Pour one out for Precinct

Precinct gets cancelled

It wasn’t that long ago that I was chatting with Jim Walls and Robert Lindsley about Precinct, the spiritual successor to the classic adventure game series Police Quest. The prospect was an exciting one, and both gents were brimming with great ideas and no small amount of passion. So when I went to check on their funding progress this afternoon, I was dismayed to discover that the crowdfunding campaign had been cancelled, and the game is no longer in development. 

“We’re fighters and fought our best,” read the letter from Robert Lindsley. “Unfortunately, our best wasn’t good enough to overcome the challenges with crowdfunding Precinct. Our new approach attracted some terrific supporters and we are grateful. However, we simply don’t have the momentum needed to meet the requirements of this project.”

It’s hard to gauge which crowdfunding campaigns will succeed and which will fail. Precinct had reasonable goals, veteran developers, and a whole ton of nostalgia on its side — and yet it failed where so many similar projects have reached their funding target within days. This is one I was desperately hoping would see the light of day, and I can only hope that another attempt will be made somewhere down the line.