The Stomping Land went to Kickstarter last summer seeking $20,000 and came away with more than $114,000, a big success by any measure. The Early Access launch took place on May 23 of this year and the first big content update, focused on "balancing and optimization," was released a week later. Another Kickstarter update followed the next day, May 30, promising that "development is still in full force" and asking for suggestions on the future of the game. But since then, the developer has gone almost completely silent, and backers are starting to worry that they've been left in the lurch.

The most recent post on The Stomping Land Facebook page , linking to a Reddit AMA, went up on May 30, the same day as the final Kickstarter update . The Stomping Land Twitter account , which is—or was—run by a PR rep, was active until June 20. The last patch update on The Stomping Lands own forum was posted on June 6, and related or not, the website for Fundora's studio, Supercrit LLC , is in rather dire need of maintenance.

In total, it paints a bleak picture that many backers see as evidence that Fundora has walked away from the project. As Kotaku pointed out, the silence may be related at least in part to the loss of The Stomping Land's PR rep, whose contract expired at the end of May ; it's strictly conjecture, but there may also be a connection with a June 17 tweet in which Jig apologized for a Twitter silence of more than a week, saying he had "personal matters to attend to."

Whatever the case, many Kickstarter backers have taken to various forums to express their anger over the current lack of activity, demand refunds and/or attempt to track Fundora down, while a Change.org petition calling for refunds and the removal of the game from Steam has grown to well over 1500 signatures since being launched in mid-July. We've attempted to contact Fundora ourselves to inquire about the situation, but have so far received no reply.