Summary

• DwarfCorp is being delayed due to graduate school commitments.
• New rewards are being created with the corrected dates. These are just there to explain the situation.
• You do not need to take any action at this time if you wish to continue backing the project.
• If you no longer want to back the project, feel free to cancel your pledge.
• We are looking for feedback on potential new stretch goals.

Reward Changes

• $1 – $7.99 No Change
• $8 – $19.99 You now get Alpha access in June 2014 instead of Beta access in August 2014. You still get updates for life.
• $20 and up – You now get Pre-Alpha access in October 2013 instead of September 2013. You still get updates for life.

Date Changes

• Pre-Alpha build is pushed from September 2013 to October 2013
• Alpha build is pushed from December 2013 to June 2014
• Beta build is pushed from August 2014 to an unspecified date.

Apology

We regret to inform you that DwarfCorp’s development is being delayed. In spite of being successfully funded, we see little hope of completing the game in the time promised. We are letting you know this now, rather than after the campaign has ended, so you have the option to cancel or adjust your pledges. No matter how talented or committed we are, the amount of work we can do is limited by the amount of time we have to work on the game.

When we began work on our Kickstarter campaign, we believed that we would be able to launch near the start of the summer 2013. Our plan was to spend the summer after graduating college working full-time on a video game, before moving on to other commitments. Kickstarter seemed an ideal choice for making this happen.

Unfortunately, due to numerous legal and administrative hang-ups, we were unable to launch the Kickstarter until late July. Since we had already put so much work into the funding campaign and our game, we wanted to launch anyway; just to see what would happen. We naively assumed we would still be able to work on the game at the same pace as we had been working on it during the summer.

After working tirelessly for months (I was working essentially 16 hour days on both my full-time job and the Kickstarter), the result was overwhelmingly positive support from backers, and a flood of donations which overshot our goal in just over a week.

 But here’s the bad news: 

Very soon, I will enter a PhD program where I will be expected to publish research papers, attend conferences, teach, and pass courses. I cannot be certain how much time I will have to work on the game. I originally thought I would be able to work on the game part-time, but after speaking to my advisor, I realize this will not be possible.

We talked extensively about what to do at this point. Though we would love to accept donations from our backers, produce rewards, and develop DwarfCorp in the time promised, we cannot say with any certainty that this is a possibility.

The last thing we want to do is accept funding from our backers and then fail to meet our obligations.

Additionally, we do not believe contracting outside help will be enough to finish our project in time.Twenty thousand dollars, while quite a lot of money for two amateur hobbyists, is not enough to hire the outside help we would need to complete this project on time. Artists and programmers can charge upwards of $25 per hour for contract work. For this reason, we are letting you know that our project will certainly be delayed. If we continue developing the game with the same scope in mind, and at the same level of funding, the release dates will likely be delayed by at least 9 months; and our reward structure will have to be modified.

Also, our stretch goals will need to be reworked. We will retain the stretch goal of $25,000 for a Mac and Linux port of the game, but later stretch goals which add new content will need to be carefully thought out before we are able to reveal them. We are looking for feedback on these.

We will continue funding the project, but will delay the Alpha until June 2014 (not December 2013), and the Beta to an unspecified date (rather than in August 2014). $8 and $10 tiers get Alpha access (rather than just Beta access) to compensate for this. $20 and above tiers will get access to a closed pre-alpha period starting in October (and not in September, or “immediately” as the current reward specifies) all backers $8 and up continue to get free updates to DwarfCorp for the life of the project.

We sincerely apologize for any confusion or disappointment we may have caused. Note that 84% of successful Kickstarter projects are delayed or cancelled. This mainly results from Kickstarter projects being started by creatives rather than business people. It is very easy to underestimate the challenges of completing a video game project, and overestimate the amount of time you have to develop it.

Sincerely,

Matt Klingensmith

Completely Fair Games Ltd.