Homesick by Lucky Pause was one of the very first games we backed on Kickstarter, back in February 2013. We recently received an update from the team and it sounds as if not all is going according to plan.
The game was originally scheduled for release this summer and in April we were treated to some gorgeous-looking screenshots. Lucky Pause then announced in July that Homesick had been Greenlit by the Steam community, stating on their website: “We are so excited!! I know we keep saying this over and over again, but we have to say it again because it is so true – this is such a dream come true for us! We are so excited to get to work with the folks at Valve and Steam, and to get to share our game with the Steam community.”
A further update was sent to backers last month advising that the team was now working with a new composer, Heather Schmidt, after Joy Autumn needed to ‘move on to other projects’. Lucky Pause stated the following on their campaign page: “One of Joy’s songs is featured in our teaser trailer, which was part of our Kickstarter video. We loved that song, and still do, and were excited to work with Joy, but I guess as these things go sometimes, it just didn’t work out. Joy needed to move on to other projects, so we needed to find ourselves a new composer. But we think it all worked out for the best, because Heather is awesome! And don’t worry – the music direction and our vision for the music is not changing, and we think Heather will be able to bring Homesick to life, really beautifully!”
The team advised that this was the reason for the delay in releasing the game, and followed up by revealing some additional screenshots last month. But unfortunately, backers received a sad update yesterday: it now seems as if Lucky Pause is in a copyright dispute with Autumn regarding the use of her music in their trailer and Kickstarter videos.
The full story of what has happened can be found on the campaign page. Creative Director Barren Meeker and Communications Director Morgan Wyenn have said: “With the exception of trying to work with Joy, making this game has a been such an amazing experience. It’s sad that someone who we considered our friend would end up abandoning us, and now come back with these false claims. We love our trailer, we want it back. We had a lot of free music options available to us, but we chose our friend Joy, and now all we feel is grief.”
Is Homesick going down the pan?
They’ve made it clear that they would never steal from anyone and had written permission from Autumn to use her song, but it’s such a shame for Homesick. The game was shaping up to be a very intriguing title and it was obvious that a lot of effort had been put into capturing its abandoned, lonely feeling just right. It was the second Kickstarter submission the 1001-Up.com team had ever backed and the first we had written about for our S-Up-port category, and we really do believe in its concept.
We hope that Lucky Pause manage to settle the dispute with Autumn and development can get back on track as quickly as possible. It would be sad to see a game as curious and as attractive as Homesick not made.
