One of the old legendary Kickstarter campaigns was Project Phoenix, a collaborative effort of veteran Japanese and Western games developers dipping their toe into the crowdfunding scene. Since their funding in 2013, they’ve been up in the air as to their fate. Recently, they’ve updated their Kickstarter to let backers know the current state of the project. Including the revelation that the project will still need a further 3 years to be fully ready for release.
The problem, according to the update, was that the one programmer working on the project has other commitments and due to that, could not give their full undivided attention to the project. They’re expecting the arrival of a new programmer who can work on the project full time. Due to that, it is anticipated that the next 2.5 years will be enough for the game to be completed. With a further 6 months used for testing. This meant the games release is anticipated for early 2018.
Further news through liaison with Kotaku, Hiroaki Yura, the project manager had gone into specifics about what caused this issue. Apparently, the programmer who was meant to work full time on the project was David Clark who was the programmer for the indie game Ori and the Blind Forest. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, he was unable to move on from Moon Studios and deliver his promise. This caused the inability for Clark to apply all of his focus on Project Phoenix.