The MMORPG “The Wagadu Chronicles” was supposed to be created in Berlin and Ghana and become an “Afrofantasy” MMORPG. It raised €160,000 through Kickstarter, and the regional funding from the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg provided €175,000. But on Steam, the online role-playing game had practically no players and is now closing before its release. The promises made on Kickstarter cannot be kept.
What the studio says: On May 8, the studio Twin Drums admitted via Kickstarter that there were not as many updates in 2024 as in previous years. In recent months, they struggled to stay financially afloat. But despite their best efforts, they are now at the end.
When they started the project, the world was still a different place, writes founder Allan Cudicio somewhat regretfully: No one had heard of Covid-19, inflation was not yet a problem, and games could be financed more easily.
Despite all the difficulties, the team has grown and came close to their goal – but now it’s over. They wish they had more time.
This is what the early access trailer looked like:
Studio cannot keep Kickstarter promises
When is it coming to an end? The game started early access in December 2023; the servers will close on May 18.
The promised books can only be delivered as PDFs; the printed books that people paid for do not exist. The developers regret this.
What was this MMORPG supposed to be? “The Wagadu Chronicles” was supposed to be a distinctly black MMORPG focusing heavily on role-playing elements like in pen & paper. It was mainly about player interactions with each other.
The game was also intended to provide a detailed lore and focused on features like a free class system or a player-driven economy.
In an article from the Tagesspiegel about the MMORPG, the company’s culture is also highlighted:
- Half of the team are women
- A quarter are queer
- and a third are black
Part of the team works in Berlin-Neukölln, another part in Accra, Ghana, and they also employ two freelancers from Nigeria.
What was it really like?? In early access on Steam, the MMORPG couldn’t gain traction at all. At its peak, it reached 36 concurrent players, which was at the start of early access in December 2023. Since January 2024, a maximum of 8 players were online at the same time, but most of the time there was only one or none.
The game had 26 positive reviews and 14 negative reviews. That makes a rating of 60% positive reviews on Steam.
Crowdfunding and MMORPGs do not go together
What’s behind it: While the developers are certainly right that the basic conditions for video game development have worsened significantly in recent years – as evidenced by waves of layoffs and studio closures left and right. But given the numbers they achieved on Steam, it is questionable whether “The Wagadu Chronicles” would have survived even under the best circumstances.
It shows once again that Kickstarter is poorly suited for the financially extremely demanding genre of “MMORPG”. The ambitions of the developers are often very high, and one would actually need double-digit millions to finance development over many years.
“The Wagadu Chronicles” is now one of many Kickstarter MMORPGs that have failed. It has also hit MMORPGs with million-dollar financing hard.
In the history of the MMORPG “The Wagadu Chronicles,” it only made headlines once, that was in August 2022. There was a conflict involving an artist who had worked on the MMORPG. She was accused of exploiting Africans. Developer of a black MMORPG from Germany is being attacked because she is white
