Sissyfight 2000 delayed past planned September launch

The Kickstarter-backed revival of Sissyfight 2000, the turn-of-the-millennium web game, will miss its planned September release, developer Team Sissyfight announced today.

"Due to circumstances beyond our control, we've had delays in integrating the game into its new home, the back-end and website which will be hosted by Venus Patrol Arcade," said the developers in a backers-only update posted to the project's Kickstarter page. In addition, due to "some unrelated technological snafus," the developers now expect that they won't be able to send out backer rewards such as T-shirts and stickers before October.

While they won't be able to release Sissyfight 2000 by the end of the month, the developers said that they're "definitely looking forward to wrapping up and launching the game in the weeks to follow." They added, "All of you who helped make this game possible have our deepest thanks and apologies — we were really hoping to be one of the few game Kickstarters to ever launch on time! — but it's just not in the cards."

In the meantime, Team Sissyfight wants to shorten the wait for backers, so the developers will send out invites to a beta test of Sissyfight 2000 "as soon as possible."

In an email to Polygon, Sissyfight 2000 designer Eric Zimmerman explained that the delay is "due in part to unforeseen design, technical, and logistic complications on our end." He noted that the launch of the Venus Patrol Arcade, which will be the home of the new Sissyfight 2000, is also behind schedule.

The game's Kickstarter page describes the Venus Patrol Arcade as "a new curated showcase of online indie games presented by Venus Patrol and QWOP creator Bennett Foddy." Venus Patrol founder Brandon Boyer announced last month that he has been diagnosed with cancer. "We fully support Brandon and of course his health is the most important thing for him to focus on now," Zimmerman told Polygon.

For more on Sissyfight 2000, you can check out our interview with the developers.