Haunts: The Manse Macabre Kickstarter project postponed due to financial issues, lack of programmers

By Stephany Nunneley

Haunts: The Manse Macabre, and Kickstarter project in the works at Mob Rules Games, has ceased work on the game after programmers quit, and funding was overspent.

According to an update on the game’s Kickstarter page, via BBC, the haunted house-themed horror game exceeded its $25,000 goal with $28,739 pledged from backers.

Studio founder Rick Dakan said the game was close to being finished, but will need extensive bug testing, and he’s having trouble finding new programmers who are familiar with Google’s Go programming language.

“The principal cause for our dire condition is that there are no longer any programmers working on the game, wrote Dakan. “Our lead programmer, Jonathan, was always going to move on to something else after a year or so. We had hoped that he would be able to work on the game in his spare time, but now that he’s going back at Google, he has told us that his spare time will be very minimal and not enough to make progress on the game.

“Our second programmer, Josh, has quit the project entirely to take another job. He does not want to work on the game in his spare time.

The game as it stands has all the systems in place, but there are a lot of bugs. Knowing Jonathan would be leaving, the plan had been to get online play working and release the Beta, with Josh working to make the levels run in online play and scripting the AI for the single player versions of those levels.

“Unfortunately, getting online play working took three times longer than estimated. It also required making adjustments to programming for all the levels, even when they’re not being played online. With no one left on the project who is capable of implementing those changes and debugging them during testing, the game is in a very patchwork state. In some cases, levels that once worked fine now have serious issues. Fixing those issues would require fixes both to the level programming and the core system programming, working in tandem.”

Dakan said he is not giving up on the project, and he is in talks with Blue Mammoth Games which has expressed interest in “taking on Haunts,” and has offered to refund any Kickstarter pledges out of pocket to those who request it,

“I will turn over my share of any future revenue from the game to whoever manages to get it finished, fun, and out to you,” he said. “We have spent all the money we raised, but I will personally refund out of my own pocket anyone who wants to withdraw their support, no questions asked.

“We’re going to make this game, and if you can hang on for what looks to be a long road ahead, we will get it finished, but that’s not what I asked you to sign up for and it’s not what you gave us money for. email me directly through Kickstarter if you would like your pledge refunded.”

For those unfamiliar with Haunts: The Manse Macabre, a video featuring various screencaps from the game is below. The turn-based, horror game where you can play as the haunts or the intruders, was slated for a PC, Mac, Linux and iPad release.

Via: Polygon.