13. Meriwether: An American Epic
Developer: Sortasoft
Goal: $35,000
Pledges: $44,489
In 1803, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were commissioned by Thomas Jefferson to find and map the quickest water route from the east to the west of the United States. It was a treacherous mission, and it forms the basis of this historical RPG.
It may sound a bit edutainical but the game takes certain liberties with history, adding mammoths, giant sloths and Welsh-speaking Native Americans to the Midwest. Also, you have a gun and you can shoot stuff.
14. Distance
Developer: Refract Studios
Goal: $125,000
Pledges: $161,981
Racing games are conspicuous by their absence from the RPG and god-game dominated Kickstarter, but Distance is a nice exception to the rule. It's developed by the team behind awesome university project Nitronic Rush, and it continues that game's love of adrenaline-pumping sci-fi racing, with an added lick of polish.
Developer Refract Studios cites Wipeout as an influence, as well as 'atmospheric' games such as Half-Life and Limbo. The Tron-like world your vehicle races through is peppered with obstacles, but your car can jump over these, and even niftily sprout wings and fly. A nice touch is that the car's stats - such as speed and time – appear on its rear window, negating the need for a heads-up display.
15. Double Fine Adventure
Developer: Double Fine Productions
Goal: $400,000
Pledges: $3,336,371
Along with the Ouya console and the Pebl watch, Double Fine Adventure transformed Kickstarter from 'cool idea, bro' to 'serious way to fund new and exciting projects'. So if there are any bad games in this feature, blame Double Fine's founder Tim Schafer.
The game itself is ticking along nicely, with a film documenting its creation. Its budget is way beyond those of Day of the Tentacle ($600,000) and Full Throttle ($1.5 million), and Schafer's experience in triple-A game production means he should know how to spend it wisely. It's nice to see him getting back into point-and-click adventures, too.
16. Akaneiro: Demon Hunters
Developer: American McGee
Goal: $200,000
Pledges: $105,201 to date
American McGee's status as a games industry legend is somewhat questionable: his Alice and Grimm titles never quite lived up to their promise, but he's certainly got a unique take on what games can be and should do.
Akaneiro takes its world from fairy tales, but puts a Japanese RPG spin on things, with your heroine fighting a slew of crazy monsters. It'll be free-to-play, with players splashing out on 'karma' if they don't have time for looting, and expansions are planned if it meets its target.
17. Full Bore - An Underground Puzzle Adventure
Developer: Whole Hog Games
Goal: $12,500
Pledges: $16,386
Boars are notorious for their love of platform-cum-puzzle adventures, but Full Bore is possibly the first game to document this phenomenon. You control Frederick, a boar who finds himself tied up in a mining company's financial downturn. This happens to boars a lot. It draws influence from Metroid and Mr Driller, with levels changing depending on the blocks you destroy or shift.
18. Carmageddon: Reincarnation
Developer: Stainless Games
Goal: $400,000
Pledges: $625,143
We spent the best part of 1997 driving ridiculous cars at stupendous speeds, mowing down pedestrians and taking massive amounts of drugs. We are, of course, talking about Carmageddon.
At the time, it was nothing short of revolutionary, blending the jaw-dropping 3D graphics of, say, Ridge Racer, with Doom or Quake's gratuitous ultraviolence. It was followed by a couple of sequels, but for the last decade Carmageddon has been awfully quiet - perhaps due to GTA going all 3D. Until now.
Original developer Stainless Games bought the rights to the franchise from Square Enix, and started a Kickstarter to fund Carmageddon: Reincarnation's development. It was originally scheduled for release right about now, but Stainless revised its schedule and reckons it'll take the entirety of 2013 to come up with the reboot. We're not sure how it'll fit in with the likes of Just Cause 2 and Saints Row 3, but Carmageddon's sheer pugnacity should pull it through.
19. Legends of Dawn
Developer: Aurofinity & Dreamatix
Goal: $25,000
Pledges: $46,536
A fantasy RPG in the Diablo mould, with an open world and easy modding tools.
20. War For The Overworld
Developer: Subterranean Games
Goal: £150,000
Pledges: £211,371
Coming full circle, War for the Overworld is deeply inspired by Peter Molyneux's Dungeon Keeper, and the godfather of the god sim has given it his full blessing.
