Concern as Code Hero website goes offline

Code Hero backers are worried the project is in trouble again, as the website has been down for days and alpha testers are reportedly unable to log in to the game.

Billed as ‘the game that teaches you to code’, Code Hero was one of the first campaigns to benefit from Double Fine’s high-profile crowdfunding drive and raised $170,000 on Kickstarter.

A group of backers began to worry the project was bust after several months of silence from the developers, and in December it was revealed that Primer Labs had run out of money.

After a few months of relative stability Primer Labs is again in hot water with donators, who are concerned about what seems like a return to old habits: a lack of communication, and irregular updates.

The Code Hero website has been down for at least four days now, and commenters on the Kickstarter campaign page say they can’t log in to the game.

"The site has also gone down," wrote one backer.

"Not sure what to think at this point. Was hoping that the ‘Big update’ was true, though."

Another backer asked about possible legal action.

"Ok, so since this is clearly scam at this point… how is that class action coming?"

In the absence of any word from the developers the fans that funded the game have no idea if they’ll ever see the finished result.

Develop reached out to Primer Labs founder Alex Peake, who said the website would be back online shortly, a release was coming soon, and promised to make more details available when the website was up and ready.

Develop had already spoken with Peake and others close to Code Hero at GDC 2013, all of whom confirmed that development hadn’t stopped, but said the next update was posing some major challenges.

Despite assurances of progress, the lack of hard evidence has some frustrated backers considering legal action.

Kickstarter declined to comment on either Code Hero or the possibility of litigation.

Kickstarter has no policies on stepping in on behalf of backers for legal action, and does not offer legal advice.

Code Hero isn’t the only crowdfunded game to run into trouble.

Just this week Double Fine’s Tim Schafer revealed that if his adventure game – which raised over $3.3 million on Kickstarter and propelled crowdfunding into the industry limelight – would have to be released in two parts if the studio were to be able to complete it.