TRIAL // In October last year, Square Enix has announced entering a partnership with crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, in order to create a game-dedicated support platform for indie developers.
The pilot phase of the Collective project went live on January 27, featuring a 28-day test that brings three teams' creations into the spotlight, with three very different projects, to see which ones manage to pass the community vote and get from the drawing board to crowdfunding campaign.
World War Machine is a "post-human action role-playing game" set in an open-world environment, where players will be able to cooperatively explore the Earth during a perpetual war for survival, finding new items and upgrading their Machines.
The Machines themselves are designed by Aaron Beck, who also did work on District 9 and Elysium, and the team is currently in the process of building the first playable demo.
Moon Hunters is an open-world adventure that allows for up to 4 players to cooperatively solve ancient mysteries and uncover the mythology of a procedurally-generated hand-painted pixel art world. The game will feature a non-linear story, extensive crafting system based on myths, day and night cycles and character progression.
The developers point to Legend of Zelda as their biggest inspiration, and lists the fast-paced action, easy controls, cooperative gameplay and short play sessions as the Moon Hunters' biggest assets.
Game of Glens is a frantic game of skill and tactics, which places players in charge of a Scottish Highland Clan competing in the ancient Scottish games known as the Game of Glens.
The gameplay blends action and strategy, and players will have to manage resources, physical structure building and projectile-based combat, in a variety of both single and multiplayer game modes.
Submissions to Collective are first managed by Square Enix, and if the games get enough votes during the 28-day campaign period, Square Enix will help the developers prepare for pitching the game for crowdfunding through Indiegogo.