It’s always sad to see a successfully crowdfunded project fail, but it’s especially heartbreaking for one that you cared deeply for. In this case, Ken Allen has just announced in the latest update for his musical composition Under the Half Dome will be shelved for the time being. The reasons for it are varied, mentioned briefly below, but for the most part know that he hasn’t completely given up on the project but he still feels that after three years and only a third or thereabouts having been scored that he should compensate existing backers for their time and money.
Under the Half Dome was basically a love letter to Sierra On-Line fans, Ken being one of the composers for their games back during their height. Lots of fans flocked to his side and helped make this album a reality. In fact, many still have enough faith in him and this project that they’re willing to forgo his offer of refunds. As a sign of goodwill and because he’s just awesome like that, starting in February he’ll be starting to refund all backers via PayPal. I myself have given a good chunk of change to the project and I find it hard myself to see my money returned back to me.
As I mentioned above, the reasons for Under the Half Dome being shelved are varied. “There are many factors behind this decision, including tending to family elder-care, my commitment to designing sound and composing for the SpaceVenture game, and other personal matters that demand my attention.” That said, even though life has made him put the album on the backburner he’s still not done with trying to get the music out there. Ken still plans on releasing songs here and there when he has time. And that is enough for me. If he returns to Kickstarter know that I’ll be behind him 100% again.
I have to say that this is definitely unfortunate, but at very close to three years over the estimated completion date, and hardly any updates or communication during that time it is hardly unexpected either.
I loved the MIDI music and the games of that era, thus this would have been an amazing project to see actually completed.
While I do understand that things do tend to come up and delays certainly happen (indeed, much more often then not with Kickstarters), just looking at the large time-frame so far it would seem that this is a rather low-priority project for Ken Allen, who seems to have multiple competing demands for his time and energy.
Offering refunds on a project with no real completion date is probably the fairest thing to do at this point.