Cult County Kickstarter Ends Without Success, Developer "Discussing Other Options"

Aww very much disappointed i was one of the backers and its sad too see such a good idea not making it

Not surprised.
Why'd it leave 3DS, and why can't they just make the 3DS version? It seemed like they didn't even need the crowdfunding when it was only the 3DS version...

Meh, didn't interest me too much. But I guess the combination of genre, lack of popularity and funding goal just didn't work out.
I suppose it would've been better to only fundraise the first episode, then use profits from that to further decrease the initial goal for episode two (or pack additional episodes as stretch goals while crowdfunding those that weren't reached later on).

What happens to the money that people donated if the company doesn't make anything?

@PinkSpider
yeah that's what i am asking myself too

@PinkSpider @6ch6ris6 If the project's funding goal (in this case, $580,000) isn't reached, nothing happens. No money gets taken from anybody. If you pledge, you're essentially paying for a product rather than donating to a cause, so if the product doesn't get funded, you don't lose out.

@PinkSpider: Nothing happens. They don't charge you any money if the project is unsuccesful.

@PinkSpider It's refunded to them.
Have they tried to contact Nintendo (or Sony) to ask if they could have funded the game as an exclusive?

I think their half a million dollar goal was pretty naive. Do most people even know who Renegade Kid is? Besides, the first person horror genre is so overdone by this point.

I think they were reaching just a tad too far. Hasn't their only alright game just been a pretty average platformer?

@whodatninja Nintendo should have been all over it as an exclusive for Wii U, if you ask me. It would also be a bargain, developing a game for $200,000-$300,000 (guessing it, as an excusive on one platform only).

I'm not sure what they thought before they started this. Their audience is on Nintendo platforms, they should stick with it.

@6ch6ris6 @PinkSpider refunds. If a Kickstarter succeeds they take your money if it does not say give it back.

Not surprised, not many people like backing a small indie developer with a request for half a million dollars... Maybe they should just contact Nintendo and see if they can have it be exclusive for the Wii U and 3DS.

They could easily make it like how MH3U works, play one version on the Wii U, move your data over to the 3DS version and continue play where you left off.

Or have two completely different versions to target different audiences, 3DS version could be more run and gun for the younger ones and the Wii U could be more horror intensified.

They have plenty of options at their disposal. But I think they were being bit naive asking for $580,000... that's just crazy.

Kickstarter is all about having your backers have trust,faith and confidence in you and your project, this campaign did little to inspire any of these qualities for a number of reasons:

1. Apparent betrayal of 3DS owners who were not included in console options. These were the main people hyped about the game and at the last minute were told they weren't getting it. Only when the campaign was sure to fail did RK consider a 3DS version. 3DS owners are arguably RKs biggest market and most loyal fans, upsetting them was a big no no.

2. RK has 2 relatively hyped games soon to be released on 3DS (Tresurenaughts & Moon Chronicles), asking for half a million for a new project when people are waiting to see if your two next games are going to deliver is a bad idea. Also some would argue that the revenue from these two releases should be used to fund Cult County fully or at least partly.

3. There are a number of high and low profile horror games coming to home consoles in the next two years and compared to them the pitch for Cult Country didn't sound all that great or different. Even the over hyped Daylight recently failed to deliver so i fear a future pitch needs to be alot better.

4. Episodic format, this has yet to be proven on consoles. Telltale games and are the only successful ones that come to mind and the format is more interactive visual novel which is a perfect fit. No one wants to wait 6months-1yr to get the next episode of a horror-action-suspense game.

That said this would have been a day one purchase for me but from the start of the Kickstarter announcement i saw this failing for the reasons above.

1492 (the number of backers) would be an amazing game name. Just saying.

Didn't interest me in the slightest
But these cases are always a shame

I'm not surprised! Renegade Kid alienated their fanbase in a Ubisoft type move. I have no sympathy.

It's a shame CC didn't meet its goal. To be fair though, that was a mighty goal to reach considering the game. Hopefully we still get this game on 3DS as originally planned and possibly port it over later to other platforms.

At least we still have Treasurenaunts and Moon Chronicles still in the pipeline.

"Now discussing other options" @RenegadeJools publish the Game only in NA

@Emblem Couldnt have said it better. It failed for pretty much the same reasons that Eternal Darkness spin off failed: The dev constantly going back and forth, spreading misleading informations, alienating the core fanbase, setting goals and aims way too high etc.
On crowdfunding sites, youre asking private persons to lend you money to do a game theyd like to buy. If you dont get the money you need, your next thing on the agenda should be thinking about what YOU did wrong. Less suport than needed is a sign, that you are urrently making a game that not many people would want to buy. The hype was the strongest, when it was still a 3DS exclusive, think about it...

Its disappointing but I think the asking price was to high. Maybe they should focus on 1 episode and see how the market reacts. From what I've seen it got me interested. I'm really looking forward to Moon Chronicles, I missed out on it on the DS.

not surprised the game didn't look that good very bland..

Agree that this looked very bland, like a budget PC FPS from 2006, no thanks.

Yeah, that's a point. The game didn't seem spooky so much as empty!

@andrea987 Yeah that could've worked!

@PinkSpider it all goes back to the doners if goal is not reached

@Einherjar @Einherjar I don't think that was the problem

$580,000 was way too high of a goal to begin with. Most successful Kickstarters that raise over $100,000 rely on at least a few super rich major donors.

Didn't look that cool

@Prof_Clayton 1492 - The Legend of Columbus and the New 3D World U

@faint Well, what do you think was the problem then ?

The reason why we didn't reach goal is when they said no 3ds it turned a lot of people away and when it came back no one wanted as much anymore for 3ds.

I back Cult County and looked forward to having it on my Wii U.

It's too bad that more pledges didn't show up when the 3DS was added to the platform list.

I'd back an ep 1 only release. I bet that'd get more interest in the rest of the eps and they could fund them. Maybe not all at once. Profits from ep 1 could help fund the second and so on, as well.

IMO would have been better off doing a 3DS only kickstarter. Come on is this the sort of game we really want to see on our home consoles.

I didn't back this game because I don't even know how well they can handle a FPS. They still haven't even released Moon Chronicles yet!

@Ryo_Hazuki-san @sub12 @the_truth Of course it looked bland, it was an alpha build. Jools even said that in the trailer. Alphas aren't meant to blow people away with hype; they're there to show proof-of-concept and to get the ball rolling on the engine. Now, whether people thought RK should've been further along in the development process remains to be seen, but since they're such a small company, they probably put the game on the backburner for MONTHS thanks to Treasurenauts and Moon.

Frankly, I think they announced the title way too early, especially considering how far Treasurenauts has come and the fact that they planned on releasing Moon Chronicles earlier than when they were allowed to continue work on it (when they got the rights back in the beginning of 2014).

@XFsWorld They made Dementium, Dementium II and Moon (which is the beginning of Moon Chronicles), all FPS's, all highly rated and all for the DS. If Youtube videos don't suffice, there's always Amazon and eBay (unless you don't have a DS/3DS).

@DiscoGentleman When the game was announced, I was glad it was coming to 3DS. When he asked everyone which console they wanted it on, I still told him 3DS. I get why they wanted to go multiplat (Unity does make that easy), but originally dissing 3DS owners was a big mistake. Even when they realized that, people still remembered and were still pissed.

I like RK and want to support them, but I think they're too ambitious for their own good sometimes.

Damn. There really isn't a market for survival horror anymore...

You could continue with the original plan and make this a 3DS game with that money.

3DS games are cheaper to make! What a happy coincidence.

@whodatninja first person anything is overdone at this point.

@Moorpheel "3DS games are cheaper to make! What a happy coincidence." Please explain.

@Emblem pretty much summed it up well. They never should have left out the 3DS owners to begin with--the audience that supports them the most and who were originally told this game was for.

@Einherjar only putting up the beta game footage halfway through the kick starter when many had already lost interest, to short of a timeframe for that much monney, and too little pr. Also even on the page I see scant info on what the game is actually about. I do think the 3ds should have been offered in the beginning instead of waiting till the last moment tho

I'm sure this game will still get made. It was foolish of them to Kickstart it and foolish of them to treat everybody as they did. Obviously they have no PR skills. Personally I didn't back it because it's not the type of game I like, but also because the goal was so high. If they intend to Kickstart again they need to pick one or two platforms to start with and then plan to port, but really I think they should just try to find themselves a publisher.

@WYLD-WOO a survival horror game on a home console? Yes it is the kind of game we want to see

It is to bad this didn't work out for them but they should go back to the 3DS version. It was weird that they announced tge 3DS game then cancelled it and then did a kickstarter without 3DS just to add 3DS to the kickstarter later...

@Emblem

Well said. Regarding Moon Chronicles and Tresaurenauts, not only it would have been wise to have those released to get more funds and to see how they played, but they would have increased people's awareness of RK.

Even if they made Dementium and Moon, they are not that fresh on people's minds. In my case, I know Mutant Mudds, but I don't know their FPS games.

Love all the people on here whining about how "RK betrayed their fanbase" just because they switched to consoles. Grow up. If you don't have a console, save a little money and get one instead of whining about how you don't.

@Kilroy making a game for the 3DS is cheaper than making one for a home console. It's smaller, not HD and RK already had a working engine they could use for this game (supposedly).

This Cult County game could still use a little more work. I mean it does look ok so far. Also asking for more than $500,000 seemed like a long stretch goal to try and achieve. Lets hope with Renegade Kids next two games coming soon to 3DS and with better planning maybe they can figure out a way to cut the stretch goal in half.

They could skip PS3 and rely on Playstation Now, but I assume at this point they've already crafted the engine for the game. Believe me, if it was just episode 1 & they asked for less on the Kickstarter goal I would've donated. Here's hoping it's resurrected as episode 1. Then I'd donate.

Either way I hope the 3ds is still in the cards!

3ds episode 1 and a demo, it will probably raise them their money and enough to make episode 2, if the prices are right. And so on. In the end they may have enough money to physically release the whole game, port it, and feed their families.

@Nintendojuenger Europe would have been sidelined either way. That's just the way Renegade Kid are. (I'm still angry about Mutant Mudds Deluxe.)

@Mok Yeah.

I for one am not a fan of the "chapter" thing. I want full games, period, which is the same reason I don't ever pay for downloadable content.

It's too bad they failed, since the game does look interesting even to someone who, like me, doesn't really dig first-person games. Hopefully they find a way to make it work, preferrably ditching the chapter model.

I think chapters are ok for certain games, like visual novels.

But a FPS? If it will be episodic, then each episode should last more than just 45 minutes.

@lividd3ad that has more to do with pegi than rk

Who was the 1492nd backer, Christopher Columbus?

Lower the budget by only making it for Wii U or 3DS. Less competition in this genre on those two systems so you'll have better sales as well.

Yeah for me asking for that much was just wayy to much, but I'm or was looking forward to it on my 3DS. Thats only the main crowd Nintendo

Aiming for half a million dollars for an indie game with little to no appeal, and showing a trailer that has graphics similar to the 3ds won't get much backers. Get some hype through Moon chronicles and Treasurenauts before aiming too high

Well... Moon Chronicles might get enough to help them with Cult County..

The big goal also deflated things too fast, this kind of kickstarter need to start strong, people who see a kickstarter growing and reaching relevant landmarks each day gets motivated and start to pledge, it seems to be easier to give money when they got the feeling they are in a winning team. That also explains why most kickstarters that reach the initial goal always keep getting money and reach around half of their stretch goals in average, success generates more success.

On the other hand, when they see that a kickstarter have reached less than 20% of an initial goal after the midway point, potential pledgers get dissapointed, they feel their pledge would mean squat in the big scene, and therefore, they give nothing, failure generating more failure then.

Don't make "episodes". That's stupid.

I like Renegade Kid they make very good games for their small team. I was looking forward to Cult County as I enjoy the Dementium games. I am not real comfortable pledging on kickstarter.

@Kilroy Yeah I heard of those games but I need to play a FPS from them myself.

They aren't even done Moon or the mutant mudd sequel! They should be pacing themselves and releasing games on the burner before pushing for the next IP. I'd like to see this game come out but I'm not helping it get made.

I was really looking forward to it on the vita actually.

Probably the gameplay and screenshots they showed didn't help.....