Glorious Leader was supposed to be a 16 bit side scroller where you controlled North Korea’s nefarious leader, Kim Jong Un.While the game was initially slated for a 2014 November release, it appears that the Kickstarter for the game had been hacked thus halting the project indefinitely. Developer Moneyhorse Games launched the Kickstarter in order to secure a budget in order to finish the game.
While such a game was a surefire way to raise attention from North Korea, Moneyhorse Games do not believe that the hack orchestrated on Glorious Leader’s Kickstarter came from said country: “As many of you know, over the holidays we were victims of a hack inspired by the attack on Sony… We realize that we also made mistakes in our pledge levels and rewards. It is now evident that our funding goals will not be met, so we are cancelling our Kickstarter campaign.” The statement which was posted this weekend seems to emphasize the unclear future of Glorious Leader. Besides the hack, the development team were also threatened by numerous unnamed parties making Glorious Leader dead on arrival. While the cancellation came swift, Glorious Leader was able to raise $16.816 out of its $55.000 goal.
Glorious Leader was first announced in May 2014 and it could have been a fun game. Imagine playing Kim Jong Un whilst riding a unicorn and running down enemies. Moneyhorse Games also wanted to reference The Interview and the whole Sony fiasco so you could imagine why such a bold idea could be considered a factor in the project’s demise. The creators seem to think otherwhise : “We need to address the website hack. We are sure that this is a hoax perpetrated by amateurs. We have NO reason to believe that this was done by the GOP or anyone affiliated with North Korea. It appears to be an opportunistic copycat, as we have been the target of hacking attempts in the past.” With Glorious Leader on hold, who knows when the next step for this courageous game will happen.