Hero's Song Is Shutting Down
It must have been a grim Christmas over at Pixelmage Games. This morning their CEO, John Smedley, tweeted that development on the early access title had ceased:
It breaks my heart to have to do this đ https://t.co/pTWymRiYn3
â John Smedley (@j_smedley) December 26, 2016
The Hero's Song saga began early this year when the game appeared on Kickstarter on January 19, 2016 with a funding goal of $800,000. The Kickstarter page was removed when it became clear it had little chance of reaching its goal. The studio was able to find private funding due in no small part to John Smedley's previous experience in the MMORPG space through his role as President of Sony Online Entertainment (now Daybreak Game Company.) An IndieGoGo campaign raised $94,156 to help supplement the private funding.
Hero's Song promised to be a throw back to a more hardcore era of MMORPGs. The game boasted nostalgic pixel art, an isometric camera view, and perma death.
A Steam Early Access release launched on November 7, 2016 but everyone who purchased the game is entitled to a full refund as stated on the official notice posted on the Pixelmage Games website:
Hello Hero's Song Players,
It's with a heavy heart that I have to report that Pixelmage Games is going to be shutting down and we have ceased development on Hero's Song. For the last year, our team has worked tirelessly to make the game we've dreamed about making, and with your support, and the support of our investors, we were able to get the game into Early Access. Unfortunately sales fell short of what we needed to continue development. We knew going in that most startups don't make it, and as an indie game studio we hoped we would be the exception to that rule, but as it turned out we weren't.
We sincerely value our customers. Youâre our most important focus and have been from day one. Weâre going to offer 100% refunds to all of the people who bought Heroâs Song.
For our Indiegogo customers, please email refunds@pixelmagegames.com with your name and information about which one of the packages you bought so we can make sure you get your money back. Our team will respond to confirm we received your email and we'll make sure you get your refund quickly.
For players that purchased via Steam you will be able to claim your refund through the normal Steam refund process. Go to https://help.steampowered.com and you can get your refund right away.
Thank you for all the support you showed us. We're sorry things worked out the way they did, but we feel strongly that we gave it our all and we're proud of how far we came with the game. The fact that we weren't able to finish the game is painful, but the journey of making Hero's Song has been a great experience for us and weâre just sorry we couldnât take it all the way.
Thank You,
The Hero's Song team
This news certainly caught us off guard. With the recent popularity of rogue-likes and 2D pixel style graphics, it seemed Hero's Song could find its niche. For those of you in the dark about the game, check out the trailer below for what could have been:
