Programmers walk away from Kickstarter video game project; leave backers without a game
Someone got spooked
Mob Rules Games's Haunts: The Danse Macabre is a turn-based horror game for iPad, PC, and Mac in which players control either the haunted house explorers or the evil creatures within.
A nice idea, right?
Unfortunately, with the game still very much a work in progress, the Mob Rules Games programmers have walked away from this Kickstarter project, leaving the title's creator, Rick Dakan, and backers in a bit of a pickle.
Yesterday, Dakan announced the bad news about his colleagues' departure to the title's backers and claimed that "the game has all the systems in place, but there are a lot of bugs".
To rewind... The Kickstarter campaign for Haunts: The Danse Macabre actually got underway back in June. Happily for all involved, the project successfully reached its funding goal of $25,000.
In fact, backers ended up donating $28,739 towards the project, and so everything seemed to be in place for the proposed Halloween release date.
But. (There's always a 'but'.)
The two Mob Rules Games programmers have quit the indie studio to take on other jobs, meaning all those who parted with their money might end up having nothing to show for it.
Don't worry, though: full refunds have been offered to each and every contributor. Even the guy who pledged $7,000. Ouch.
It all seemed a bit desperate, really, leaving Dakan to appeal to coders across the web to help finish his labour of love.
Fortunately, the most recent response has been positive, from fans and coders alike.
In Dakan's latest update on the Haunts: The Danse Macabre Kickstarter page, he stated he was "encouraged" by the number of people willing to help finish the game.
He seems hopeful that the game will come out eventually... some way, somehow. He even suggested opening up the game's code for the whole community to get stuck into.
So, here endeth the lesson - beware the pitfalls of Kickstarter.
