Kickstarter is a wonderful crowd-funding website, where people donate money to help others complete their creative projects. This year's Dragon Slayer Awards, hosted by GameSkinny's sister site, Guild Launch, would like your help in recognizing the Most Notable Kickstarter in the world of gaming.

Each of this year's options are very different from the others. There are four Kickstarter games nominated: an MMO, a game about robots that will also have an animated series, a Japanese role-playing game (JRPG), and a game about a genie named Shantae.

Choices for Most Notable Kickstarter:

• City of Titans
• Mighty No. 9
• Project Phoenix
• Shantae

At this point, you are most likely wondering how to choose just one out of these four Kickstarter games. If you use Kickstarter, have ever donated to a project, or have even looked at a project's Kickstarter, what are the elements that stand out the most to you? What do you look for in a game? Did one of these games have something that you always look for in any game you play, like interesting characters, or the overall format (MMO, RPG)? Did the Kickstarter campaign include a lot of helpful information about the game that intrigued you even more?

If you haven't heard about any of the Kickstarters nominated, or just want a little more information, check out the links on the Dragon Slayer Awards page. Once you do, don't forget to make your choice for Most Notable Kickstarter and the other categories!

GameSkinny's sister site, Guild Launch, is holding their third annual Dragon Slayer Awards, and they need you to choose who wins!

Nominated this year for Notable Gaming Personality is Sean Plott, better known as Day[9]. Day[9] first made a name for himself by professionally playing StarCraft for over 12 years.

So, why should Day[9] get your vote?

Awards and Achievements 

During his gaming career, Day[9] has qualified for several professional-level gaming competitions, and won the Pan American Championship in 2007. He was also on Forbes' list of 30 under 30: Entertainment.

Active in the Industry

He continues his love for gaming as an e-sports commentator, and is still very involved in the StarCraft community. In 2010, he co-founded Jink.TV, "an interactive media company," through which he created his popular show the Day[9] Daily. During the show, Day[9] talks about all things StarCraft, to help other gamers improve their skills and complete their goals. He also does play-throughs of other games in a separate series of videos known as Day[9]'s Day Off. 

In addition to working on his own company, he has also worked with Felicia Day's company Geek & Sundry. The show Spellslingers, currently in its second season on Geek & Sundry's YouTube channel, invites guests to play Magic: The Gathering against Day[9]. He has also partnered with game developer Artillery Games, to design a new game. 

If you would like to choose Day[9] as Notable Gaming Personality, head on over to Guild Launch's Dragon Slayer Awards page, and vote!

Dragon Slayer Awards voting is still going on, who will you vote for? One of the categories available is "Best Indie Game of 2014". This is the perfect time to check out all those indie games you've been wanting to play, and vote for your favourites among the nominees! Starbound, a recent indie game receiving loads of attention, is one of the games looking for your vote.

Starbound, Chucklefish's first game, is a 2-D, entertaining sandbox adventure game where the player travels and explores different planets in a universe. You begin by escaping your home planet on a spaceship and then crash-landing on another. From there, your quest begins! 

The game is very customizable, giving out over 100 materials and over 1000 in-game objects to build. By using procedural generation, the gameplay is extremely varied: planets, creatures, weapons, and more are all randomly generated according to set algorithims (procedures). Each planet is themed with its own terrain, weather, day/night cycles, etc. Due to this, the game is blessed with a massive variety of content and unique stories for each player.Starbound, being open world, gives the player freedom. You can follow the story or simply create your own. Creativity is key to Starbound. By Building, the player can create their own world. Foraging and Crafting allows the player to create items that suit their playing style (The players class will be determined by the weapons they use). You can also feel free to customize your spaceship and even play music. The amount of possibilities is enormous. Remember to set up your campfire though; dying of cold is a frequent threat in the universe of Starbound (among other reasons).

Multiplayer is very integrated in Starbound. You can play along with others competitively or cooperatively. The server you're on determines how many can play along with you. However, solo play is also just as fun since there is so much to explore.
Starbound has received two awards in 2013:
1. "Most Anticipated Game of 2013" in Indie Game Magazine
2. "No.1 of Indie of the Year 2013" for IndieDB

These awards are quite the achievement considering the game is only in its early Beta phase. Here is what some reviews are saying:

"STARBOUND IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPRESSIVE NEVER-ENDING GAMES EVER"
                                                                                                  - Polygon (Rating: 9)

"The game's minutiae will be mapped out across various wikis for years to come, and many mechanics will be added and refined, but even now, Starbound is an enticing journey of discovery that reminds you just how exciting it can be to stare at a sky full of stars."
                                                                                                   - Gamespot      
"Starbound's [beta is] by no means finished yet but the basics definitely work. There's already loads for you to do, regardless of whether you're trying to work through the tiers and fight all the bosses or if you just want to hop across space, moving from one planet to the next as fuel supplies allow, seeing what you can see and finding what you can find."
                                                                                                   - Eurogamer  

Starbound beta has been out since December 4, 2013. It is available for $14.99 on Steam and Humblestore. At the moment it is only for Windows, Mac, and Linux, but will eventually port to consoles such as the PS4. You can read more about Starbound on the website, and scroll through the FAQ for any questions.

Since Starbound has already made a huge splash into the indie game community, it is the perfect candidate for your Dragon Slayer Award Vote!  Open world, variety, adorable graphics, unique story, and more. You can check out the other nominees here or go vote for Best New Indie Game of 2014 here.

It's that time of the year again. No, not back to school time. Alright, well yeah it's that, too. But more importantly it's Dragon Slayer Awards voting time! Griffter's Slightly Impressive seems to have impressed slightly enough to land it on the ballot for Notable Machinima or Video Series, and here's why.

Maybe Griffter's web series is on the ballot because it encompasses the whole of the category. I mean, what made his channel so famous is his WoW machinima, in which Griffter and either one or two of his friends--unless this guy has some serious voice acting skills--do comedic voice-overs for a set group of recurring World of Warcraft characters. 

Other than his WoW machinima, however, Griffter has a number of other series in which he simply provides comedic commentary for various games, including The Sims 3, The Walking Dead, Octodad, etc.

Seriously, this guy has a ton of videos up that don't get nearly the attention they deserve, especially those which he makes for Sims.

Yeah, that's a long video, but it's totally worth the watch. His off-the-cuff humor is like no other, and it's especially unlike the humor found in the other contenders in this category.

Also, he's kept this running humor going for way longer than would seem possible. His first video was on February 11, 2012, and since then he has amassed an astonishing 353 videos!

The best part about this guy? He's totally humble. Granted, he isn't exactly as famous as the guys at Rooster Teeth or Achievement Hunter, but he's on this list, isn't he? Besides, Griffter's humble demeanor made him super excited about this annual awards event.

Oh hey, I got nominated for this thing again! Vote for me, I guess? http://t.co/Bt63T0K8rd

— Griffter (@SlightlyGriff) July 25, 2014

Alright, so he's not exactly the spitting image of excitement, but that's his thing!

If you think Griffter is funny enough or unique enough to deserve your vote for Notable Machinima or Video Series, head on over to Guild Launch's voting page for the Dragon Slayer Awards and vote for him! 

This year's iteration of the Dragon Slayer Awards has officially reached its final round, which means it's time to vote for winners. One of this year's nominees for Notable Machinima or Video Series is Achievement Hunter's smash hit, Fails of the Weak.

Fails of the Weak began as a web series dedicated to recapping the week's worst Halo Reach fails, with the last word in the title being a purposeful error utilized to highlight the fortitude of the players committing these fails. 

All of these fails are accompanied by humorous play-by-play by the series creators, Geoff Ramsey and Jack Pattillo, also co-creators of Achievement Hunter itself. 

With the release of Halo 4 in November of 2012 and Weak's rising success, the series stretched its reach to the new Halo game and eventually began accepting submissions from across the entire Halo series. 

Since its launch in 2010, the series has never missed a week of awesomely tragic Halo fails, and recently celebrated its 200th episode! And with its 200th episode, the series has changed its formula from a Halo-based fails compilation to a weekly recap of the worst fails submitted on Achievement Hunter's other web series, Game Fails.

The greatest part about this web series in particular?

It's completely community-based. Other than the episode featured at the top of this article, every episode of Weak is made up entirely of community-submitted video clips. 

Being that Guild Launch's Dragon Slayer Awards have always been community-centric, what better way to celebrate the community than to feature its own exercises in humility and hilarity? 

Other than being completely community-based, Weak is utterly hilarious, and that's just as important in this category.

So if you'd like to vote Fails of the Weak in as Notable Machinima or Video Series for this year's Dragon Slayer Awards, head on over to Guild Launch's voting page and drop a vote for every other category while you're there!

Each year, gaming fans gather around and vote for their favorite games/people/communities of the year to win Guild Launch's Dragon Slayer Awards. Nominated for Best New Game on the Horizon, Heroes of the Storm faces of against 3 other games for the title.

Heroes of the Storm is Blizzard's new DOTA-style game, which tries to make itself unique with different features. This "hero brawler" has been in technical Alpha-testing phase since March, and you can sign up for the upcoming beta via your battlenet account.

The game focuses on 5v5 team gameplay on different maps. The unique battlegrounds are one thing that shines in Heroes of the Storm. Each battleground has different objectives, delivering diverse and strategic forms of playing. The battleground also features "towns", not towers. Towns are equipped with a gate, healing fountains for mana/health regeneration, and an attacking guard tower. The gates prevent enemy movement. Minions also have different roles, from attacking to healing.Another factor Heroes of the Storm brings to the table is match length. Traditional multiplayer online battle arena games, like League of Legends or DOTA range from 30-40 minutes in average match length. Heroes of the Storm aims for a 15-20 minute match length, allowing for matches to be fast-paced, fun, and easy to repeat. Players can concentrate on the fun elements of the gameplay, and always play that "one last game" for the day. 

The world, Nexus, features a clash of Blizzard universes. The heroes come from Diablo, World of Warcraft, and Starcraft. Each hero is divided into special roles: Assassin, Warrior, Support, and "Specialist" (which includes a Siege role or Commander role). Each position is important in its own way, and customizable. The "heroic ability", or ultimate attack, is chosen by the player, giving a whole new strategy to how you play the hero.Oh, and you no longer have to be angry about that kill-steal, because rewards are shared within the team. This allows for players to take on passive roles, like healing or hiding until the right moment.

 You can vote for Heroes of the Storm here and check out the other nominees on GameSkinny.com.

Dragon Slayer Awards are here! The Dragon Slayer Awards are fan nominated awards for communities in online gaming organized by Guild Launch, Gameskinny's sister site. Every year fans (you) are invited to vote for their favorite games/people/communities in each category. One of the nominations for Best Indie Game this year is The Forest. This is one of five games competing for the award. Voting is taking place now.

The Forest, Endnight Games' latest single-player survival horror adventure, released its Alpha on Steam in late-May of this year. Since then, the game has received positive reviews from many news sources:

"Despite its cannibals, The Forest delivers a survival experience that feels more "real" than many of its counterparts. You hunt, build shelters, and fight in a beautiful world that's oblivious to the action.                                                                      - Gamespot Review

"The atmosphere is subtly but noticeably different - scarier, prettier, more concerned with the realistic nuts and bolts of lonely survival than multiplayer mayhem or Minecraft-esque construction.                                                           - Eurogamer Review

The Forest begins with you being the lone survivor of a plane crash, but you are not alone on the island. Cannibals roam the area you inhabit, and they are precisely what makes the game so interesting. You must spend your days exploring and collecting supplies to build your base to protect yourself from the cannibals at night. By using stealth, you can successfully kill these creatures, though seeing one implies there are others nearby. If you observe these creepy, human-like creatures, you discover that they are actually smart.The cannibals travel in packs stalking their prey: you. They show emotion: fear of fire, curiosity as they examine you rather than aggressively charging towards you, and sadness when mourning the loss of their own. These dynamic creatures are part of what make your time in The Forest complicated. They kill you and haunt you; but observing them begs the moral question of who is really the evil one inhabiting the island. When The Forest isn't creeping you out, it's letting you take in the view. Endnight Games has recently activated a "Vegan Mode" that deactivates enemies in The Forest. Now you can die a slower death from diseases while wandering through the beautiful terrain. Since it is still in Alpha, new patches are constantly being released. You can keep up with this on the game's website.Although no release date is set, you can purchase The Forest Alpha for $14.99 on Steam. There are plans to port the game to Oculus Rift and to eventually add a co-op mode. As of now, the Alpha is only available for PC.

The Forest may just be another survival-horror game, but it's adding new concepts to the table. If you've played it and loved it, go vote for it as the best 2014 Indie Game here and help it win it's very deserved Dragon Slayer Award! You can check out the other nominees here.