Popular crowd-funding website goes live in Europe; several dozen projects already underway.

Aspiring game developers in the United Kingdom can now use crowd-funding service Kickstarter to get their projects off the ground. Previously available only to those in the United States, Kickstarter has launched in Europe, and with only a small number of differences from its American cousin.

The biggest difference is that those who back a UK Kickstarter project will enter their payment information directly through Kickstarter and not via Amazon Payments. A Kickstarter representative assured users that all pledges will be handled in a secure manner through a third-party processor.

Concerning currency, UK Kickstarter projects will be listed in pounds sterling. Those backing from outside of the UK will automatically see a conversion to United States dollars prior to fulfilling a pledge.

According to Kickstarter, more than 1,500 UK-specific projects are currently underway, and several dozen are live today. The very first UK campaign is an arcade cabinet called Picade for the credit card-sized Raspberry Pi computer.

Kickstarter has seen much popularity in the United States. It has attracted game developers large and small, including Double Fine, inXile Entertainment, Obsidian Entertainment, and Chris Roberts' Cloud Imperium Games. The crowd-funding site is also home to new hardware projects, including the Android-powered Ouya console and the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.

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