Leaked assets partly responsible for Swery's crowdfunding failure

Murder-mystery RPG The Good Life failed to reach its crowdfunding target thanks in part to asset leaks, according to creator Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro.

Swery developed a cult following with the development of Deadly Premonition, but was unable to ignite the fan support he needed for his latest endeavour.

In a post on Twitter, Swery addressed what went wrong and what's next. "The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that the game's title and concept design art were leaked two weeks prior to the campaign announcement," he said. "Due to the leak, a lot of people ended up thinking that The Good Life was going to be a compact game with 2D graphics.

"After spending a lot of time trying to hide the info that was leaked, we failed to provide you all with accurate data about the game in the early stages of the campaign, and so people became very unclear as to just what kind of game The Good Life Really is."

The campaign ran on the burgeoning platform Fig, on which a number of other cult developers have successfully raised millions, Double Fine and Obsidian Entertainment among them.

The Good Life fell short of its $1.5 million target, raising only $682,864 in 40 days. Swery cites a few reasons for the failure of his first crowdfunding endeavour, such as mismanaged PR around the campaign and a confusing trailer.

The campaign was a learning experience, said Swery, and plans are already in motion for another run at crowdfunding.

"What we plan to do is to relaunch the campaign as a Kickstarter, and launch before the end of the year," he said. "We will use all of the information we have learned on this campaign, and make the Kickstarter one that we believe we can succeed."

The new campaign will have a lower goal thanks to some unnamed partners pitching in. This is a positive move given how video games are declining on Kickstarter and that crowdfunding is considered by some to be "the single hardest way to raise money."