Castle Story, Sauropod Studios' cute voxel-pased sandbox game launched a Kickstarter on July 27 with a goal of $80,000. Under five hours later, the Kickstarter surpassed its goal, and as of this writing, the project is at $205,919 (and is continuing to climb!)
What is Castle Story? In simple terms, it's sort of like a mix between Minecraft and a tower defence. The conceit is very cool: the whole thing takes place on a landscape of floating islands suspended over an unending ocean. Your little, yellow characters, named Bricktrons, are able to explore and mine the open environment, collecting resources and building structures to protect your Bricktron society.
But where it adds an extra layer is in its threats: hostile creatures, perhaps angry that you've mined something you shouldn't have, will come at you in hordes. The game then turns into a tower defence, where you have to use tactics and resources to defend what you've built.
Says the site,
"Carefully designing your castle not only requires creativity and imagination, but thanks to pathfinding AI and physics simulations, Castle Story has layers of strategy and depth on top of an otherwise free-form sandbox experience."
Be sure to take a look at the video, and if perhaps even donate (the page is up until August 26).