Last week, we posted details on American McGee's (Alice) upcoming game Akaneiro: Demon Hunters; and how it needed extra funding from Kickstarter to get it finished.
Well, it turns out, the game is already "100% finished" claims American McGee, and what's more, they're not "out of money" as the Kickstarter page states.
In a chat with Kotaku, McGee states, "The game is 100% finished..The company is not out of money. The project was completed on time, on budget and will be shipped this month (Jan 2013.) It has been in Closed Beta with 25k people having run through it since late last year."
So, why did the Kickstarter page for Akaneiro originally state that Spicy Horse has run out of money, then? Yep, I said "originally" since that "out of money" line has now been pulled.
Here's McGee's explanation for the confusion:
When the Akaneiro team says they are 'out of money/time' it just means they came to the natural end of their development cycle on that project…The KS campaign would allow them to extend that – something we'd ask a publisher to consider were we funded that way. We're not, so we ask the audience instead.
If the game is "100% finished" and Spicy Horse still has money, why go on Kickstarter at all and why claim that "some key features" are missing? Here's McGee's statement regarding the matter.
What's been achieved both artistically and mechanically is fantastic… but it's just not enough to call the game complete, to satisfy our fans or ourselves…As we are not publisher funded, and because we can't afford to continue development indefinitely, we're asking the audience – we're giving them a chance to decide whether or not these additional features sound worthwhile. Whatever the response, the game will launch this month (January 2013) in a state that is "final" per our existing internal schedule and budge. Support for the title will continue going forward, but will be focused on the existing product – with not a lot of time or resources available for adding new platforms or major features.
To cut a long story short, Akaneiro: Demon Hunters will launch this month regardless whether its Kickstarter goal has been met or not. But moving forward, it's up to the crowd-funding group to decide if they deem the added features worthy or not of Akaneiro's $200,000 goal. If you know you'll be playing the F2P game a ton, I don't think throwing a few dollars their way isn't all that bad.
Anyone here who contributed to the game already? Is it a sigh of relief that it will still launch even if it doesn't meet its Kickstarter goal or it shouldn't be on Kickstarter in the first place?
