After the success of Fig's first project, Outer Wilds, it seemed there was a huge appetite for the crowdfunding platform's unique take on the model. In addition to conventional crowdfunding ala Kickstarter, Fig also accepts investment pledgers who stand to make a profit if the finished game is a success. The model has hit its first snag however, because its second project, the free-to-play RPG Anchors in the Drift, has failed to meet its target by quite a wide margin.
The crowdfunding campaign finished up at the weekend, achieving only $107,223 of its $500,000 goal. That's not too surprising: the game was a hard pitch to begin with and studio 5th Cell hasn't heavily promoted the campaign during its month-long run, with only four dev updates during that period.
Still, the studio writes in its wrap-up blogpost that development will not cease on Anchors in the Drift. "We want to extend our sincere thanks to the team at Fig, as well as everyone that supported us by backing and by sharing the campaign with friends," a studio spokesperson wrote.
"Despite not hitting the funding goal, the team remains hard at work readying the game for release. We look forward to inviting everyone into the Anchors Universe next Summer!"
Speaking to Polygon, Fig CEO and former Double Fine COO Justin Bailey said the result represents the game's demand among fans. "Crowdfunding exists so that creators can take more creative risk than a traditional publisher would let them and get a signal directly from their fan. Sometimes the signal is that fans have always wanted this, sometimes for a variety of reasons it does not resonate.
"This is going to be the outcome sometimes, and that's ok. The market, which is made up of fans, ultimately decides successes and failures. What's not ok with fans is the idea of setting a fundraising goal that you hit, only to find out it's some massive subset of the budget you knew you needed to deliver the game."
