Cryptocurrency and Kickstarter are perhaps two things that shouldn’t go together, given the known volatility of the crypto market and the fact that Kickstarter funds come from optimistic backers who expect pledges to be kept. An example of what can go wrong when the two are mixed is Untamed Islandsan online monster hunting RPG developed by Phat Loot Studios that started on the crowdfunding site.
Untamed Islands is one of the video game success stories of Kickstarter. An independent development and publishing studio founded in 2020 is raising over $580,000 USD through crowdfunding in 2021, and expectations are high that the company’s play-to-earn vision will come true. The studio grew to over 70 people and the game was to be launched on October 6. Then Phat Loot released a statement on August 12 titled “Untamed Islands Going on hiatus.” However, there is no indication of how long this hiatus might last.
What this means for the game’s Kickstarter backers is that essentially all their money is gone and they won’t get a refund. According to Phat Loot CEO Joshua Grant, who answered questions during a livestream after the hiatus announcement was released, the company doesn’t have enough to keep the lights on, let alone return money to backers. The problem can ultimately be attributed to the ongoing crypto market crash that began this year.
While $580,000 sounds like a lot of money, and might have been if the studio had been small, employing over 70 people meant that the total salary was approx. $100,000 a week. So the Kickstarter funding disappeared very quickly and the rest came from crypto investors. According to Phat Loot’s online statement, the company “leaned into the crypto market and expanded rapidly.” So when the crash came, the financial situation got so bad that the CEO and his business partner started using personal money to stay afloat and stopped taking a salary.
For now, Grant seems optimistic that the development of Untamed Islands will resume when the “crypto situation is resolved.” Given the uncertainty of the crypto market, that may realistically mean never. Despite the controversy surrounding cryptocurrency and NFTs in play, the situation is unfortunate. The Untamed Islands the team has been trimmed down from 70 to a small skeleton crew. The game, which looked like it was in the hands of a talented group of developers, is now in limbo. And of course there are over 3000 backers who invested money in a dead end project.
Untamed Islands was one Pokemon-esque MMORPG where players were monster hunters on a mission to tame a variety of creatures. The indie game promised open-world islands to explore, fishing, bug catching and other occupations to round out the experience, and there would also have been turn-based battles, dungeons and proximity voice chat.
Untamed Islands is currently no longer in development.
Sources: Untamed Isles, Twitch, Eurogamer
