Kickstarter Watch is a feature that attempts to help readers stay apace of Nintendo-related Kickstarter crowdfunding projects. In recent years, crowdfunding has become a popular alternative method of funding for many original, niche, and independent projects and products. Although the campaigns mentioned within the feature are actively soliciting fund-raising pledges, their inclusion does not constitute an endorsement on the part of Nintendo World Report.

According to its developers, Orion's Odyssey was finished a year ago. "The game is finished," Island Officials co-founder Ryan Harbinson emphasizes in the project's Kickstarter video, forcefully pausing between each word to impart a sense of confident finality. This meant that the New Jersey-based developer had finished pouring in all the lessons learned from their previous DS title, Hands On! Tangrams. This also meant that they had finished loading the game with a sense of adventure and extras, as well as multiple tangram-oriented game modes, including a create-your-own-puzzle mode. As recently as a year ago, you might have been playing Orion's Odyssey on your DS, DSi, or 3DS.

But that didn't come to pass. In the time that Island Officials had been shopping the game around, publishers shied away from fully backing the title. Apparently that's because Orion's Odyssey is a DS game, and over the last few years Nintendo's aging handheld system has experienced a decline in interest. Undeterred, Island Officials still dreamed of a full retail release on physical cartridges for their game, a release that would allow any DS owner anywhere in the world to play the title. In April, they launched a Kickstarter project to pre-fund a physical run of cartridges for Orion's Odyssey. Five weeks into its seven-week funding period, the Kickstarter had garnered only $7,246 in pledges out of its $85,412 goal.

But Island Officials wasn't willing to throw in the towel. There was a Plan B: a digital release on DSiWare and the eShop. Island Officials canceled the first Kickstarter project, retooled their project goals, and on May 7 relaunched the crowdfunding project with the aim of securing a digital DSiWare and 3DS eShop release for their game.

As a testament to the drastically different costs in publishing products as digital downloads instead of as physical cartridges that need to sit on store shelves, Orion's Odyssey's relaunched Kickstarter project has a goal of only $4,092, a mere fraction of the original's asking price of $85,412 for a full physical release production run.

Island Officials also made other adjustments to their strategy. Kickstarter projects often feature rewards like soundtracks or copies of the finished product, so Island Officials re-evaluated all the rewards they were offering to backers at each of the pledge levels. They even went back to the campaign after it was launched to add additional tiers of pledge rewards that featured more game paraphernalia, but didn't include free downloads of the final product once it was released. And they've stepped up the pace of project updates, becoming more vocal and teasing additional tweaks to the crowdfunding campaign that supporters can look forward to.

Island Officials spent two-and-a-half years developing Orion's Odyssey, and even after the latest setbacks, they believe the game deserves a shot. However, the independent studio is still looking for people willing to believe in second, third, and maybe even fourth chances as much as they do. As of May 15, with 10 days in the campaign left to go, the revamped "Orion's Odyssey for Nintendo eShop & DSiWare" Kickstarter campaign has received $3,377 in pledges out of its $4,092 goal.

Click here to view the current Orion's Odyssey Kickstarter campaign to secure the game's release on DSiWare and the 3DS eShop.