Kingdom Builder MarshlandsDonald X. Vaccarino announced that Queen Games’ upcoming Kingdom Builder expansion’s Kickstarter campaign has been cancelled. Last week, the game designer made a public statement on BoardGameGeek.com’s message forums about lack of payment and the expiration of the contract. “The contract expires if they haven’t published the expansion by June 30 2015,” he writes. “[G]iven that they haven’t paid me yet for 2014, I’m not feeling inclined to give them more time.”

This morning, Mr. Vaccarino reports that Queen Games has been working with him to determine “just how much exactly they owe me for 2014, in a completely friendly fashion, and has paid most of it.” He attributes the post and the crossposting to the Kickstarter comments to have motivated the company to pay him.

Queen Games has published a statement about the campaign’s cancellation in a backers-only update. Queen says they will not have the rights to publish the expansion after the 30th of June and that the contract will not be extended by the designer. “Before the campaign started, everything was lined up for publishing the German edition by that time,” the update reads. “But for unfortunate circumstances we could no longer hold that date.”

The designers for Tortuga, Jay Cormier and Sen-Foong Lim, also have stated they have not been paid by Queen Games for 2014. In a post on reddit’s boardgames subreddit, Jay Cormier says that the company only pays once per year, with ninety days after the end of the calendar to make payment. “It’s now June 19th,” he writes, “and we still haven’t been paid. We’ve sent them numerous emails – with hardly any responses.” The designers, who also developed a boardgame based on the Orphan Black television show as well as Belfort by Tasty Minstrel Games, state they are glad that Donald X. Vaccarino went public with his frustration and hope that spurs Queen Games to settle their account as well.

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