Yeah, they certainly do seem similar! I'll be happy to play both though.

Suggestion: add links to project threads in the forum where applicable.

These exist so far:
Dysis
Obsidian
Loot Drop's Oldschool RPG
Nexus 2
Kick-Heart

Good idea. Will get to it later

For the people who were interested in pledging for Arakion but don't have a credit card, now is possible to pledge through , which uses PayPal and another stretch goal included at $60k: [url=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lavidimus/chris-taylors-arakion/posts/324243]http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lavidimus/chris-taylors-arakion/posts/324243

Putting this here as a reminder to review later
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1704270231/redshirts-2nd-edition

Hero-U

Coming to Kickstarter October 19

http://www.hero-u.net/leaders/

No love for 3089 on your list? It is shaping up nicely. The random, and less blocky land generation is shaping up nicely, and there was just an update showing inventory and early customisation of weapons. Apparently he wants a random weapon generation system similar to Borderland, but also with customisation.

Edit: it is also funded, so the kickstarter is successful. Kicktraker projects a total of $6k, he asked for $1k.

I didn't add 3089? Ok will add later. Thought I did.

Is Obsidian not a fully-fledged games company why would they need kickstarter funding?

The same reason why they always needed a publisher to fund their games. They are a video game developer studio.

Because the game they want to make here probably wouldn't find much love from the big publishers. Besides, this is a first for them; it's a chance for them to do what they want with the game, without any chance of executive meddling.

Sorry i don't know much about the business side of the industry but would they have not made a profit from past titles? Or do the publishers take most of the profit?

That I don't know. What I DO know is that Obsidian working with big publishers has been less than ideal on occasion. So they're trying to strike out on their own with Project Eternity, where they can develop the game from scratch without any interference from a publisher telling them what they can or can't do with it.

From a creative POV, this is a great opportunity for them. They have gained enough of a following to fund the project. Now all they have to do is make good on their promises.

Most of the profit and all of the rights to the brand, I believe (most of the time). Sometimes the development studio will only get a flat payment. You'll have to use google or hope someone with knowledge of special cases turns up if you want more details ;-)
There were reports about Obsidian not getting a (bigger?) share of the profits of New Vegas because they missed the Metacritic rating of 85% (by one percent).

most of the money earned from selling a game goes to cover the costs the developers have built up during the period of making it. So most of the profit is "lost" before they start selling the game.... if it makes any sense.

If you imagine a game takes 2-3 years to make, during that time they need to pay rent for buildings and pay the staff (which is where most of the cost come from). In normal cases, a publisher will pay some of this money upfront for a large percentage of the sales when the game is finished, this gives them a stake in the game and rights to interfere (for better or worse). Self financing means that the developer are free from any restraints by publishers.

Bottom line, game development is a lot like gambling.