Project Phoenix Returns: Kickstarter JRPG Squad-RTS Reemerges After 7 Years
Back in August 2013, a Kickstarter campaign for a “JRPG built around a squad-based RTS concept,” described as being made by experienced developers from both the East and the West, went live. The project, named Project Phoenix, blew past its $100,000 target almost immediately, ultimately collecting $1,014,600 from nearly 16,000 backers.
Consistent updates continued for the following six years, but on March 26, 2019, CIA Inc. stopped posting. After that, there were no new messages—leaving supporters to assume they’d been hit by another classic crowdfunding failure.
More than seven years later, TheGamer reports that Project Phoenix is alive again. Its creator sent a long apology email to backers, and promised that production will be completed in 2031.
Project Phoenix Is Back, But There’s Still A Long Road Ahead
Project Phoenix initially positioned itself as a collaboration of veteran talent from both sides of the globe, and there were signs it could deliver on that pitch. Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu was listed as the person behind the game’s main theme. The team also included developers credited with work on a wide range of major titles—such as Diablo 3, L.A. Noire, Final Fantasy 3, 8, 9, 12, and 14, Skyrim, The Lord of the Rings films, Metal Gear Solid V, Halo 4, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and Street Fighter 2, among others.
From the start, the campaign set ambitious expectations, stating the team hoped to release as early as 2015 on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. That timeline didn’t hold. After additional years of development and updates, the project eventually fell silent—until now.
In an email sent to backers that has been seen by TheGamer, Hiroaki Yura—director and producer for Project Phoenix—reaffirmed that the game’s development is still moving forward, stating that the “silence is mine to answer for.”
“It has been seven years since my last update. I’m not going to soften that or bury it any further down the page. You funded this project, you trusted me with it, and then you heard nothing for a very long time. That silence is mine to answer for. I owe you a full explanation, and more than that, I owe you proof that Project Phoenix is still alive. Both are in this update,” the message opens.
That silence is mine to answer for. I owe you a full explanation, and more than that, I owe you proof that Project Phoenix is still alive.
“Years ago, I made myself a rule that I followed even when it cost me. I wouldn’t post an update unless I had something worth showing. For a long stretch I didn’t, and instead of filling the gap with mock-ups and promises, I went silent. That was the wrong choice. A simple ‘we’re still working, slowly’ would have been far better than nothing, and I’m sorry I didn’t give you that.” He then lays out what happened.
Yura says he had promised the project wouldn’t stall due to funding because “the team is working on a royalty basis,” but that assumption collapsed in practice. He explains that the team lost the programmer responsible for the core technical side of the project. That person later joined Moon Studios and worked on Ori and the Blind Forest, and rebuilding around that missing expertise took years and money Yura didn’t have available.
“I told you the project would never stall for lack of money, because the team was working on a royalty basis. That assumption did not survive contact with reality. We lost the programmer the whole technical side of the game depended on. The one who went on to Moon Studios and ‘Ori and the Blind Forest’, and rebuilding around that hole took years and money I did not have sitting in an account. Rather than burn through what remained and come back to you with nothing, I chose to step back and build a proper business first. One that could pay for this game the way it deserved, instead of running it into the ground. I built that business with my own means, not with what you had pledged, and its work is what funds Phoenix now.
“There is more to it than that. When I launched Project Phoenix, I did not fully understand what a production of this size actually demands. I do now. Building those studios and shipping those games is where I learned it, the hard way. It means the Phoenix you eventually play will be made by someone who has actually done this, not by the version of me who started it without knowing what he was taking on. That is a better game than the one that would have limped out years ago, even if it has cost us the time to get here.”
The email also mentions major redesign work. Yura writes, “We went down a stylized redesign that I eventually killed because it had started to look like a mobile game, which is not what this was ever meant to be. The vertical slice we showed years ago did not land, and the people who said so were right.”
Where The $1 Million Was Actually Spent
Later in the email, Yura also describes how the Kickstarter money was used after the campaign brought in roughly $1 million.
“A good part of that paid for the work we did in the early years: character and creature designs, base models, the scenario and the world, and a large amount of Uematsu’s music,” he says, pushing back on claims that surfaced in 2017 alleging the funds were handled incorrectly. “Some of it went into the vertical slice that did not work out. Not every dollar was spent as well as it could have been, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. But all of it went into this game and its production, never anywhere else. Since then, I have made sure the rest is funded properly, so that your contribution is not the thing holding it up.
“The scope today is bigger than what we first laid out, and the truth is, the original scope was never defined as clearly as it should have been. That is a fair critique and I take it. What I will say plainly is that we are now putting far more into this game than the Kickstarter ever raised. As it stands today, no publisher or outside investor is steering it. Every extra resource comes from the studio I built so that we could finish this on our own terms.”
The scope today is bigger than what we first laid out, and the truth is, the original scope was never defined as clearly as it should have been.
Yura also shared a rough mix of Uematsu’s main theme—performed by the Eminence Symphony Orchestra—and said that backer rewards will be completed before he details the project’s next steps.
“I am not going to give you a release date I can’t keep. Dates I couldn’t keep are a big reason we ended up here. So here is where things actually stand,” he writes. “We are aiming to finish production at the end of 2031, and the actual release date after that is still to be decided. I won’t pretend otherwise.
“I know that is hard to hear after a seven year gap. I would still choose a target I can stand behind over a comfortable one. As we lock down things I can actually promise, you will hear them, and you will hear them far more often than you have.” Thank you to avid TheGamer reader Deggers for the tip.
The policy was only announced last week, but Kickstarter admits “we botched it.”
