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crowdfunding

Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, Offbeatr and more - projects funded through the crowd.

Trailer: 'Lackadaisy' Season 1 teaser

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Lackadaisy, from Iron Circus animation, based on the webcomic by Tracy J. Butler, has put out a teaser trailer for a first season of episodes. This season of episodes will be crowdfunded through BackerKit, which has currently reached the million dollar total donations mark, which is enough to fund the full goal of five episodes.

The comic Lackadaisy (sometimes known as Lackadaisy Cats) tells the story of the titular speakeasy in a fictionalized version of St. Louis, Missouri during the Prohibition Era of United States history. The cast is comprised entirely of fictional cats, so it is furry. The crowdfunding campaign is prominently mentioning it's 2011 nomination for an Eisner Award in the category for Best Digital Comic, but it also has won the Ursa Major Award for Best Graphic Story. A pilot episode of the show was released earlier this year to YouTube.

'Beyond the Edge of Owlsgard' has been released, reviewed

Your rating: None Average: 3.8 (5 votes)

WatchDaToast has been developing a furry-themed point-and-click adventure game for a while now, Beyond the Edge of Owlsgard, raising €36,317 from 682 backers on Kickstarter. It's just been released, and VoxelSmash has reviewed it.

You can buy the game on Steam and follow the author on Twitter.

Card game with custom fursonas: 'Secret Names [Furry Edition]'

Your rating: None Average: 3.2 (19 votes)

Secret Names, furry edition

Secret Names - Furry Edition
is a Indiegogo-funded card game in which two teams try to pick words from hints to their meanings — many related to furry culture. Gameplay is similar to that of Vlaada Chvátil's Codenames, but with a distinctive furry style and artwork.

Editor's Note: The article contains promotion of content created by the article's author.

ArtWorkTee's T-Shirt Campaign and the Selling of Identity

Your rating: None Average: 3.9 (17 votes)

34,000.jpgArtWorkTee has been quite busy this year when it comes to their charity drives and other Kickstarter campaigns. At this time they are working on their third KickStarter for the year. The first was a calendar drive where fursuiters were pictured for each month. These calendars were sold with proceeds going to a shelter for young horses called Last Chance Corral, which was covered by Flayrah. The second was not covered by Flayrah and was a for helping a feline shelter, Flatbush Cats.

Using charitibility is always a good way to achieve positive marketing and brand recognition, particularly in the furry fandom. In fact, it was a suggestion I had made in regards to the failed ‘designer fursuit’ experiment Zweitesich that if they made those custom designer fursuits a few thousand dollars more expensive and donated those thousands of dollars toward a charity it would have made the fursuit a badge of honor instead of one of purely being a gloating of wealth, which tends to be seen as reprehensible in the fandom.

Now that ArtWorkTee had done these charity kickstarts, the third appears to be using a month drive as an opportunity to introduce a new line of T-Shirts from them. This time it looks like there is no organization that is being supported. Instead, ArtWorkTee is using the same marketing strategy in order to introduce a line of pride shirts based on promotion of individual sexual and gender expression. It mixes a furry character brought to life by LuhBraz Art, mixing the characters with the particular representative flag's color schemes.

There are only a few days left to secure a t-shirt from this initial printing. But they will be available for sale after the campaign at their website and at Midwest Furfest's Dealer's den this year. So what is the incentive for doing this Kickstarter Campaign? It seems mostly to gauge interest, and they will expand their line based on this interest. That's what we will be going over in this article.

Kickstarter for 'Backbone', a furry adventure game

Your rating: None Average: 4.4 (9 votes)

Backbone is a Kickstarter for an anthropomorphic computer adventure game featuring a raccoon detective, using pixel art and set in a dystopian retro-futuristic/Blade Runner-esque Vancouver. It's the first game by EggNut, a Canadian studio.

Crowdfunding started in April, aiming for $63,000 CAD (~ $50,000 USD) with a deadline of May 27th, 2018. As of May 4, with 23 days to go, they're at 46% of that goal.

A demo is planned for Summer 2018, and they hope to have the game released by mid-2019. It should be available for PC, Mac and Linux, with possible additional platforms depending on stretch goals.

Along with detective work, there will also be stealth sequences that use smell-based mechanics, for when you're trying to hide from (or follow) a suspect. Combat will be another game element, with "The Artifact", which looks like a giant metal claw. A dark jazz soundtrack will provide additional atmosphere.

Ambitious furry fighter 'Beast's Fury' pulls plug

Your rating: None Average: 4 (7 votes)

Beast's FuryOn January 7, Ryhan Stevens announced that after many years of development that Beast's Fury, a fighting game that would feature furry characters, would be ceased. This announcement has created a lot of controversy and demand by those who funded the project over its multiple crowdfunding campaigns, two of which were successful. It has brought to bear the risks of public funding of projects by those in both the furry and gaming communities, and has opened discussions about the actual costs of developing video games.

Furry 4 Life asks users to pack up, dig deep as they drop Ning

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Blotch Furry 4 Life bannerFurry social network Furry 4 Life is raising funds to leave the Ning social platform. Over $800 has been donated towards a $3000 goal of two years of hosting.

Established in 2008, Furry 4 Life boasts over 24,500 members, but has become hamstrung by an abandoned platform. Staff hope to complete the move by the end of the month, although they warn migration may last until January 2016.

Network creator Shy Matsi, who also founded adult-only furry social network FurriesXtreme, explained why the community was moving, while cautioning that some data would be lost:

Ning, back in 2008, was the best answer to the question "How can I build a social network for my niche community?". They really were the best option and still remain a powerhouse in hosted social software platforms. We really do owe a lot to them, but we are moving in different directions, and the Ning Platform is no longer a solid solution to our growing community.

Furry artist Sebastian Rivers' home destroyed by fire

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On March 6th, 2015, furry artist Sebastian Rivers (known as "Lurid" or "Mori" in the furry fandom) and over 60 other people found their homes in Schenectady, NY engulfed in flames. Four people lost their lives in the blaze, and the rest became homeless overnight.

Besides losing his home and his four cats (who were like his children), Sebastian lost all of his sketchbooks, laptop and Wacom tablet: the tools he used for his digital painting, his sole source of income. For the time being, he has a place to stay, but it is temporary.

James Alexander Wolfe, who has been a friend of Sebastian's for a little over 2 years, has set up a GoFundMe Fundraiser account on his behalf. James has set the goal at $3,000, because with that money, Sebastian could buy a new laptop and tablet to re-establish his business, and have enough left over to help him get back on his feet.

As James puts it, "I hope you find it in your hearts to help my friend in his time of need, and I thank all of you that took the time to read this."

Update (June 6): If you prefer PayPal to GoFundMe, Sebastian wrote that "VGAcolor [at] gmail.com is my Paypal email. even $1s help; i am really damn close!! so please help or [spread the word] if you can! thank you".

In addition to the GoFundMe, Sebastian is accepting commissions to do art (using pencil, ink and colored pencil) on 9x12 inches, 75 lb archival paper. Inked art is $20 (example) and colored pencil art is $50.

The 1,000,000 pound chameleon: 'Banjo-Kazooie' successor hits all initial stretch goals

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yookalaylee.jpgWhat do you do when a friend borrows your banjo, then completely ruins it, its nuts and bolts spilled all over the ground? Whip out your ukelele of course.

The core team behind Nintendo 64 era 3D platformers such as Banjo-Kazooie have started up a new property in the same vein as the bear and bird duo, this time featuring a chameleon and big-nosed bat, Yooka and Laylee, who together will star in Yooka-Laylee.

Those Endearing Acrylic Charms

Call her Riri. Or Riri Mon, perhaps. Either way, she’s an artist who specializes in the chibi side of things… and she’s spun that talent off into Little Heroes, a series of toony acrylic charms for the gamer fan. After a successful Kickstarter campaign they’re now available as key chains, buttons, and other wearables. Not to mention her collection of art prints (many featuring some well-known anime and anime-style characters) and 3D media. Look her up at ririmon.com.

image c. 2015 by Riri Mon

image c. 2015 by Riri Mon

Put Some Fur On Your Chest

One of those interesting modern-world phenomena: Václav Štajger and Michaela Štajgerová, a furry fan couple from the Czech Republic, are seeking international funding for their new furry t-shirt enterprise. They’ve actually been at it for a while, with Václav running the business and Michaela’s artwork on the shirts, but now problems with their printing company have left them with two choices: Either raise their shirt prices considerably, or go into business printing the shirts themselves. They’ve opted for the latter — and they’ve set up a new Indiegogo campaign to raise money for it, from now through May 12th. True, the shirts would be coming from Europe, but in this day and age what’s unusual about that? Visit their Indiegogo page to see some of their initial designs and find out what sort of perks they’re offering to crowd funders.

image c. 2015 Animaltshirts.eu

image c. 2015 Animaltshirts.eu

Paul Kidd seeks funding for a new furry tabletop RPG

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GeneStorm RPG Noted furry author Paul Kidd has a new post-apocalypse RPG in the works: the "GeneStorm" Role Playing Game.

A tabletop RPG set in "a gloriously weird, wild post-apocalypse", its Indiegogo campaign had, as of Tuesday night, raised just over $1000 of its $6500 goal. Contribution rewards include PDF and hardcopy editions, as well as "adorable stuffy toys". Funding closes December 15.

Roz Gibson's 'Griffin Ranger' meets Kickstarter goal

Your rating: None Average: 4.2 (5 votes)

Griffin RangerRoz Gibson's Kickstarter campaign for the novel Griffin Ranger reached its goal of $6000, and its stretch goal of $6500, meaning the book will now have five to six interior illustrations by artist Katie Hofgard. Seventy-five backers combined for a total of $6,525, including 10 backers who donated over $100.

Ever since I was little, I loved reading books with animal protagonists. There’s a decent range of books like that written for a juvenile audience, but not a whole lot for people who’ve reached drinking age. Even if I found one, most of the time it was meant to be a statement on the human condition, or a silly parody. Poor griffins fared even worse in fantasy books. They were either portrayed as dangerous monsters, flying war horses, or ‘noble companions’ to the human protagonists (basically—glorified houseboys with feathers.) I wanted to write something different, something that could be enjoyed by an adult audience, with an older protagonist, living in a world that was advanced beyond medieval level, where the nonhuman characters were not reduced to supporting roles.(Kickstarter page)

The book is planned to be released in January of next year, depending on editing and when the editing and art for the cover can be finished. The book is already written, and a part two is also planned.

Help Start a New Fantasy Graphic Novel

The artist known as Alector Fencer has begun a new full-color graphic novel series called Myre (pronounced ME-reh). And she’s actively seeking some crowd-funding help to bring it into being. In the artist’s own words, “Since the beginning of this year I have been working tirelessly on writing and drawing out the story and the characters, resulting in a big collection of stories, scripts and tons of paintings/sketches and drawings. Over the past years I have collected many paintings of characters of the storyline, including Myre and her dragon mount Varug. Despite all the planning, there were many things coming in between and dragging me away from this very big and heartfelt dream of mine. The dream of sharing a world with you which had been captured in my head for so long.” To find out more about the story and the world it takes place in, visit Alector Fencer’s Indiegogo campaign page. In addition to a lot of the usual swag for helping out, some contributors will be treated to a special audio play created by the famous 2 the Ranting Gryphon, set in the Myre universe.

image c. 2014 by Alector Fencer

image c. 2014 by Alector Fencer

Death Is For The Birds

Sorry. After a successful Kickstarter campaign last year, Rachele Aragno (and her associates, Dave Ryan and Robert J. Sodaro) announced that Owl Girls will soon be available from Red Anvil Comics — you can check it out at their web site. “Not everything is as it seems, especially in the SoHo district of 1940’s New York City. No, in fact, things are not always quite what they seem. There are shadows and alleyways of the world that are not normally traversed by mortal men, and in those shadowy realms, there exist things that must be dealt with by those that can divine their presence and root out that evil. This is the world of the Owl Girls, a trio of sisters who for reasons that pass understanding have the heads of Owls and the bodies of human women. Virtually every culture in the world offers up myths and legends about the nature of Owls, and we here in America are no different. These three women (Magda, Martha, and Maggie) are attempting to live normal lives, only they have mystical abilities, oh yes, and they talk to Death; an old woman who visits them at odd moments during the day, and whose bidding they sometimes do.” Got all that?