The former Sony Online Entertainment and Daybreak Games president John Smedley set up indie outfit Pixelmage Games in January, before launching a Kickstarter for its debut project Hero's Song—a "2D pixel art action RPG." This was then cancelled after falling well short of its crowdfunding target, but independent investment saw it eventually arrive on Steam's Early Access initiative in November. As a result of poor sales, Hero's Song has now been shuttered and Pixelmage Games will now disband.
On behalf of the Pixelmage team, Smedley took to the studio's site to break the news:
"It's with a heavy heart that I have to report that Pixelmage Games is going to be shutting down and we have ceased development on Hero's Song. For the last year, our team has worked tirelessly to make the game we've dreamed about making, and with your support, and the support of our investors, we were able to get the game into Early Access. Unfortunately sales fell short of what we needed to continue development. We knew going in that most startups don't make it, and as an indie game studio we hoped we would be the exception to that rule, but as it turned out we weren't.
"We sincerely value our customers. You’re our most important focus and have been from day one. We’re going to offer 100% refunds to all of the people who bought Hero’s Song."
The post then details how players who acquired Hero's Song via both Indiegogo and Steam should go about said refunds, before concluding with a message of thanks.
It continues: "Thank you for all the support you showed us. We're sorry things worked out the way they did, but we feel strongly that we gave it our all and we're proud of how far we came with the game. The fact that we weren't able to finish the game is painful, but the journey of making Hero's Song has been a great experience for us and we’re just sorry we couldn’t take it all the way."
