Magic the Gathering creator seeks Kickstarter funding for mobile game

Richard Garfield, creator of popular collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, has launched a fundraising campaign to finance development for a new location-based mobile game. He joins a growing list of notable game designers who have turned to crowdfunding platform Kickstarter and fans to front the bill for their new projects -- recent success stories include campaigns from Tim Schafer (Psychonauts), Jordan Weisman (Shadowrun), and Brian Fargo (Wasteland). Garfield hopes to raise $40,000 in pledges by May 5 to fund a free-to-play location-based adventure title called Map Monsters. In the game, players capture monsters that they can find in different physical areas. It will release for iPhone and iPad initially, and will eventually receive an Android port. The designer has teamed up with BodSix, a Seattle-based independent studio that specializes in location-based mobile and social games, to create Map Monsters. The team is made up of veterans from companies like Amazon, Apple, Pixar, and Wizards of the Coast. The Kickstarter campaign is offering credits for virtual goods, signed posters, Map Monsters shirts, a "game night" with Garfield, and other incentives to donators. So far, Garfield and BodSix have received around $10,000 in pledges, a fourth of their goal. Though Garfield is best known for creating seminal card game Magic: The Gathering, he has helped design a number of video games in recent years like Torpex's Schizoid, Mind Control's Mind Twist, and Hothead's Kard Combat.