Kickstarter Title Haunts Ceases Production, Backers May Demand Refund

Kickstarter is not all roses for the gaming industry. Rick Dakan, head of Mob Rules Games, has revealed on Kickstarter that both programmers for its Kickstarter-funded haunted house title named Haunts (trailer above) have left, putting the project into an eerie state of limbo:

[T]hings haven’t been going well for Haunts and Mob Rules Games. I am still determined to get the game out, but I no longer have any way of knowing when and how that will happen. The principal cause for our dire condition is that there are no longer any programmers working on the game.

…The game as it stands has all the systems in place, but there are a lot of bugs… Unfortunately, getting online play working took three times longer than estimated.

…But now it’s just me and Austin. Austin has finished up the art content for the initial release of the game, but he’s not a programmer. I’m not a programmer either.

Rick Dakan is currently asking another game company, particularly Blue Mammoth Games, for assistance in completing the title. Even in this best case scenario, however, it will still take several months for Haunts to see the light of day.

All of the roughly $28,000 raised from Kickstarter has already been spent, but he has stated that you only need to "email him directly through Kickstarter if you would like your pledge refunded".