Buried Treasure

What Is Buried Treasure? <a href="https://buried-treasure.org/">Buried Treasure</a> exists to highlight great, interesting, bizarre or downright silly indie games that you’d otherwise likely miss. After twenty years reviewing niche gems and unknown wonders for PC Gamer and Rock Paper Shotgun, alongside columns like They're Back and Steam Charts, I have created a site dedicated to just this task. Helping unnoticed games get the attention they deserve. The volume of independent games coming out is impossible to keep up with. On Steam alone 20-50 games are released every single day, and that’s before you consider itch.io, Humble Store, Epic Store, Switch, Android, and on and on. No site, no matter how well-read and well-funded, can possibly keep up. This is a problem made worse when most of those read and funded sites don’t even try. And the casualties of this are many. At Buried Treasure I intend to save all I can. This site is my attempt to entirely focus on this work, telling a dedicated audience about the PC, Switch and mobile games they’d otherwise never hear of, with the additional hope that the major sites will will remember my grizzled old name, trust my recommendations, and plunder my discoveries with abandon. I want good games to be played, and good developers to get paid. That sounds catchy. That should be a slogan. To do this, I need to afford food. Hence Patreon. I intend to produce a number of reviews every week. The more support I receive, the more reviews I can write, and the more ignored games can get a spotlight. If enough people get behind this, then I'll also be able to pay freelancers to write even more. I'm really hoping that the indie community will get behind this project, and we'll see if we can make it into something special. Why You, John Walker? This isn't new territory for me. I've been doing this for many years, and I have just the most heart-warming pile of testimonies from developers who've told me, often years later, how my review of their great unknown game was their doorway to a career in the industry. I know that doing this makes a difference. While obviously any new project starts off small, I've a proven track record here. Rock Paper Shotgun began as a tiny site by four freelancers, giving a project a try. It's now one of the most successful and well-renowned gaming sites in the world. I'm not mad, and I know a site whose very ethos is to eschew the big name games isn't going to be nearly so successful, but I truly believe good writing about good games gets good readers. I want to prove that all over again. Why Do You Need Us? In 2007 when I co-launched RPS, I was a single guy with cheap rent. I could take big risks. It's twelve years later and I've now got a kid and a mortgage, and as of April 2019, no regular salary. I don't have quite the same freedom to launch headfirst into this project with no returns. To do this well, it needs to cover my time. I want to be able to do this, to continue my passion for getting good games into the hands of people who'll enjoy playing them, and to be able to devote the time this will take I need some income. The better this project goes, the more of you who get behind it, the better job I can do of this project. What Do We Get Out Of It? While I hope the satisfaction of supporting a force of good is a decent incentive to back this, I also want to reward such loveliness. With this in mind, there will be original articles and newsletters for backers that slightly deviate from the site's main remit, alongside various goodies, Discord badges, and the ability to force me to review absolutely anything you choose. I'm also very open to suggestion for any other ideas you might have.

Free

You are a Helpful Human. Your contribution helps the site get off the ground, find its feet, and then do some good works.

Helpful Human

A kindly contribution, helping to fund the 8-10 full-length reviews I'm aiming to write every month. 
 
You'll also get the monthly newsletter, a Kindly Supporter role for the Buried Treasure Discord, and a tiny sliver of my heart.

Kindly Supporter

A very kindly contribution, helping to fund the 8-10 full-length reviews I'm aiming to write every month. Also you can make me write a short review of anything you like. 
Plus you get the monthly newsletter, occasional extra articles, a Very Kindly Supporter role for the Buried Treasure Discord, and a nice slice of my heart.

Very Kindly Supporter

You officially become a Remarkable Person for helping to fund the 8-10 full-length reviews I'm aiming to write every month. 
 
Plus you get the monthly newsletter, occasional extra articles, the monthly newsletter, the A Remarkable Person role for the Buried Treasure Discord, and a considerable lump of my heart. 
 
Aaaaaaaand you get to force me to write a full-length review of any game of your choosing. I promise I will play it for at least two hours, and write at least 500 words, published to Patreon backers.

A Remarkable Person

You officially become an Actual Hero Person, with all the additional kudos that ensures  
 
Plus you get the monthly newsletter, occasional extra articles, an Actual Hero Person role for the Buried Treasure Discord, and a significant proportion of my heart.   
 
You also get to force me to review any game of your choosing. You name the game and I promise I will spend at least five hours playing it before writing a 1,000 word review, published to all Patreon backers. 
 
I'll also send you a really very lovely Buried Treasure badge/pin, that will improve your daily life by over 2.8%.   
 
Aaaaaaand you get the life-changing Buried Treasure mouse mat, on which you can play your discovered games.

Actual Hero Person

You become the Ruler Of Planet Earth, which while a lot of responsibility, comes with perks like owning all the polar bears. 
 
Plus you get the monthly newsletter, occasional extra articles, a Ruler Of The Earth role for the Buried Treasure Discord, and every last piece of my heart.   
 
You also get to force me to review any game of your choosing. You name the game and I promise I will spend at least five hours playing it before writing a 1,000 word review, published to all Patreon backers. 
 
Aaaaaaand you get the life-changing Buried Treasure mouse mat on which you can play your discovered games while, AND Buried Treasure mug from which you can drink your discovered liquids. 
 
And loads more stuff I will think of to thank you for this ludicrous amount of money, like maybe some or most of my blood.

Buried Treasure

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