A horde of NPCs to play against. That’s what disgruntled backers got from Kickstarter MMO Camelot Unchained after hitting out at the game’s developers.

Camelot Unchained started out as a Kickstarter seven years ago but has yet to be released or even get a release date, despite $2.2 million being raised to birth its development.

Backers were hoping for some news from City State Entertainment design boss Mark Jacobs when he showed up in a Livestream last week. Surely, there had to be something. A release date for a beta, new footage of in-game action, or simply an update on how far things had come. They got none of that.

Instead, Jacobs announced a new third-person game called Ragnarok Colossus, prompting outrage from backers, some of whom demanded refunds.

Jacobs got on another stream to apologize for the way he’d announced the new game and could not hold back the emotion. “It’s been a week!” he said in tears.

“Mea culpa. It is my fault,” he continued. “Over the last week there’s been a lot of concern, a lot of anger. Not a death threat or two, but a lot of nastiness directed my way. And you know what, I’m good with that.

“It was well-intentioned. But that doesn’t matter. It’s been a rough week.”

To make up for the disappointment, Jacobs briefed backers on the progress of the development and invited them to play the game’s newest build against 1,000 NPCs. 100 players joined in.

Below are some of the things discussed:

  • Ability System Update

  • Overmind

  • Improved Character Collisions

  • NPCs

  • Improved Scripted Items

  • Looting In-Game

  • Linux Server Running

  • Knockback

  • Ragdoll

  • 3D Pathfinding

  • Improved Skybox

  • Graphics

  • Patcher

  • Warbands

  • Chat Server

What he didn’t do was give any idea as to when Camelot Unchained might be released.

“I know it’s been a long time,” he lamented. “It absolutely has. But nobody else can do what we can do - not in this way.

“I know it’s been hard to hear us constantly talk about delays and building tech, but this is the result. This is something we’ve all wanted to play in if you like sieges.

“Maybe if I hadn’t done the dumb in the way the announcement went off I wouldn’t have shown you this yet. That’s probably true. I wanted to have something else to show you first. And that’s something else we are currently working on.”

Jacobs took on some questions toward the end of the stream and one viewer asked what the greatest challenge was.

“People giving me another chance,” he replied.

“I’ve always taken great pride in being straightforward - bad or good news. Mea culpa. Always my fault. And sometimes it can get pretty bad. For me, that’s the greatest challenge.”

Source: Quotes from Eurogamer