Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen Kickstarter fails, new funding option announced

By Stephany Nunneley

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, in the works at Brad McQuaid’s Visionary Realms, has failed to meet its Kickstarter goal.

Launched in late January, a little over half of the project’s target of $800,000 was pledged – $460,657 to be exact.

However, the team plans to continue development of the title, and folks can still back the projectthrough the game’s official website.

Pledges made on Kickstarter will not be charged, and reward tiers have been copied over with a few new options added.

“The benefit of a live pledging system such as the one on the PantheonRotF.com site is that the funds received can immediately go into development, with no delay,” said the firm. “Your pledges or subscriptions will be directly responsible for the progress on the game.

Over on the official website, McQuaid noted he feels there were three main reasons the Kickstarter failed.

“People are leery about investing in three+ year projects and we should have broken the development process down into smaller chunks instead of simply talking about the full three-year development cycle,” he wrote.

“[Secondly] we approached Kickstarter as if we were revealing an MMO to the press and public much closer to the game’s release date. We didn’t launch the Kickstarter with enough game info, with the intent of revealing a lot of details over time as well as using feedback from the community to help us come up with some of the features and mechanics as well.

“While this is the way you build excitement up with the public and press towards the end of an MMO’s development cycle (something we’ve all done with the MMOs we’ve worked on to completion in the past), it is not how you conduct a crowdfunding campaign. Potential funders want to know as much about the game as possible up front and right away.

“Finally, people who pledge also want, and rightfully so, very attractive, well thought out, and meaningful rewards for their pledges.”

McQuaid said the team didn’t research Kickstarter enough, as the team’s efforts and focus since September “were on building Pantheon, not getting ready for a Kickstarter campaign.”

You can read his entire post through here. It’s rather long and detailed, but if you were a backer or are a potential one, you really should give it a read.