Indie developer Studio Camelia has announced they’ve shut down and paused development on ALZARA: Radiant Echoes, after unsuccessfully searching for more funding.
The turn-based RPG ran a successful Kickstarter that raked in €294,428 (roughly $339,000) to fund the rest of the game. However, the studio has revealed this would only cover half of the game’s development.
The crowdfunding money for the game was used to “develop a new demo of the game incorporating the latest advances on Alzara” which the team then used to attend various events like Tokyo Game Show, DICE, and more to meet with potential partners to help fund the rest of the game. “Unfortunately, none of them resulted in a contract, despite having a playable demo, a senior team, half of the funding secured, and the Kickstarter campaign.”
When those talks fell through, the studio decided to shut their doors and stop development on the throwback RPG. Furthermore, gamers that backed the game on Kickstarter will not be getting a refund.
“With all this support, we had half the development of the game covered, and only needed to secure the other half through an industry partner,” Studio Camelia said in an update. “However, as you know, the video game industry is currently going through a crisis. Many studios have been forced to close due to lack of funding, and over 20,000 workers have lost their jobs. Investors are now operating in a market where taking risks is discouraged, and they can afford to wait before committing to a project in order to reduce risk.
“To give ourselves the best possible chance of securing funding, we turned to Kickstarter to reduce the perceived risk for some partners and reassure them of the project’s profitability. The campaign was a huge success: Alzara became one of the most-backed Gaming projects on Kickstarter in 2024, with over 5,000 backers and nearly €300,000 in pledges. Thank you again for your support! It was an incredible time for us.”
ALZARA: Radiant Echoes was in development for Windows PC (via Steam) and consoles with a release planned for 2026.
