Romero and Carmack cancel Blackroom’s Kickstarter to make a game demo, they’ll be back

Earlier this week, John Romero and Adrian Carmack (two of the four co-founders of id Software) unveiled the Kickstarter campaign for Blackroom. This was to be “a visceral, action-packed FPS set in a holographic simulation gone rogue.” It has been canceled… for now.

The problem? The campaign featured strictly concept art. In an environment where high profile Kickstarter games fail even after funding is reached, fans were cautious. The title wracked up $131k of its $700k goal, but it sounds like Romero and Carmack didn’t like its pace.

So, they canceled the campaign in order to develop a working demo. They refer to the cancelation as “pressing pause,” and they pledge that they’ll be back. Here’s how the update reads for backers.

After listening to the gaming community since we’ve launched the campaign, we’ve decided to give you what you’ve asked for: a gameplay demo of Blackroom…

…The team is at work on a demo which demonstrates the kind of gameplay, look and innovative, cool features that make Blackroom truly unique – the things we’ve waited years to put into an FPS and which make us incredibly excited about this game…

Your support for our game and our vision has been incredible and valuable. You’ve already proved you want this campaign to succeed, and we believe a gameplay demo will get the rest of the gaming community just as excited for this game as you already are.

If it’s a good demo, I guarantee the gaming community will have this one backed.

When Blackroom‘s demo is released and the Kickstarter resumed, we’ll let you know.