John Romero's Blackroom Kickstarter has been canceled

After spending over a decade in obscurity John Romero recently returned along with Adrian Carmack in order to attempt a Kickstarter for Blackroom, a brand new FPS modeled after the PC gaming shooters of old.

And much like how it suddenly appeared, the Kickstarter for Blackroom has been put on hold after gathering $131,052 in funding over the course of four days. The official reason behind this "out of nowhere" announcement is that the team wants to produce a gameplay demo capable of showcasing everything they stand for with Blackroom.

Here's what the brief announcement message had to say:

"The team is at work on a demo which demonstrates the kind of gameplay, look and innovative, cool features that make BLACKROOM truly unique — the things we’ve waited years to put into an FPS and which make us incredibly excited about this game.

There’s a hitch here, a hitch that’s making us do something that’s right for the game, the team, and the community: we’re pressing “PAUSE” on the fundraising campaign for BLACKROOM to complete this gameplay demo. Simply put, this will take more time than the Kickstarter has left, so we’ve decided to suspend the campaign and launch a new one when the gameplay demo is ready. We believe, however, it is the right choice. We know you do, too. Thanks to your feedback, we know we should have included it at launch."

If you number yourself among the 2287 people that decided to fund Blackroom during its initial bout, have no fear as your backer achievements will be honored in the next campaign, along with a few extra 'somethings' for those that opt to support the next campaign as well.

That aside, there is a rumor circulating that the cancellation wasn't something the team decided upon, but rather something they had to do as Kickstarter's terms require you to have a prototype of some sort to display, a feature the Blackroom campaign did not have unless you consider concept art a prototype. Whatever the case, I don't consider this a negative for either Blackroom or its backers, because when it comes to video game Kickstarters the playable demo is king, and if it ends up being good, funding is almost guaranteed.

As a final note, if you're wondering what sort of gameplay and level design Blackroom is going to feature, but can't bear waiting until the demo finally comes, John Romero recently released his brand new Doom level that showcases just that.

Blackroom's alien enemies