Work has stopped on The Stomping Land, says artist, as backers demand refunds

A multiplayer survival game about dinosaurs that raised more than $100,000 on Kickstarter appears to have finally left its donors without a complete game.

A freelance artist hired to work for The Stomping Land says he stopped work on the game last month. He says he can't reach its creator, Alex "Jig" Fundora, who still owes him for work already completed. This follows several months of concern over a lack of communication from Fundora and his studio, SuperCrit, on the game's progress.

Backers on the game's forums and its subreddit are venting their anger at the apparent abandonment and their lack of recourse. Posts about the game's demise started appearing a month ago, along with demands for refunds. A Change.org petition demanding money back from Fundora went up seven months ago. Backers and customers also are complaining to Steam, where a $24.99 Early Access version still is listed despite being removed in September.

One, who contributed $90, received a form reply from Kickstarter when he complained. "We expect all members of the Kickstarter community to act with honest and openness," it said.

"This game has kinda ruined backing projects/early access games on Steam for me," the donor said.

The Stomping Land is supposed to be a "dinosaur survival" game in which players are a human, hunting and scavenging the land. It originally sought $20,000 in funding, but ended up receiving $114,060. This isn't the first time the ambitious project has gone silent, frustrating its backers.

In September, after four months on Steam Early Access, the game was removed. (It evidently has returned since then.) Weekly updates to the game that were promised were never delivered, and the game's public relations contact quit, saying he had difficulty communicating with Fundora and, as such, was "stringing along" The Stomping Land's community.