Phat Loop Studios, the corporate beneath hearth final week for abandoning its Kickstarter and crypto-funded MMORPG recreation Untamed Isles, is now denying accusations that they misplaced their backers’ funds investing in crypto.

The corporate got here beneath hearth final week after saying a “hiatus” of their Pokemon-like open-world online game, with among the group accusing the builders of spending recreation growth funds to guess on the crypto markets.

In an announcement on Wednesday, the builders behind the mission, which raised over $525,000 United States {dollars}, or $841,000 New Zealand {dollars}, on Kickstarter, insisted that each one funds raised “had been spent by the studio creating the sport.”

The corporate said that the explanation for the hiatus is because of “the corporate exhausting its accessible funds” after “a number of traders” pulled out lately “as a result of considerations about each the financial market together with the crypto market.”

According to the preliminary announcement concerning the hiatus, the mission had been gearing towards an October launch. owever, Grant said that the event of the mission had been placed on pause as the corporate was unable to “financially sustain with the calls for.”

Grant said that the primary purpose for this was because of the “financial panorama” altering for cryptocurrency, making it arduous to proceed pursuing the mission that employed “greater than 70 workers” to work “relentlessly for greater than two years” to construct the mission.

“The crypto market crash meant that traders that had been lined up earlier this yr pulled out” who was essential to “make it via to our runway to launch,” mentioned Grant.

The sport was initially designed to launch with nonfungible token (NFT) implementation, however the plans for this had been later dropped exterior of an optionally available exterior market.

A couple of yr in the past, I used to be approached by @UntamedIsles (a Pokemon impressed MMO-RPG) to assist oversee and design their fight system. I feel what we got here up with is REALLY fascinating and a recent tackle the style, and I am so excited for everybody to have the ability to play it.

— Wolfey (@WolfeyGlick) August 5, 2022

This angered many who questioned the legitimacy of utilizing the crypto market crashing as an excuse for the mission failing if it was primarily based on “recreation first, crypto second.”

It’s unclear how a lot the mission truly deliberate to combine cryptocurrency into the mission in any respect, nonetheless, Grant said that “till the crypto state of affairs is resolved — and we’re assured it is going to be at some stage ” then we’ve got to hibernate growth on this mission.”

the explanation i believed on this recreation was since you mentioned GAME FIRST, CRYPTO SECOND which meant it was unbiased of crypto. So why is crypto getting used as an excuse for not having any extra funding?

— zach yonzon (@blackmoonfable) August 19, 2022