A Year After a Successful Kickstarter Campaign Raising Nearly $340,000 for the Colorful JRPG Game Alzara: Radiant Echoes, Studio Camelia – the Development Team Behind the Project – Has Announced Its Closure, Leaving Thousands of Backers in Shock and Disappointment.
According to the latest update on Kickstarter, Studio Camelia announced that although the crowdfunding campaign was a tremendous success, they were unable to secure additional funding necessary to continue development.
Specifically, the studio informed that they had begun with all available personal savings and an initial budget supported by angel investors, banks, and several organizations focusing on the gaming sector.
However, despite having a portion of the budget allocated from these resources, Studio Camelia still required further funding from partners in the industry. In the current challenging gaming industry climate, with over 20,000 employees laid off and numerous small studios shuttering, it is becoming increasingly difficult for investors to engage. The scarcity of funding for a new project has turned into a distant dream, and Studio Camelia could not overcome these hurdles.
Nonetheless, the community’s support is not merely a failure but signifies how it unfolds. Studio Camelia will continue to accept community support until the end of February 2025, just a few months before the official launch slated for April 28, 2025.
With nearly triple the initial goal (over €300,000 compared to the €100,000 target), the fund would primarily be used to create a demo production version, which should introduce the game’s mechanics – but no agreements have been secured. This demo, unfortunately, cannot be publicly released.
The studio cited copyright issues and legal circumstances as reasons preventing them from sharing any game content. Everything that supporters received was merely a short video montage from the demo. Many backers on Kickstarter have expressed their disappointment, stating that the crowdfunding campaign was entirely opaque regarding the intended use of the funds.
In the project’s description, Studio Camelia confidently stated they had “drafted a detailed plan for every aspect of development, closely monitoring the budget and maintaining strict financial discipline,” leading many to believe that the game was in a stable development phase. However, the reality is quite the opposite – a demo version that is not fully realized and of lower quality than the promotional GIFs.
As of now, Alzara: Radiant Echoes has been indefinitely suspended. Studio Camelia expressed a “fragile hope” that if there were any third parties willing to take over the project, the game would proceed in a completely different direction than what was initially promised to the community. There also will not be a refund – as funds are simply no longer available for reimbursement.
