By Alex Crowder

In honor of it being 4/13, I’ve decided to take my focus away from major companies and look at where small companies and enthusiasts are starting to make their home; Kickstarter.

Kickstarter is a fundraising program that has attracted many small indie companies and people with dreams of grandeur come to find money. Though it’s not strictly for video games, there are already some major projects that have been funded through it. I’ve decided to take this month’s column to focus on some of these titles, showing why they earned the money they did and why you should keep an eye on these projects.

Wasteland 2 – raised $2,933,252:

I’ve never played the original Wasteland game, but with the team behind this new one it’s hard to not get excited. The original Wasteland, created in 1988, was the inspiration for the original Fallout games. Set in an apocalyptic Southwestern America, gamers played as ‘rangers’, who were forced to make painful decisions that all tied together into a powerful storyline.

Wasteland 2 is planned to have all that and more, though whether it will simply be a refurbished Wastedland or an entirely new game has yet to be seen.

Project Eternity – raised $3,986,929:

Of all the games on the list, Project Eternity (which does not have an official name yet) is the one with the most star power. With writers from BioWare who worked on Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale and the company that worked on Fallout 3: New Vegas behind them, Project Eternity promises a story driven experience that’s bound to make you think in more ways than one.

If you’re a fan of anything by BioWare – though special attention must be paid to Dragon Age and Baldur’s Gate fans – this is a game to watch. So far they’ve boasted about having strategic combat where you can pause and place your party, collecting companions along the way in a suspiciously Thedas-esque world.

It’s unknown how much this is going to reinvent the fantasy game genre, but it looks like an interesting game nonetheless. Keep an eye on it.

Double Fine Adventure – raised $3,336,371:

If there’s another group that can rival Project Eternity, it’s Double Fine. They’ve created games such as Psychonauts, Costume Quest, and Brutal Legend. Unfortunately they’ve never been known for making a lot of money off of their critically acclaimed games (everyone should play Psychonauts at least once in their life), and so this new project – with them returning to their roots in a traditional point-and-click – is both risky and exciting.

Otherwise, not much is known about Double Fine Adventure. I’m personally excited, though. If you want to get a taste of Double Fine, I recommend Costume Quest or Psychonauts.

Homestuck Adventure Game – raised $2,485,506:

The reason why we’re celebrating 4/13 with Kickstarter? The Homestuck Adventure Game – which we know very little about – is based on the webcomic which is the longest (length-wise) running comic, the fourth (as of writing and without including dialogue in the Flash files) longest written thing in the English language, and currently the only webcomic that has successfully completed a Kickstarter to create a game.

Considering that the webcomic is based on a (fictional) game called Sburb, it’s hard to guess what the game will actually be about. Will it be moving through the comic, taking the role of the kids and trolls as they struggle to win the game without dying (and they do die, oh boy do they die)? Will we be able to create our own Sburb sessions with our own friends, aiming to win the game in the safety of our own homes and hopefully not destroying the universe in the process?

All we know is that author Andrew Hussie is keeping mum on details, but it’s due to come out in 2014 while the comic is slated to end in 2013.