Although a Kickstarter for Fable Fortune, a card game based on the Fable franchise of video games, was a go, it's since been taken down, but for a very good reason: the project found funding from an outside source.
This is good news because the Kickstarter wasn't really doing all that well: it was only at about $86,285 of its $365,900 campaign goal with only a little over 1,500 backers signed up. So, this new investor saved the world of Fable, and although it's not the same as getting a new video game, it's something.
Fable's story is a twisted one, full of promise and heartbreak. The video game franchise from Lionhead Studios began to meet trouble after its owner Microsoft decided to shutter Fable Legends, an MMORPG based on the world of Fable. That game was already in beta testing, but its closure signaled the beginning of the end for Lionhead. Eventually, Microsoft decided to shut down the developer, marking the end of the Fable franchise forever.
Rumors suggested that Lionhead had offers from other companies, but Microsoft didn't want to give up the rights to Fable, so instead of letting the game live on somewhere else, the corporation decided to kill it altogether.
Then came good news: a Kickstarter campaign surfaced to bring Fable back as a card game. The creators of the game were ex-Lionhead employees who called their company Flaming Fowl Studios. They got the rights from Microsoft to use Fable for the new game.
Flaming Fowl cancelled the campaign, though, with the following message:
"Thanks to your enthusiasm and support, we are happy to announce that we've successfully secured additional development funding! This, alongside our ongoing personal investment, will mean that we can continue to improve the game and allow even more of you to start playing. With the immediate future of Fable Fortune now secure, we have taken the decision to end our Kickstarter campaign early to focus on releasing a Closed Beta build as quickly as possible."
Players anxiously awaiting the beta can still check out the game's alpha build, which released in May. All backers of the cancelled campaign will also have access to the closed beta. Anyone else wishing to get in on that beta can now sign up online.
"Thanks to your support and the positive reviews from our current players, we know we have something special on our hands and want to enable as many people as possible to experience Fable Fortune over the coming weeks and months," Flaming Fowl writes. "Ultimately, we believe following this path is the best way to achieve this goal."
