“Our 40-day battle ended in failure,” wrote Hidetaka “Swery” Suehiro this morning, in an open letter to fans about his next planned project, The Good Life.

Swery and his studio White Owls launched the crowdfunding campaign for his combination cat-RPG, management sim and murder mystery game on Fig last month, asking for $1.5 million. But on the final day of the campaign, the game is sitting at just 37 percent of its goal.

The game had an uphill battle from the start, Swery said on Twitter. The official announcement leaked early, which he said confused some people about whether The Good Life was a mobile game. A concept trailer unveiled at PAX West also failed to broadcast the game’s core focus, he added, as did the rewards offered by the bonus tiers.

“I’m deeply grateful to everyone who pledged and invested,” Swery wrote. “We may not have been able to hit our goal this time, but please, don’t worry. All of your passion has touched the hearts of every member of our development. Your support has become the fuel we’ll use to carry on.”

As Swery told Polygon at Tokyo Game Show, the team plans to continue working on The Good Life. The studio even plans to try crowdfunding again, except on Kickstarter next time.

In his letter, Swery wrote that White Owls will take another stab at it later this year.

“We will use all of the information that we learned for this campaign, and make the Kickstarter one that we believe can succeed,” he wrote.

Among the things to expect for The Good Life’s campaign relaunch are a “more clear” trailer, a smaller funding goal, physical editions of the game produced by Limited Run and more promotion for the project.

“Although we’re disappointed we couldn’t hit our goal, we believe that the interest and support that we’ve gotten from you all is real and genuine and that you want this game to exist and we on’t stop fighting, and improving, until we can get this game in your hands,” Swery said.