Last week fantasy author Brandon Sanderson made headlines by revealing that during COVID lockdown he'd managed to write four extra novels and promptly rocketed to Kickstarter's top funded project with a plan to self-publish. Presently $36 million (AU) and several weeks yet to go.

Sci-fi roleplaying video game John Carter: Warlord of Mars'  is not enjoying the same kind of success. With a goal of $750 thousand (AU) they presently only have $8 thousand.

We weren't sure what to expect of this one.

Disney's John Carter film was a major bomb and that's kind of hard to forget.

On the other hand, while trying to find what came of an earlier Kickstarter campaign for this title, we failed to determine that but found a recent one for a John Carter board game which raised a quarter of a million pounds (approx $400 thousand AU).

Seemingly there's still interest in the franchise.

Perhaps it's a question of surety.

Computer game development is costly, complicated and prolonged.

Sanderson's campaign has been so successful in large part because he's already written the books. They might just need editing.

A roleplaying board game doesn't make itself but is a much less costly endeavour. Their pledge goal was 20 thousand pounds ($36 thousand AU).

Not much scope for things to go wrong.

And there's also a time factor.

Assuming you have friends who are into tabletop roleplaying games then you might easily get hundreds of hours of value out of one.

Singleplayer computer games are finite in length and this one is at the shorter end of the typical range offering 12 plus hours.

[ Main Image: John Carter Warlord of Mars concept art. Credit: FNCPR via YouTube. ]

References

FNCPR and Sci Fi London. John Carter: Warlord of Mars. Kickstarter. (viewed March 12, 2022)

FNCPR. John Carter: Warlord of Mars - official website. (viewed March 12, 2022)

Kickstarter. Most funded projects. (viewed March 12, 2022)

Modiphius (January 10, 2018). John Carter of Mars - The Roleplaying Game. Kickstarter.

Sanderson, Brandon (March 2, 2022). Surprise! Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson. Kickstarter.