Uber Entertainment cancels Human Resources Kickstarter campaign

Developer Uber Entertainment found success on Kickstarter in 2012 when it crowd-funded real-time strategy game Planetary Annihilation, but was unable to replicate success that with its latest attempt for a game called Human Resources. The Kirkland, Washington-based studio canceled its Kickstarter for Human Resources today after it became clear the game's fundraising campaign wouldn't meet its goal.

"Every Kickstarter prediction model is showing that we will come up woefully short of our goal," Uber Entertainment design director John Comes wrote in an update on the Human Resources Kickstarter. "Running a Kickstarter is a full time job for several people. As a small indie, we can't continue spending time and money focusing on a project that won't get funded. We simply don't have the human resources."

Comes says the version of Human Resources, "as pitched in this Kickstarter, is over" but that Uber "will endeavor to do what we can to bring it to life in some form."

Uber Entertainment announced Human Resources in early October, pitching the real-time strategy game as a battle between apocalyptic forces. On one side were the Machines, giant insect-like killer robots, and on the other, the Ancient Ones, an army of monsters that blend Lovecraftian weirdness with Japanese kaiju. Each side harvested human beings as their resource material and were designed to play asymmetrically. Uber said it had other factions planned based on world-ending forces.

Human Resources planned to feature the "tone, character, and pacing of a Command & Conquer game mixed with the mammoth battles of an Annihilation game," Uber Entertainment said in its pitch. Uber was seeking at least $1.4 million to fund the game and planned to release the PC title in 2016. Pledges for Human Resources reached $384,358 at the time of cancellation.

Uber Entertainment, which also developed Monday Night Combat and Super Monday Night Combat, raised more than $2.2 million in 2012 to fund development of Planetary Annihilation.