Drone-Mapped Action-RPG ReRoll Is Cancelled
He's Dead, Jim
ReRoll, an ambitious post-apocalyptic RPG that aimed to use camera drones to digitally recreate Earth, is cancelled. According to an email sent to backers, "the development on ReRoll is over." Pixyul, the developers, have offered backers a Steam key for their other game, BIOS, as compensation.
Announced back in 2014, ReRoll was an action-RPG that hoped to use camera drones together with topographic and municipal data to one day create a full-scale virtual replica of Earth that players could explore. They were starting with just Montreal, though. Pixyul was founded by Julien Cuny and Louis-Pierre Pharand, formerly of Ubisoft Montreal.
The email, posted by a backer on Reddit, states that, despite a crowdfunding campaign through ReRoll's website and their own personal investments, the developers were unable to secure all the funding they needed to make ReRoll a reality. They began pitching the game to publishers and investors, but it seems no one was willing to bite. "Unfortunately, for many of them, we realized that we were either too expensive for some and not enough ambitious for others," they say. The developers had one last chance, but were once again turned away. "After being so close on multiple occasions, today, we have to face the fact that this rejection was our last hope to secure the necessary funding to pursue the development and complete the game."
"This is why we are officially announcing that the development of ReRoll is over. We want all of you to know that we gave our best shot and like you, we are extremely disappointed that ReRoll will not become a reality. It sucks. All of this sucks. We know many of you will be disappointed and even pissed. We understand that. We should have been better at communicating our progress."
Very little of ReRoll was ever seen beyond concept art and trailers, which might sound suspicious but Pixyul affirms that this was because of non-disclosure agreements preventing them from sharing more progress on the game. "Not to give excuses," Pixyul said, "but we were caught in the process with potential partners that wished we stayed silent on our progress."
Most of Pixyul's online presence has already disappeared. The website has shuttered along with social media accounts, and the online store, which was recently still up, is now closed too.
Unable to refund any of the backers for the crowdfunding campaign, which had tiers upwards of $300 dollars, Pixyul are giving away Steam keys for BIOS, their other game that currently sells for $14.99 in Early Access on Steam. Of course, that's little consolation to the backers, and Pixyul says "we know that gifting you copies of BIOS (our other game) is not what you initially wanted, but it's the best we can do."
While sad, it's another good reminder to always be extra careful when considering donating to crowdfunding campaigns.