I'll be keeping my eyes on this one...
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/23/meccano-warriors-rawbots-alpha-released/#more-139410
$30 for alpha access + all builds + tools + dev forum @ http://www.rawbots.net/page/rawbots
$10 for stable builds @ http://www.desura.com/games/rawbots
I've been eying this for over a week and really can't decide whether to get into it yet or wait some more :P
Rawbots (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/05/02/rawbots-is-looking-ace-and-for-money/) has gone Kickstarter. I hope they make it, but I think they've set the bar a bit too high at $300K. $20 to buy in at Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rozgo/rawbots-multiplayer-sandbox) ($30 pledge also gets you pre-alpha access when Kickstarter ends) or here (http://www.rawbots.net/index.php?/store) if you want early access now (for $30).
They've just had a new release (0.1.0) that added lots of new stuff, but as you can tell by the release number, its still pre-alpha.
Its a fun sandbox, but you'll have to invest some time in it. You create robots from parts and then use a type of visual programming to get your creation to do what you want. Some Youtube vids (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rawbots&oq=rawbots&gs_l=youtube.3..5j0l9.10772.12249.0.12616.7.7.0.0.0.0.148.866.1j6.7.0.ytns%2Cpt%3D-30%2Cn%3D2..0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.erLwDdFD5ew) (probably don't show the latest version).
That is not setting the bar too high. It costs a lot of money to make a video game. All of these kickstarters for games set at like 20k are inane. There is no way you can make a game for 20k, unless it is a one man team living off the $ he saved from his last job eating ramen for 2 years.
But, yeah if they don't reach their goal...then it is set too high :)
^I absolutely agree that video games cost $$ to make. I just think that this type of game falls outside of the type of Kickstarter game that would bring in the big pledges. Its not a Wasteland 2, Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen or even a FPS-type, etc...
I can never tell. There are projects that gets lots of money that I am like, what? And lots of cool projects that don't get funded. Never know. But, at least they put a realistic amount of $ on there, I find that more reassuring that they know what they are doing than the people that put 20k on there (which makes me think "you have no idea what you are doing and you will never finish this project"