Earlier this month, we covered a cutesy family-friendly multiplatform MMORPG called Puzkin: Magnetic Odyssey. The developers were touting it as a “real MMO” but with “guardrails” to make it safe for players of all ages, not to mention some clear Breath of the Wild graphical vibes and some physical toy tie-ins. Tokkun Studio opened up a $40K Kickstarter back on April 15th with all the bells and whistles, though it was clear the project is already pretty far along in development and is targeting an early access launch by the end of the year.
However, just nine days after the Kickstarter opened, the team canceled the campaign with only $13,511 raised, blaming an assortment of reasons: that it needs to build relationships and a community before crowdfunding, that the money asked for on Kickstarter wasn’t really enough anyway, and that its marketing partners didn’t promote the game as they were paid to do.
“We placed our trust in partners to handle marketing and promotion. Unfortunately, they let us down,” Tokkun says. “Despite significant investment, there was almost no traffic to our campaign. We now understand that we must take charge of our own communication and focus on growing our visibility organically, directly, and honestly — with you.”
This isn’t the first time even this month that an MMORPG on Kickstarter pointed fingers at its marketing agency for the Kickstarter’s failure; earlier in April, we reported on Anachronia, which canceled its Kickstarter a day before its unsuccessful end owing to undisclosed “concerns” with its marketing agency.
Puzkin, however, is still happening, and the game will eventually be back on Kickstarter.
“We are not stopping the development of Puzkin. Quite the opposite. This is our one and only game. It’s the soul of our studio, and we’ve built everything around finishing it. We will continue funding the project ourselves for now — and come back stronger, with a demo, a real community, and a clear message. When the time is right, we’ll return to Kickstarter with a much bigger impact.”
