It’s always sad to see a crowdfunded project not make funding. It’s even more disheartening to have to get the news that a project cannot continue on. For one reason or another, usually related to time or money, the development for said game just has to stop. Permanently. Unfortunately, this appears to be the case with the roguelike platformer Another Castle. In the latest update Uncade had to announce that they will no longer be working on the game.
We’ve covered games that have gone MIA without a word and just leave their backers in the dark and wondering what’s going on. So, it’s refreshing to see Another Castle come clean and give its audience the reasoning behind it. Like most small and one-person teams it can take a lot of work to get a game out. It’s even more stressful when you have to juggle development with a full-time job. It’s even worse when you’ve lost the passion.
The reality is that the scope of what I wanted to make was too large, and for a lot of reasons I no longer believe in the game. At this point I need to work on something that I have a realistic chance to finish and can make awesome.
Since Another Castle will no longer be worked on they’ve offered full refunds to anyone that requests one. Which is very rare to see and the fact that this is being done at all shows the integrity of Uncade. And going by the comments in the update it looks like a fair number of backers don’t care about getting their money back because of this transparency and honesty.
As a way of making it up to backers of Another Castle, if any small side projects ever see the light of day everyone who pledged (whether they ask for a refund or not) will get copies for free. Now this is how you treat your fan base.
Definitely a rough situation for everyone involved, but it’s refreshing to see a developer handle it this way. The only thing he could have done better would have been to keep backers more up to date. The last update prior to this one was February 2014. Eeeeek!