After the SimCity always online craze, almost instantly a SimCity clone, Civitas, was announced that will be offline and DRM free. They began funding the game via Kickstarter and it was on pace to hit 100% funding up until yesterday. That’s when project lead Brandon Smith announced that the Kickstarter has been cancelled because Civitas is now 100% funded by a private backer.
Announced via the Kickstarter page they announced, “We just wanted to let everyone know that our studio has been able to secure private funding that will carry us through the development cycle of Civitas. Our teams talent and experience, combined with the support of you guys here on kickstarter made this funding possible. Even though we are on track to fund 100%, we feel like this will be a better option for our studio at this time. We didn’t reach this decision lightly, but after a few days of debate between the members of our team, we finally agreed that this would be our best option. This funding will in no way effect the final outcome of our game, except that it will allow us to focus our efforts completely on developing Civitas, better reach out to the community, and grow our team without having to manage the kickstarter and do everything else at the same time. The best part is we will be able to do this without having to use your money to get there.”
He continues to explain that Civitas will not be changed because of the private backing, “Our private funding did not cause us to lose any creative control over Civitas, or our studio in general. Civitas will still be released DRM free on all of the platforms we currently plan to support.”
They promise a Civitas forum and Civitas beta area on their website in the near future.
Check out the Kickstarter post below and check out all the whiners in the comments section.