Do you remember Mercenary Kings? The Metal Slug inspired platform shooter was successfully funded in September 2012 after 3,880 backers donated over $116k. When it was eventually released in 2014 the game met with mostly positive reviews, with much of the praise piled on the cartoon-like pixel graphics and over the top destruction. Another happy ending!
Eh, almost.
Mercenary Kings’ developers at Tribute Games posted a backer update yesterday to announce the release of a new game. Curses N Chaos is a single screen brawler – think Super Smash Bros – with cartoon-like pixel graphics and over the top destruction that’s now available on a variety of platforms. It looks lovely.
Unfortunately the Kickstarter update reads like a press release announcing the games’ availability on Steam; which is where the problem comes in. Because the update is nothing more than a press release encouraging people to buy a non-crowdfunded game the whole thing comes across as a little tacky. Should backers get a free copy of the game, or even a discount? That’d be nice, but it’s totally unnecessary. However, backer Daniel sums up the issue nicely :
Sassy, sure, but he has a point. Just because you back a project doesn’t mean you should suddenly find yourself on a developer mailing list, especially if the updates are of negligible relevance to the audience. It’s easy enough to unsubscribe from a projects updates (Settings>Notifications>Projects You Back>Manage), but that’s beside the point. I enjoy following projects long after they’ve run their course, just in case something concerning the game is announced. Or, in the case of Mercenary Kings, to keep tabs on a broken campaign promise; as noted by Brian Watzig:
Ouch.