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!

mercenarykings2

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.

cursesnchaos1

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 :

mecenarykingsbackersdanielSassy, 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:mecenarykingsbackersbrian

Ouch.

About the Author

Greg Micek

Greg Micek has been writing on and off about games since the late nineties, always with a focus on indie games. He started DIYGames.com in 2000, which was one of the earliest gaming sites to focus exclusively on indie games.

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