Dear Kickstarter backers and owners of Woolfe – The Red Hood Diaries
In August, GRIN’s founder Wim Wouters wrote a brave and searingly honest statement about the sad closure of the studio and the end of Woolfe as they knew it. If you missed this, then we highly recommend you read Wim’s post before continuing. But in summary, GRIN was unable to continue as a business and had to apply for bankruptcy, and so Woolfe (and everything related to the game) was put up for sale at auction.
It has been a difficult time for those involved with Woolfe and for you, the backers, but today we’re writing to tell you that Woolfe is still alive, and now in the hands of a new owner, Rebellion– that’s us! We’re delighted to add Woolfe’s gorgeous, twisted universe to our burgeoning list of indie games and we hope you’ll join us for the ride.
You’re still probably wondering what this all means. Where does this leave backers? What’s the future of Woolfe? Who are Rebellion anyway?
We’ve tried to answer all your questions below so please take time to read our responses if you can, and if you can’t find an answer to your question then feel free to get in touch with us at [email protected], or hit us up at @Rebellion on Twitter!
Thank you for reading this, and we hope to meet you in the forums and on social media in the very near future.
- Jason and Chris Kingsley, Co-founders and owners of Rebellion.
So who are Rebellion?
For those who don’t know us, we’re an independent games studio with headquarters based in Oxford, in the UK.
We’ve been around for 23 years and we’re probably best known for the Sniper Elite series (which has just turned 10 years old!), Zombie Army Trilogy, Rogue Trooper and of course the seminal Aliens vs Predator games.
Why did Rebellion buy Woolfe?
Aside from developing our own IP, Rebellion occasionally acquires unique and exciting projects from other developers, and we like to think we have one of the most diverse games portfolios out there.
Interestingly, our book imprints have published quite a few dark and twisted retellings of classic tales, and so Woolfe’s gorgeous, twisted take on Red Riding Hood immediately caught our interest when we heard it was up for sale.
But aside from our experience of self-publishing games on Steam for PC, we dug a little further and discovered many of Woolfe’s Kickstarter backers had still not received their rewards.
With our connections to merchandise companies, book printers and the like, we realised we’d also be better placed than most companies to step in and provide backers with their rewards.
Will Kickstarter backers receive outstanding rewards? If so, when?
That’s the plan! When we purchased Woolfe we were also given access to some of the unsent merchandise and backer rewards, both digital and physical.
We’ve still got to do a full stock-take of exactly what rewards we have, and which rewards we’ll have to produce ourselves, but for now it looks very likely we’ll be able to provide all outstanding physical add-on rewards at no further cost to backers.
Here is a full list of the rewards we will be delivering to backers:
- Art book (digital and physical)
- Regular DVD copies of Woolfe
- Deluxe Boxed versions of Woolfe (including CD soundtrack)
- Poster packs
- Limited edition stickers
- Official documents of enlistment
- Original soundtrack (mp3)
- Ringtone (mp3)
- Wallpapers (HD JPG/PNG)
- Custom answering message (mp3)
Our aim is to deliver all these rewards to backers by the end of the year. Some items might take longer than others, and some may have to be changed from their original specification depending on the assets inherited from GRIN, but we’ll keep as close to original designs as practically possible.
Are you going to continue to update the original Woolfe game?
Not in the short term. Woolfe is built in Unreal Engine 3, which is completely separate to and incompatible with Rebellion’s own in-house game engine, Asura. For now it’s too early to say if we’ll be able to support the original Woolfe game in the future. That includes development of the previously mooted console versions, but we’ll be sure to look at and consider all possibilities as we evaluate what to do next.
Will you ever make Woolfe Volume 2?
To be honest, we’ve only just got our feet under the table, so it’s too early to say yet! Part of our purchase does include assets from a second volume of Woolfe that was in development, but the new game was far from being finished.
At this stage, we’ve not had time to dig into all the game’s assets and code to properly assess what we have. Taking a game originally designed for Unreal Engine 3 and making it work in Rebellion’s own Asura engine is a huge task, and one we can’t take lightly!
We’ll update you when we know more.
What will happen to Woolfe’s Steam page?
Rebellion has taken immediate ownership of Woolfe’s Steam page. We’ll update it with some of the points discussed in this FAQ to make buyers and backers aware of the new situation, but aside from having a new name next to ‘Developer’ and ‘Publisher’, nothing major will change.
The price will remain the same, and we’ll put the game on sale from time to time for Steam’s seasonal and weekly promotions.
What will happen to the community forums?
We’ll have access to the game’s Steam Community Hub and will try to check in, moderate and update you where we can but please be patient - we have multiple projects at Rebellion and they have their own communities we need to work with too!
Will the Kickstarter page stay open?
Yes, and we will continue to update it when we have relevant news. So make sure to check in when you can!
Has our Kickstarter money gone to you?
No money has passed to Rebellion with the purchase, only Woolfe’s IP and all assets (including some of the backer rewards) related to the game. Of course these were all at least partially funded by your pledges, so that’s why we want to make sure as many backers as possible who are missing rewards still get them!
How do we get in touch with Rebellion?
Rebellion has a small in-house customer support team, so feel free to get in touch via the below options. Please remember that we typically work in UK office hours (9am-5.30pm, Monday-Friday) and try to respond within 24 working hours.
The Steam Community Hub
The Rebellion website contact form
On Twitter: @Rebellion
By email: [email protected]