We’d like to share the recent update to the Oni Onsen Kickstarter so there is less of a shock later. As of last week, all development (art, writing, programming, etc.) on Oni Onsen was halted in anticipation of the Kickstarter failing. We updated the Kickstarter today with the following:

I’m sorry that things are looking so grim with the Kickstarter.  I still have hope that we’ll see a surge in the last 48 hours, when our followers are reminded to back us, but at this point I’m doubtful that this will get us across the finish-line.

It’s hard to accept that this game might have to be canceled, but that is what I’m looking at right now if we can’t get funded.

This campaign started off on the wrong foot from the beginning, with our vendor declining to put up our store page until they received the entire game to review. 

We get hundreds of Wishlists during our campaigns, and this decision caused us to miss out on both that and the added promotion we would have gotten for the Kickstarter by being live on their store. It was a huge set-back.

Before now, I was asking for less than what is needed to make our games. I placed hitting the Kickstarter goal above getting what we actually needed, and I also hoped that we would manage to get enough extra funding beyond the goal.

Unfortunately, we never get enough extra funding beyond the goal to pay for the full development costs. So, for Oni Onsen I took a risk. I asked for what we actually needed.

I asked for we needed to pay the full-time artist a living wage for over a year, what we needed to pay for the programming costs, the backgrounds, the asset costs, the music building sets, and the sounds. 

I don’t include the cost of writing in the budget when I’m writing because I pay myself last. I can take a cut. I would never ask that of my workers.

I thought with 1,000 followers gained prior to launch that we would hit this goal. We’ve also hit a higher goal for a similar game in the past. For Oni Onsen we had an even better offer than that previous game with a harem route added.

Orc Covenant needs around $72,000 (not accounting for Kickstarter/Payment processor fees) to cover the development costs. We have already used up that lower amount that was made on that Kickstarter, and I am finishing the development with our operating income. 

I can’t manage to fund two games of this scope out-of-pocket. This is the reality of not just my company, but nearly all game companies. Unless you’ve just had a big release, there’s not enough money coming in to cover BOTH your operating costs, and large investments into new games. We rely on Kickstarter for development costs.

I learned from our failure with Hardcore Cruising that if a game doesn’t drum up enough support for the Kickstarter to be successful, it’s not going to be successful at all.

I made a promise to myself that I would never again do a second Kickstarter for a game if the first one failed. To me, it’s a strong sign that the game simply does not have enough interest and will not do well.  It’s also just kicking the can down the road.  I’d still run into the same financial troubles in the end if we didn’t make the full amount we’re asking.

No matter what happens, I want to thank all of you who backed the Kickstarter.  Thank you for showing up.  Thank you for supporting us when we needed you.  We made over $40,000 for this game, which is no small feat no matter how you look at it.  This is all thanks to YOU!

There’s still a chance things could turn around.  I’m going to run this one to the bitter end, come what may.  And I still hope we can make it somehow.  You can of course help by spreading the word.  Just retweet this tweet.