On December 16th the Kickstarter for Glorious Leader! launched. Developed by Moneyhorse Games, this is a title which had actually been in the limelight much earlier in 2014 – although they failed to pursue funding at that time. Instead, their campaign went live after events such as the Sony Pictures hack. The timing didn’t feel quite right – especially when the developers themselves poked fun at this massive hacking incident on their funding page.
About two weeks ago (according to the developer) Moneyhorse Games were hacked. This time frame is corroborated by the fact that their own website featured only a single post on December 23rd – an image proclaiming they were hacked. The image also went on to say that these hackers had the information of all Kickstarter backers, the data for Glorious Leader!, and developer’s personal information. Such a situation would be terrifying to any developer, let alone a small indie studio.
Moneyhorse Games briefly addressed the hack one day later saying backer information was not compromised, though they did lose control of their work computers. Then that was about it until the 7th. Two updates went live at this point (one for backers and one for everyone) stating that Glorious Leader! was canceled due to loss of game data due to hack, recognition that the Kickstarter was not structured properly, lack of attention, and the constant presence of threats over their game. With such a multifaceted issue it is hard to say if Moneyhorse Games will continue to pursue their game in the future or more onto something else. We’ll let you know if and when they launch a new Kickstarter campaign.
Hooray for censorship!