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Black Jewel Reborn for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis is still in development, PSCD Games said in a recent social media statement.
The Rastan-like hack-and-slash game was originally crowdfunded in 2022, with Michael Mrozek (OpenPandora GmbH) setting up the Kickstarter on PSCD Games's behalf and raising €64,095 from 785 backers. Since then, however, the promised Mega Drive / Genesis, SNES / Super Famicom, NES / Famicom, and Game Boy versions have failed to materialise, raising inevitable questions about the project's status.
To further complicate matters, an account calling itself PSCD Games published an alpha of the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis game earlier this week, describing it as "unreleased" and setting off alarm bells among its backers. They alleged that the Mega Drive / Genesis version was at one point 80-90 per cent complete, but claimed other team members decided to complete the project without them, leaving the game in "a rather unclear and unfinished state."
They also suggested that "the SNES, NES, and Game Boy versions" had never even been started (despite SNES and NES demos having previously been released to the public) and seemed to imply PSCD Games were not in control of their Kickstarter and Twitter/X accounts.
In response to this, the Twitter/X account for PSCD Games issued a separate statement countering this message.
It said PSCD Games was "actively continuing development of BJR" and referred to the individual behind the itch.io as a "former programmer" who left the development when PSCD Games "started having financial problems" after the fallout from another troubled Kickstarter project, Cyber Mission. It claimed it is currently trying to recover the itch.io page to prevent further "confusion," and also assured people that it is continuing development on Cyber Mission, with plans to release it as a free download.
Worth noting is that this is the third Kickstarter project we're aware of with ties to PSCD Games that has run into issues.
The developer previously clashed with the publisher Gameenergy over a Kickstarter for a Sega Mega Drive / Genesis port of the action shooter game Cyber Mission and also cancelled its Hunter Girls Kickstarter after running into issues with the operator of that campaign, Retro Quest.
Even if PCSD Games weren't to blame, a pattern is starting to emerge, and it's one that doesn't inspire confidence among supporters, with its projects constantly being mired in controversy, confusion, and finger-pointing.