A developer has gone silent a year after raising $114,000 for his game, The Stomping Land, which remains terribly unfinished at this point in time—and perhaps forever. The game initially asked for $20,000 but got a lot more funding than its developer had anticipated.
The game is now in a critical state as its lead developer, Alex Fundora, is not responding to backer emails, or even the emails of his colleagues—one of whom has already left.
The game remained in development for a year until it was released as an unfinished, buggy beta on Steam Early Access. Fundora assured customers that the game’s development remained in “full force”. This would mark the final update for the project.
The game’s lead artist Vlad Konstantino left the company after it was revealed (by him) that he wasn’t paid for his work.
In-game model designer, Vlad Konstantino, wrote on The Stomping Land forums: "More than a month has passed since the day when I received the last reply from Fundora. I've sent him five messages and haven't got any single reply."
"If this silence continues I will stop my participation in TSL and start taking the necessary measures to cover my expenses,” wrote Konstantino.
Gamespot reports that one $90 backer tried to get a refund from Kickstarter but was only offered an apology. It is unclear whether Kickstarter will be able to do anything at this point.