This information was delivered as an update for the projects backers earlier today …

Hand of Panda started as a project between two friends back in 2010 with the intention of providing a fun action game for various platforms that we were currently developing on such as the Xbox 360, Wii and 3DS.  Over the course of four years, two Kickstarter attempts and the pot of a few thousand dollars, we’ve come a long way: Fabulous character art, music, gameplay designs, scores of drawings, digital artwork, models and countless internal videos showcasing the possibilities of what we set out to achieve and incredible support from our fans and backers.

Originally we weren’t going to use Kickstarter, primarily because if you ARE successful, you are immediately tied to the obligation of being successful at any cost and to fulfill promises made at the beginning stages of the project without ever knowing if it’s even possible.  Unless one has been down this road before, there’s no sure way of telling how things will work out and the weight of those waiting to receive their rewards can be almost crushing.  No wonder so many games on Kickstarter fail to reach completion as money and a great idea doesn’t guarantee much of anything except the willingness and desire to reach for a common goal.  Will we fall into that category as well?

But for us what ultimately needed to happen was to have a working prototype that could be created by the development team (US) and then have a registered team act as a publisher and link between us and Nintendo so our game could be sold on the 3DS and eventually the Wii U.  As of December 2013, our two previous publishers that originally were on board failed to come through, mostly because small budget products come last when larger paying projects come up.  It’s a larger return for those companies, and they’ll see a much larger return for their investment in those products. Unfortunately that officially places our low budget title on the back burner and on hold effectively forcing us to wait until these larger projects get completed.

After going back and forth for the past 4 months with no forward gain, realizing that neither money nor negotiations are getting us anywhere, and with our almost a year gone by since the success of our second Kickstarter, we are making an official notice to put the game on hold.  Without a publisher to partner with, there is no ability to release the game as purchasing a development kit and going about this ourselves is an expensive endeavor and way past our extremely limited budget.

So there are a few questions to be answered:

Is Hand of Panda dead? No, but without the necessary knowledge and people to help with publishing, we’ll have to focus on a platform be can both program and publish for ourselves.  And with a two man team, it’s a steep hill to climb.  That can take both time and manpower and I admit that I’m losing motivation and strength to go about this endeavor alone.

I helped fund this game. Will I still get anything I put my money into if the project dies? Honestly if we can finish this game, we still have everyone’s information and will do the best we can to still fulfill any remaining backer rewards we can.  Names will still be in the credits of anything we finish, music will be given to those who helped and the final product will be given to everyone regardless of the platform it ends up on.  It’s the least we can do to give back what we can to those who helped us get this far. Tee Shirts have been given out and hopefully music and any artwork can be sent out as well once that becomes available.  We do apologize if we cannot ultimately finished what we set out to do.  It’s always the risk with low budget titles.  Our hearts are in the right place, but our largest downfall has been lack of knowledge simply based on heading down new territory.

Is there any any money left for returns? Sadly, there isn’t anything remaining for returns at the moment. For those interested in our budget it goes as follows:

Total funding amount received after deducted Kickstarter fees & returns: $2318.818 NOT $3,000+ like we were hoping.

  • – $465.00 (Money initially refunded to backers)
  • – $500.00 (Paid for Animation)
  • – $386.00 (Tee Shirt backer rewards)
  • – $70.00 (Shipping expensive)
  • – $150 (Paid for models)
  • – $350 (Copyright)
  • – $175 (Music)
  • – $120 (Extra art assets)
  • – $125 (Registration Fees)
  • – $500 (Programming)

What happens now? We aren’t really sure. Due to the low budget of this game, we’re contemplating shelving it until we can find a better way to go about finishing everything, otherwise we are completely open to hearing your ideas, concerns, support, or desires to ultimately kill or fight for this game.  Nobody likes waiting for something they’ve paid for, and we completely understand that.

So unless anyone has any other questions, this will be the last update posted for awhile until we either come up with a better course of action.  Until then, Hand of Panda will be ON HOLD for the 3DS and Wii U until further notice.  If you want to respond to me directly, you can email me at Ross_Omland@hotmail.com or of course post in the comment section.

We deeply apologize for the problems we’ve not been able to overcome that have brought us to this point of possibly ending this project.

Hand of Panda 3DS

Unfortunately “lack of knowledge” has resulted in too many Kickstarters failing, despite being successfully funded.  Are you now out of money on this project ?  Are you growing more and more frustrated seeing Kickstarters not deliver?  Should there be more accountability for situations like this?  We invite you to express your feelings by sharing a comment below.