Eric of Elder Game has a Kickstarter up for his game Project: Gorgon.
The game is summarized as:
Project: Gorgon – An Indie MMO by Industry Veterans
Project: Gorgon is a 3D fantasy MMORPG (massively-multiplayer online role-playing game) for PC & Mac with a quirky, old-school feel. It is designed for players who want to explore a deep world with complex game systems and a tight-knit community that is friendly enough to actually chat while they group. Think Asheron’s Call crossed with EverQuest crossed with NetHack.
There is a much more detailed description on the Kickstarter page, including links to videos and a detailed discussion of what the project entails, where it stands, and where it hopes to end up.
As Zubon pointed out, the Elder Game blog has been full of great tales of game design issues along with other items like how the hell the project is going to make money, as the project has progressed.
However, now Project: Gorgon needs art and audio assets. And to fund that, they have turned to Kickstarter.
There are, of course, risks. Kickstarter now requires funding projects to include a summary of what might go wrong and how your donations might be pissed away for no return. Of course, like those disclaimers in investment prospectuses, that doesn’t really help much if your donation does get pissed away for no return.
Still, Kickstarter is the go-to option for small projects like this, and if this is the sort of game you want to see made, you should at least read the info about it and consider donating.
Addendum: The Kickstarter did not get funded, but development has carried on. You can see the latest updates at the Project: Gorgon web site.