Last year Spicy Horse had a fair bit of bad news. In July they had to abandon the Kickstarter for American McGee's take on The Wizard of Oz, Ozombie, due to a lack of progress being made towards their funding goal. Now it's come to light in a recent Kickstarter update that Akaneiro, McGee's take on Red Riding Hood, put Spicy Horse $1.7 million in debt. As a result the team of 15 that were originally developing the game have been down sized to 2 members.
"In total, around 360 man-months have gone towards development, bringing our investment in dollars to nearly $2 million USD. In that same period, we've generated roughly $300,000 USD in revenue – this includes funds collected via the Kickstarter campaign, F2P purchases in-game, and one-time purchases via Steam. In simple math: We've spent $2 million, we've made $300,000, we're 'in the hole' $1.7 million."
As a result of the debt, Shanghai-based Spicy Horse have decided to try to make money back by focussing their remaining staff on the development of card collecting RTS, The Gate. If this shift in focus is successful and provides the studio with the cash flow that they need, then McGee says that Spicy Horse will eventually return to developing Akaneiro. The 2 people currently left developing Akaneiro are working on addressing bugs, adding multiplayer and tablet support. So development on the game hasn't come to a complete stand still, it's just been slowed down a great deal. The game is currently out as an Early Access title on Steam.
McGee concluded the Kickstarter update by saying:
"Life as an independent developer is filled with the constant threat of failure. This isn't the first time in our eight-year history we've faced this sort of challenge. It's not the first time we've had to reduce staff on one of our games. It is different because of the demand for transparency that comes with being a part of Kickstarter. In providing transparency like this, I am asking for your understanding and I am hoping for your support."
