Japanese content creator The Lore Knight Narunii (hereafter Narunii) has announced an update on the status and future outlook of his somewhat ill-fated game, Chikai no Fuchi (which roughly translates to Oath’s Abyss). The project was funded through crowdfunding, but development is long overdue (and currently still at a standstill) due to the departure of key staff. While Narunii is attempting to rebuild the project under a new development team, he also says he’s fully willing to provide refunds to backers who request them.
For context, Narunii is a YouTuber known for analysis videos about popular games like Dark Souls. As of the time of writing, his YouTube channel has approximately 608,000 subscribers, with over 230 million cumulative views on his videos. In 2023, he announced that he would give game development a shot. He pitched the dark fantasy action game Chikai no Fuchi on the crowdfunding platform CAMPFIRE to raise development funds. The project quickly attracted attention, reaching its ¥30 million target just four days after the campaign began. In the end, it raised over ¥50 million (about $320k USD), and development commenced with a planned release in 2024.
However, Chikai no Fuchi was not released in 2024 and was postponed indefinitely. Then, on December 31, 2025, Narunii revealed that the person serving as both director and programmer had left the project, causing development to stall completely. The YouTuber also explained that he himself lacked sufficient experience and knowledge in game development, making it difficult for him to even assess the project’s progress.
Narunii eventually found out that work on Chikai no Fuchi had not progressed significantly at all, and that what little code was written for it would be better off rebuilt from scratch. Meanwhile, of the funds raised through crowdfunding, only about ¥10 million remains.
Still, in his most recent statement on January 9, Narunii stated that he has not given up on completing Chikai no Fuchi, and that he plans to rebuild the project by reassembling the development team. At the same time, he expressed his intention to “respond sincerely” to those who wish to receive refunds for their pledges. However, in order to actually process refunds, he first needs to determine the scale of the requests, and thus will begin by establishing an administrative structure. After confirming the total amount, he plans to draw up a refund plan that is realistically feasible.
As for the source of refund funds, Narunii says he intends to avoid drawing on the remaining development budget as much as possible, and instead use income generated from his other activities. He hopes to honor his promises by compensating those who request refunds through his work while also aiming to complete the game. During January, he will focus on building the new development structure, with further details (including specific refund methods) to be announced next month.
Remember how we were supposed to have Wintermute episode 5, gta 6 and ff7 remake completed already?
Really sounds like the programmer bit off more than he could chew.
It’s so annoying seeing people that INVEST in a project that they know and are informed may fail, whining for refunds. Refunds should never be granted except in the case of proven fraud. Backing a project means that you are investing in research and development, it’s not a guarantee. People need to learn the difference between buying and investing.
Sad story. If true it sounds like he got ripped off by his developer. He should sue.
At least he is attempting to do something in order to make things right for the people who pledged his campaign. Crowdfunding is a gamble, there’s no guarantee that someone who pledges will receive anything in return. However, even with that caveat, there’s still an expectation for some sort of compensation. No matter how big or small.
There was a campaign for some vinyl figures from a very well known artist, Huck Gee. He worked with Kidrobot for many many years and co-founded Superplastic a couple of years ago. When he decided to do his own release of a few figures- the community jumped onto the campaign bandwagon incredibly fast. He raised $240k(usd) (over 400% of his goal) in September, 2024. With the average pledge amount being over $300 per person! He went radio silent in the summer of 2025, aamd then in October announced there would be no refunds, no figures, no nothing. Oh- and to put a cherry on top, he broke down where the money went amd left 100k unaccounted for, and mentioned that over 60k went to his living expenses! He blamed tariffs and said that the figures were made, another comment said they weren’t, and he hadnt even paid the person who made the 3d models, so he couldn’t even compensate people with files to 3d print their own figures! Then he proceeded to advertise some art prints and a 4 part books series. Turns out he was just an arrogant scam artist.
Meanwhile, we have this guy here. Narunii is a youtuber, so I’m guessing he actually understands that he has the ability to do what he does, because of his fans and supporters. Likely, he appreciates them as well and wants to make this right. He wouldn’t be where he is without them. So here he is, trying to make things right in whatever way possible. Versus some snob artist who thinks his supporters are worthless. It’s really sad.
Narunii deserves some praise for trying to make things right. Sometimes, stuff doesn’t work out, but he’s doing his best despite it. Good job on his part.
Mayhaps there is some missing context but how can you call yourself a videogame developer if you’re not the director, not a dev, not a producer [using other people’s money] and don’t even know how much progress has been made on “your game”? You gotta manage your team, even if it’s one guy.
Let him cook! Refunds will only slow the project even more.
I hate to say this, but I think FFIX Remake is going to be episodic, too…
That is pretty magnanimous of him given he is under no obligation to provide a refund. It is called an investment. Sometimes it doesn’t pay off.
Are people actually serious? This doesn’t seem to actually have any gameplay behind it from what I’ve seen, how have so many decided to pitch in when the most we know about the actual game is that it’s not even in the demo stages? Most of the lore is being given outside of a game that isn’t even released yet as well? This all just seems unreal. How can you ask for your money back for making such a bad decision
Speaking of failed stalled projects. How is star citizen doing these days? Is it even in beta yet?
Guy seemed to have been ambitious to a fault, but I feel like the transparency good faith shown will do a lot to keep backers from bailing.
That’s why I don’t collaborate with anyone. People never commit 100 percent to the project.
So, out of 50 mil yen,he got scammed out of at least 30… By people pretending to do something… Wow..
Narunii that’s just sad😢
Sadly this is a classic situation for a non technical person trying to make a game, I have seen dozens of people trying to make a game cause they have the money and failing.
One should have more experience making games, directing is even harder, the dev was probably a junior dev hyping himself up, and the investor probably didn’t know any better sadly
This is why you shouldn’t attempt to make a game even you don’t know how. Devs with decades of experience failing regularly might give you a good idea how difficult it is. Learn first by trying to recreate pieces, then try to make a game when you feel comfortable.
Lot of people in these comments need to go back to school and relearn reading comprehension. I don’t know whats more sad, that they didn’t understand this post, or that people some how made it this far.
sooooo. we gave a dude 40million yen to do nothing for a year. another missed amazing job opportunity, people love wasting money coulda gave it to me LOL