Indie MMO challenge TitanReach has lurched from disaster to disaster since its preliminary Kickstarter launch again in 2020, and it now appears to have ended for good in confusion and failure, with a YouTuber close to the project alleging that the lead developer misappropriated investor funds to gamble on cryptocurrency and even buy a Tesla for his private use.
TitanReach was a “Runescape-like” MMO that in the end failed to satisfy its preliminary Kickstarter purpose of $430,000. Undeterred, the builders, Sq. Root Studios, adopted a “month-to-month” crowdfunding mannequin, and noticed continued curiosity from its group over the course of a number of Early Entry iterations. Finally, the $200,000 Sq. Root obtained in crowdfunding was not sufficient to maintain the challenge, and its lead developer, going by the username “Unravel,” introduced the top of improvement on the sport’s Discord in August of 2021.
The subsequent month, Unravel took again to Discord to announce that the game had been fully funded by an nameless angel investor, and that improvement would resume. KiraTV, an unbiased critic on YouTube who had beforehand coated TitanReach extensively and corresponded with its builders, claimed to have spoken to this investor in a video posted round this time.
Regardless of this shocking windfall, TitanReach ceased development again simply final week, with Unravel saying the depletion of their funds on Discord and diving into an extended digression concerning the NFT integration he hoped to incorporate with the sport. The shock closure coupled with the sudden reveal of blockchain plans, a controversial matter by itself, led to a backlash towards the builders, together with threats of doxxing. SquareRoot closed the TitanReach Discord, and the sport’s web site and social media accounts have all gone darkish.
Beforehand talked about YouTuber KiraTV has now released a video alleging that TitanReach’s angel investor pulled out after Unravel misappropriated funds for a failed $150,000 cryptocurrency funding and bought a Tesla for his personal private use, with screenshots of Discord conversations as major proof.
KiraTV additionally claims that TitanReach’s thriller investor is South African cryptocurrency entrepreneur Andre Cronje, and alleges that Unravel tried to bribe him into not investigating the explanation for Cronje pulling his funding. We have now reached out to Mr Cronje and can replace this text if we obtain a press release.
Within the meantime, Unravel has gone to floor and different former members of Sq. Root haven’t spoken out. It is a weird story of web fraud and lofty ambitions, weaving collectively a number of 2022 gaming throughlines: crowdfunding, cryptocurrency, and the more and more shut relationships between builders and their video games’ influencers. It definitely makes the case (as soon as once more) that we needs to be circumspect about crowdfunding a recreation from an unproven developer, particularly a challenge as formidable and costly as an MMO.
