New MMORPG on Steam raises over €330,000 on Kickstarter in 2 days despite completely dispensing with battles

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Loftia is a new MMORPG reminiscent of a mix of Palia with WoW instances. For initial funding, it launched a campaign on Kickstarter and wanted to raise $150,000 there. After just a few hours, the amount was more than doubled and there are still 28 more days left.

What kind of game is this? Loftia is a so-called cozy MMO and wants to take the stress out of the gaming experience. It’s reminiscent of the new Palia, with a greater focus on instances and quests.

You and your character enter a colorful “Solarpunk” game world in which renewable energies play an important role. You experience most of the adventures in the cloud city of Loftia City, although there are also other islands that you can explore.

Your goal is to complete large projects together with other players and rebuild the city. The MMO feeling is in the foreground:

  • Important elements are farming, cooking, fishing, housing and raising pets. However, you can also take on jobs, for example as a waiter in a café, an employee in a flower shop or as a hairdresser. Everything is said to be connected to mini-players.
  • Together with your fellow players, you complete major construction projects such as building a subway or learning new technologies.
  • The game completely dispenses with a combat system, but there should be dungeons and raids. This is content for 3 to 10 players in which you have to master instanced challenges. The developers cite It Takes Two, Fall Guys and the shrines from the recent The Legend of Zelda as examples.
  • Players can organize themselves in guilds – so-called clubs. There will even be club housing if more money is raised via Kickstarter.
  • Cosmetics and your own appearance play an important role.
  • The world is divided into areas, each of which can accommodate 150 players at the same time. This is significantly more than Palia, where only 25 players can enter a city at the same time.

    • How is the development going so far? Work on Loftia started a year ago, in July 2022. Since then, the team has grown from 5 to over 20 developers. They now want to raise more money via Kickstarter and have been successful.

    Stardew Valley meets WoW – Official trailer for the cozy MMO Loftia

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    The minimum target was exceeded within a few hours

    How is the campaign going? The developers wanted to raise at least $150,000 on Kickstarter and are currently over $350,000. However, the campaign has only run for 1.5 days and has more than 28 days remaining. So it is quite possible that the amount will go up.

    In total, more than 5,000 people have supported the project. From as little as $30 there are packages that include an early access key. The more you pay, the more rewards there are, including soundtracks, artwork, and access to the Alpha.

    However, the income from Kickstarter itself will not be enough to fully fund Loftia. This is shown, for example, by the MMORPG Chronicles of Elyria, which recently revealed how quickly the 7 million dollars from crowdfunding were spent.

    Founder describes herself as a hardcore raider

    Who is behind the project? Mic is the founder of Loftia, which started the game as a hobby project in early 2022. She tells Reddit that she has been a hardcore raider in various MMOs for a long time, has always played competitively and loves games that focus on good fights.

    But now she needs a break from it herself, so she created Loftia out of a need of her own that she hopes more people will share. According to her own statement, she wants to mix Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, World of Warcraft and MapleStory.

    When is the game out? There is no official release date yet. On Kickstarter, however, it says that backers with alpha keys should have access as early as 2024, while early access is only planned for 2025.

    What platforms is Loftia available for? It will be released for PC (Steam), Mac and the Nintendo Switch. Languages ​​are English, German, Spanish, French, Korean, Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese. So the developers have set themselves high goals.

    What do you think of Loftia? Does the concept appeal to you? And where do you see it compared to direct competitor Palia?

    Palia has already started its closed beta and everyone can try it from August 10th. We’ll tell you exactly what awaits you there: After an hour of gameplay, I’m sure – Palia isn’t a classic MMORPG, but it’s exactly what I need right now.

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