Ambitious crowdfunded game ReRoll abandoned, backers given little in return

ReRoll, the ambitious open-world multiplayer survival game, has been abandoned by its creators according to a post on Reddit. Montreal-based Pixyul announced via email during E3 last week that "the development of ReRoll is over." The only compensation offered to backers, some of whom paid nearly $300 for access to the game, is a key to an unrelated early access title valued at $15.

ReRoll, described as an isometric persistent online open-world survival action-RPG, was the brainchild of Julien Cuny and Louis-Pierre Pharand, both formerly of Ubisoft Montreal. The pitch, to use existing topographic and municipal data as well as civilian drones to create a digital version of the entire Earth one square-kilometer at a time, was enticing. But crowdfunding was not enough to bankroll the project. Pixyul said that, after multiple attempts at striking deals both inside and outside the games industry, it was ultimately unable to find a willing publisher.

"After being so close on multiple occasions," the email said, "today we have to face the fact that this rejection was our last hope to secure the necessary funding to pursue the development and complete the game.

"This is why we are officially announcing that the development of ReRoll is over. We want all of you to know that we gave our best shot and like you, we are extremely disappointed that ReRoll will not become a reality. It sucks. All of this sucks. We know many of you will be disappointed and even pissed. We understand that. We should have been better at communicating our progress."

Most of the pages on ReRoll’s website, including the one below captured in 2014, have been taken down and its Twitter account has been closed. Pixyul’s Facebook page is also no longer available.

While the online store, which is still visible online, makes note of a mid-2016 release date, almost nothing had been seen of the game in action. In their letter, Pixyul seems to indicate this is because of non-disclosure agreements and not a lack of development effort.

"Not to give excuses," Pixyul said, "but we were caught in the process with potential partners that wished we stayed silent on our progress."

Character bundles for ReRoll started at $19.99 and topped out at $274.99. No money will be refunded. As compensation Pixyul is offering backers a copy of BIOS, a first-person shooter on sale for $14.99 in Steam’s Early Access program. SteamSpy data indicates it has fewer than 3,000 owners.

Polygon has reached out to Pixyul for more information.