Former Pokemon caster creates the most funded Kickstarter video game of 2025, raising over $1.1 million for his creature collector, team thanks supporters for "helping us make this dream a reality"

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Elestrals Awakened has had a hugely successful campaign

A person in a 2.5D pixel art-style walks down a beach with a crocodile-like monster following behind them. The screenshot is promotional material for the RPG Elestrals Awakened.
(Image credit: Elestrals)

Elestrals Awakened has become the most funded video game of 2025 raising more than $1.1 million on Kickstarter. Developed by Elestrals, the studio was co-founded by Jonathan 'shadypenguinn' Indovino, a Pokemon YouTuber with almost a million subscribers, and former video game championships caster for The Pokemon Company.

This is the team's third campaign following two successful Kickstarters for the Elestrals trading card game, and Elestrals Clash!, an online version of the aforementioned trading card game. Elestrals is now transforming its creature battling card game into a 2.5D RPG thanks to its hugely successful campaign.

While it officially ended on November 8, late pledges for the Kickstarter are now open so those who missed out their chance are still able to back the project. For those excited for the game's release there is still a long way to go, as the team don't expect to launch Elestrals Awakened until late-2027. However, with two successfully completed projects in its back pocket, we assume Elestrals knows what it's doing.

Following the end of the campaign, the studio took to Kickstarter to write, "on behalf of the entire Elestrals team, thank you all for your incredible support and for helping us make this dream a reality." While Elestrals Awakened is the most funded video game of 2025, it still pales in comparison to Star Citizen which has raised over $800 million in funding to date.

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George Young
George Young
Freelance News Writer

Freelance writer, full-time PlayStation Vita enthusiast, and speaker of some languages. I break up my days by watching people I don't know play Pokemon pretty fast.

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