It’s always upsetting to see a project struggling, even if it’s not one I backed. In the case of solo developer Fredrik Strøm it’s even more unfortunate as the poor guy has found himself unemployed for the second time in a year. For backers of his debut project Scraps – Story of a Dog this means a delay until they see the finished product as Fredrik has announced that the project is on hold for now.
There was nothing particularly notable or innovative about Scraps, a gentle 3D puzzle-adventure game starring a tiny yellow Labrador. However it was confident in what it wanted to be with realistic goals, and seemed ideal as a game for a younger audience and families. Much like its titular canine protagonist, the Scraps Kickstarter campaign was pretty small. 34 backers ensured the modest goal of $1,500 was just about met allowing Fredrik to buy a license for Unity Pro 5 and with the project funded on 1st January 2015 it was hoped the game would be ready by August 2016.
However barely a month after the campaign ended Frederik found himself unemployed and beset by a number of other small issues. Despite this development continued and he soon found himself a new job, with regular updates throughout the year to his backers. These updates showed substantial progress and things were looking very promising until more bad news struck.
In September 2015 Fredrik announced that he had lost his day job and Scraps, which was clearly a labour of love for him, would be delayed until things had stabilised. However Scraps – Story of a Dog definitely isn’t cancelled which is good news for both his 34 backers and everyone else, as although it had fairly humble beginnings it was beginning to shape up into something quite promising.
