It’s always sad to see a project not make funding on Kickstarter, but it’s even more depressing to see a creator have to make the tough decision to refund backers due to development taking too long or some other issue. In the case of Necromancer, a game that showed promise despite not being my type of game, the latter is the case. According to the update, development is taking way too long.
The Kickstarter for Necromancer ran a little over two years ago and has changed scope since then, but until now they continued to trudge on. However, despite having all the assets purchased the problem here is time. And it appears that it’ll still take a lot of it before anything concrete can be shown. As such, these refunds are a way to “apolog[ize] for any time wasted or disappointment caused on our part.” It’s unclear if the developers are scrapping the entire game or not as they didn’t really talk about it, but for now it’s safe to assume it’s going to be vaporware at this point.
All of that said, if there’s one thing that I can appreciate it’s transparency and the willingness to talk about problems with the development of a game. And the people behind Necromancer certainly have shown this integrity, which is more than I can say for a good number of successful but ultimately doomed projects. Going dark is not a way to garner respect, no matter how bleak things look. So, I applaud them for at least making an effort to make things right.
