Some might still remember the ill-fated Project Phoenix Kickstarter campaign from 2013, to create a strategy RPG with heavy influences from Final Fantasy Tactics. The project had reputable staff members with experience from games like Valkyria Chronicles, Steins;Gate, L.A. Noire, Final Fantasy III, and more, who's names helped funding break the million dollar mark, out of a $100,000 goal. Project Phoenix was slated for a March 2015 release and, obviously, failed to meet that deadline.

In 2017, after a lack of updates on Phoenix's development, it was suddenly announced that a new game called Tiny Metal was being worked on by Project Phoenix's leader; Hiroaki Yura. Concerns arose when it was revealed that Tiny Metal would be developed in order to gain funding for Phoenix, which already had a $1,000,000 budget through crowdfunding. It was stressed that Tiny Metal was not being funded with Project Phoenix's money, but with mostly radio silence on the original game, things were looking bleak.

An employee, Tariq Lacy, said to be working on both games claimed that Yura was embezzling money in order to get Tiny Metal developed. Lacy took to the game's official Facebook to outline an alleged embezzlement plot, which Yura claimed was slander. Both became embroiled in a court case against the other, and a year later, the results have been decided. Tokyo's Civil Affairs Court has mandated that Lacy must publicly admit that their claims were incorrect and slander, as well as paying out around $3,700 in damages. Though, Lacy is still owed $5,400 in contract fees that have been yet unpaid, that must be paid as well.

On November 20, 2017 (Heisei 29) I posted the entry “Comments” to the AREA 35 Co., Ltd. (Representative Director Yura Hiroaki) operated Facebook page entitled “Project Phoenix”, at a point in time after my own departure from that same company. In regard to this entry, and with the exception of the fact that I was employed by the company until two months prior to the posting, I now admit that everything it stated was contrary to the truth, and I offer a deep and profound apology to AREA 35 Co., Ltd.

Furthermore, I also apologize for significant damage caused to AREA 35 Co., Ltd., and damage caused to the good name and reputation of Mr. Yura Hiroaki, due to such occurrences as the falsehoods that I posted being picked up and reported by media organizations within the United States of America.

I am fully aware that my actions also relate to the trust placed in the videogame industry, and that they must have been very shocking for everyone involved in said industry.

Please allow me to apologize again for my actions.

Source

Project Phoenix still has received no updates, despite Tiny Metal having launched late last year.

 

[AdamFX990]

When considering the amount of free media attention Tiny Metal got from the drama and the result of the case, I would've thought it prudent for this Hiroaki guy to capitalise on the chance to reveal some progress on Project Phoenix. But it seems to me the Phoenix is down...

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

Ah, so he won the lawsuit. Good for him, but unfortunately I think the damage is already done as far as public opinion goes.

 

[the_randomizer]

Never even heard of this *shrug*

 

[MeteoXavier]

I've had personal contact and experience with Hiroaki Yura before all this and the Project Phoenix thing was started. A long time ago, when I was a young VGM composer wannabe trying to get any kind of work whatsoever, I happened upon a project that promised big things and a big budget. I had talked the project director into letting me see if we could get Hiroki Kikuta to re-arrange one of my themes into something with vocals and Hiroaki introduced himself to me on Facebook as a mediator between the two of us. I came exceptionally close to getting an old song re-arranged by Hiroki and then the project director disappeared without a trace. So that was the end of that opportunity.

Oddly still, I occasionally talked to Hiroaki a couple times after that on the subject and he made some rather bizarre claims about Hiroki Kikuta that he volunteered seemingly out of nowhere - specifically that Hiroki had weird emotional/personal problems and he did all his work on an old and overheating iMac. Then at some random point Hiroaki blocked me entirely from Facebook for reasons I'm completely in the dark about.

So when I read this stuff, it's like... I dunno... I don't really completely trust either side...

 

[tyrran]

This game looked too good to be true when it was teased on Kickstarter: fantastic core concepts, gorgeous graphics, really great “Kickstarter only” bonuses for backers and, best of all, Uematsu Nobuo attached for the soundtrack. It made me so sad that I couldn’t back for a copy at the time, and I hoped to eventually scrape together enough to slacker-back through their website.

Jesus in a Tesla, am I glad I saved my money. This dumpster fire is going to burn long into the next decade, and I wonder if I’ll ever see it launched.

 

[Prior22]

Tiny Metal and Wargroove were both tributes to the Advance Wars series. Hopefully Nintendo can take this is as a hint to devote less attention to the fifty billionth Fire Emblem release, and more to the first AW since 2008.

 

[Chary]

Ah, so he won the lawsuit. Good for him, but unfortunately I think the damage is already done as far as public opinion goes.

The damage was already done when he needed to create another game to get cash for his million dollar Kickstarter that's about 3 years overdue with no well detailed explaination.

 

[Ericthegreat]

Tiny metal == Tiny soldering?