Kickstarter Weekends: Malice, Star Command, Clandestine

Making begging strangers for money a respectable profession

A weird truth about me is that I am obsessed with Kickstarter. If you don’t know what Kickstarter is it’s an online crowd funding website where artist other assorted people with an idea bring that idea to the masses who in turn can pledge money to the project in sex change for some sort a gift. In a lot of cases it’s essentially an elaborate pre-order system that allows you to directly deal with the creator. All projects have a limited amount of time to reach their goal and if they don’t reach it, even if they’re down just a few dollars, they will not receive any of the money at all. It’s all very dramatic. Even celebrities, such Matthew Lillard and Eliza Dushku, have utilized it to help fund films and documentary so it’s not just a bunch of money grubbing amateurs on this site (there are some money grubbing armatures around though, I’m not gonna lie). I spend a lot of time per week simply looking up projects and tracking progress. I, however, don’t have much money so when I find a project I want to support or even just find interesting or funny most of the time I can’t afford to help them out. BUT it occurred to me that there’s more than one way to support such things. So I decided that since I have a blog where I can write whatever the hell I want I can share some of the pages I come across. Plus I know for a fact that one day I will need to use Kickstarter to fund a project of mine so hopefully if I help others with their stuff I’ll gain good karma towards my eventual funding.

Today I’ll share three projects but obviously there’s always something new wandering around the site so I think I’ll be doing this regularly, especially if people seem to respond to it. Maybe once every few weeks? Anyway check out these projects and if you think they’re something you’d like why not shoot them a pledge to help them out?

Three projects after the jump.

MALICE: The Webseries 

Goal: $8,000

Deadline: 12:00AM, 7/21/12

I mentioned this earlier this week but I wanted to revisit it in more details. In a nutshell: Malice is a horror themed web series about a teenage girl who moves into a creepy ass house with her family and creepy ass stuff soon start happening. It’ an interesting show but it sort of stops after episode six just when things are really starting to pick up. The creators need money in order to continue the story, which they must! I really like the lead of this series, Brittany Martz, though that’s likely due to personal bias. Cute girl in a bunny hat and wielding a damn assault riffle? SIGN ME THE F**K UP!

However if she doesn't wear that hat I'll feel cheated and wronged

Sadly, as of this writing, they’ve only managed to collect about $3,400 meaning they are over $4,000 short of their $8,000 goal and, as there’s less than six days before their deadline, they’re extremely close to failing to get things going. This project’s probably the one I’m the most emotionally attached to. So if you only feel like pleading one project this in the on that needs the most help.

Visit Malice: The Web Series’ Kickstarter Page

Star Command: The PC/Mac Space Adventure 

Goal: $100,000

Deadline: 11:52AM, 8/8/12

Not to be confused with the place Buzz Lightyear works at Star Command is a video game for mobile devices that had a Kickstarter last year fund it. Now that original game is just about done but the team is looking to fund a PC and Mac version that will in theory be a the ultimate version of the game. Basically it’s a 2D spaceship simulator/manager. Now I am a fan of both simulator games and space operas so this game feels like it’s right up my alley, and everything I’ve seen of it so far has looked pretty good. I’m really into things like Sim City and my favorite part of Star Trek Online is sitting on the bridge staring at the scenery wishing I had something to interesting to do, so this is likely a game I’d play.

Really if you set it in space and the future I'm pretty much there

Unlike Malice this project seems to be doing just damn fine and probably doesn’t really need nearly as much help. That said I’d still like it to not only make its budget but even surpass it since that will just make the game better. So if it looks interesting to you I’m sure they won’t turn down your cash.

Visit Star Command on PC’s Kickstarter Page,

Clandestine: Follow the Path

 Goal: $75,000 

Deadline: 7:50PM, 7/31/12 

Thousand Pounds Action Company is a pretty damn cool group who make these awesome martial art short films, all of which are awesomely choreographed, including a Naruto themed and a Street Fighter X Tekken themed short. Their new project is Clandestine, a supernatural web series with a female lead. Now I’m a man who loves choreographed fighting. It’s the reason I watch professional wrestling even though it keep hurting me. So it can’t be too surprising that I would get behind these guys’ work. Hell, the Naruto short alone was enough to briefly give a crap about Naruto again (which has subsequently subsided, thankfully) because it was simply such a cool feat of choreography and use of special effects on a limited budget. 

Lessons I learned from the film "Death Proof":
Stuntwomen will f**k you up

For this new series they want at least about seventy-five grand which is a far cry from the typical web series production cost (which is typically anywhere from $0 to several hundred borrowed dollars the lender never sees again), so I’m banking that this may be one of the best things the internet ever produced. And hey, ain’t nothing wrong with a strong female lead. Especially when they’re played by a bad ass real life martial artist/stuntwoman (lead actress Amy Johnston is a real life martial artist/stuntwoman; I should have mentioned that earlier). 

Visit Clandestine's Kickstarter Page

Remember to check these pages and if you find them interesting please show your support, even if it’s just to spread the word around. And if you know any cool Kickstarter pages feel free to post a link in the comment section (though take in mind as moderator of the comment section I have the right to not allow any KS posts that I am especially against for any reason).