Woolfe – The Red Hood Diaries is a Kickstarter that found success with over 2,300 backers pledging $72,000 back in 2014, but ran into troubles earlier this year when the developer shut its doors after releasing the first episode. Citing "inexperience", the studio head explained that in the end, they may have been too ambitious with the project, leading to the shutdown of the studio and eventual bankruptcy.
In a very raw and truthful post about what was happening with the game and studio, GriN's Founder Wim Wouters summarized why they had to shut down, what happened to the backer rewards, and why they couldn't be sent, as well as why Volume 2 wasn't going to be released. Sadly, this sometimes happens in the world of game development and projects get scrapped, but backers received some good news when Rebellion picked up the IP yesterday and posted an update on the Kickstarter page. In the update, Rebellion laid out the following:
- Rebellion decided to purchase Woolfe - The Red Hood Diaries because they found the story intriguing, having "published quite a few dark and twisted retellings of classic tales" themselves, and they felt that their connections to merchandise companies and manufacturers put them in the best place to fulfill the backer rewards.
- Rebellion plans on shipping all of the following backer rewards:
- Art book (digital and physical)
- Regular DVD copies of Woolfe
- Deluxe Boxed versions of Woolfe (including CD soundtrack)
- Poster packs
- Limited edition stickers
- Official documents of enlistment
- Original soundtrack (mp3)
- Ringtone (mp3)
- Wallpapers (HD JPG/PNG)
- Custom answering message (mp3)
- They noted that they will most likely not support or update the original Woolfe game, due to engine incompatibility issues (Rebellion uses their in house Asura engine, while Woolfe was made on Unreal 3), but that they haven't completely ruled it out.
- In regards to Woolfe - The Red Hood Diaries Volume 2, they stated that they did acquire the assets that were completed, but that they are far from being finished. Because the game was designed for Unreal Engine 3, and Rebellion has an in-house Asura engine, migrating it over will be a tough process, and they will have to explore the viability of it. They've promised to update when they know more.
- Past that, the Steam Page, forums, and and Kickstarter page remain open and in Rebellion's control and they will keep them up to date and active.
If you'd like to check it out, we did a preview of Woolfe - The Red Hood Diaries for Early Access.
Quick Take
While I didn't back the game, it's always sad to see promising Kickstarters not be able to fulfill their goals completely, especially when they have a lot of support and the developers are immensely passionate. The great thing in this story is that Rebellion really stepped up when they bought the IP and promised to send out the backer rewards. The fact that they did that shows that they do care about the franchise and the players themselves. It will be interesting to see where they take it from here.
