The
Facebook page for
Areal explains that the
Areal website has resumed fundraising
for West Games' proposed S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-inspired first-person shooter after
their
Kickstarter was suspended. In
discussing the suspension, they say they got no warning, and continue to make
their case that much of the criticism of their project is disinformation from a
"lot of companies that make their livelihood on STALKER." They also follow their
odd claim of support from Russian
President Vladimir Putin by saying some of the problems they've met with stem
from hostility from Russian Kickstarter campaigns as part of the current
conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Here's word:
Our Kickstarter was
suspended without any warning. As per Kickstarter's policy, we cannot contact
them to find out why. Areal is the spiritual successor to STALKER, in terms of
our vision for it and in terms of the team that we have (which includes Alexey
Sytyanov, the lead game designer and screenwriter for STALKER). You can find out
more about us and our team on our website:
http://areal.west-games.com/
From the very beginning, we showed what we have accomplished, and showed the
atmosphere for what we want to accomplish (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTMtpViPhhc&list=UU7j5-kx3Mk4rtG6q_SfsOYQ).
The fact is that there are a lot of companies that make their livelihood on
STALKER, so when we showed up on the scene, they saw us as a threat and did
everything that they could to stop us.
People also need to take into account that Ukrainians and Russians are in an
information war right now, and as a Ukrainian developer, we were subject to
constant hostility from Russian Kickstarter accounts (we even got death
threats). There are over 16,000 comments on our Kickstarter, which is
unprecedented for the amount of supporters that we have, and a lot of our
comments are hate filled. Some sites, in light of this, chose to report based on
sources from direct competitors or from the myriad of comments based on lies.
Others chose a neutral ground, because of the confusing situation around us, and
still others wrote positively about us. All in all, more than a 1,000 news
results come up when you type in "Areal Kickstarter" on Google.
After vice news wrote an article about us, people started contributing every
minute, but Kickstarter was afraid of the controversy surrounding our project,
so they suspended funding. We set our base goal at 50K; even with 2 days left,
we raised more than 64 thousand dollars, and our competitors were doing
everything that they could to stop that. Kickstarter is a business, and that was
their decision. We were not warned, we do not have a say in the matter, we
cannot notify our backers, we cannot message our backers, and we can't post
updates anymore. That is how Kickstarter chose to act.
We are the creators of STALKER, and we know that we can make Areal even better
than that series, because of advances in technology, gameplay mechanics, and
story. We need your support to make that happen, so we have opened up a website
wherein we will continue to raise funds. We ask all supporters of Areal who read
this, to please head over to our site and contribute there. PayPal is used for
safe checkout, but you do not need a PayPal account to donate. Thank you for
your understanding.