Former Diablo and Diablo 2 devs have been left panicked after a crush of fake Kickstarter pledges came for their eerie fantasy ARPG Darkhaven.
In a dev update on the crowdfunding website (h/t Phrasemaker), Diablo 2 artist and CEO of studio Moon Beast Productions Phil Shenk informs supporters, “We’ve verified that at least $65k in pledges were almost certainly insincere and won’t be collected. We’ve been in touch with Kickstarter, and they’ve given us the option to either keep the funds raised or cancel this campaign and refund all pledges.”
Moon Beast doesn’t know what to do. “If we choose the latter,” Shenk continues, “we plan to relaunch a new, better-optimized campaign in a few months.” But “we are taking a few more days to consider the best course of action.”
Shenk insists, “Our main goal is to provide the best value and the best experience for you, our dedicated community.” To his point, and Moon Beast’s credit, it doesn’t seem like those nonexistent $65,000 have put Darkhaven in any serious jeopardy as a project. Shenk reiterates, “As we’ve said before, the team is committed to continuing to work on Darkhaven and putting it into your hands! We will update you as soon as we have more news.”
But backers seem just as lost as Moon Beast devs. Some advise the studio to hand back their cash, while the majority want to see their donations kept and put to their intended use: a freaky action game from Diablo devs.
“Keep on moving,” one Kickstarter comment summarizes.
“Made by many of the original creators of Diablo and Diablo 2” are big words for an action RPG, but the Steam Next Fest demo for Darkhaven feels like sampling bread by eating raw flour.
