10 Crowdfunded Video Games That Never Saw The Light Of Day
They promised the world, but turned up empty-handed.
Crowdfunding
is a flawed but interesting concept; a tool that provides creators with a means
of pitching their products directly to potential consumers, without having to
rely on the financial backing of larger publishers. In theory, crowdfunding has
some genuine potential, essentially allowing developers to accommodate niche
audiences whilst simultaneously minimising the inherent risk that comes with
each unique project.
Unfortunately, crowdfunding is easily exploitable, the games themselves sometimes never actually completed, existing forever in development limbo, unofficially cancelled. In fact, several of the examples on this list – having exceeded their stretch-goals – were actually considered tremendously successful, yet were quietly abandoned regardless. Interestingly, some of these projects are still technically in development, but are unlikely to ever come to fruition, having ultimately failed to realise their incredible potential.
In some cases, the developers simply failed to raise the necessary funds; in others, incompetence, irresponsibility or general indifference forced these games into a premature oblivion, which is a crying shame considering how remarkably promising many of these games appear to be. Either way, they’ll never see the light of day, and there’s absolutely nothing we can do to change that.
With that said, here are 10 crowdfunding projects that never materialised, despite all the promises to the contrary…
10. The Stomping Land
Goal: $20,000 –
Raised: $114,060
The Stomping Land was released on Steam Early Access following a successful crowdfunding campaign, and managed to generate a considerable degree of buzz.
Essentially a multiplayer survival game about dinosaurs, the game was receiving a good amount of traction, and seemed to be coming together into something rather promising. That is, until the founder of the company, Alex Fundora seemingly disappeared, abandoning the project entirely.
According to several sources, Fundora started ignoring communications, refusing to pay employees and contractors for their work on the game, all in a desperate attempt to disown the project.
Since then, numerous backers have attempted to obtain refunds, but none have managed to achieve any degree of success. In reality, the company is dead, the project abandoned, and the creator physically unavailable, meaning any chance of a refund is increasingly unlikely.
Clearly, Alex Fundora wanted nothing to do with The Stomping Land, and was willing to tarnish his reputation just to escape the ailing venture. In the end, this was not only unprofessional, but downright dishonest, and while the game might be resuscitated in the future, it will never escape the infamy of its defeat.