Hack leads to cancelling of Glorious Leader! on Kickstarter

First appearing on Kickstarter last month, Glorious Leader!was a side-scrolling shooter in the vein of Contraor the rather more obscure arcade title Sly Spy: Secret Agent.

The twist was that you played a slightly grotesque caricature of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as he blasted his way through wave after wave of capitalist forces. One level saw the leader ride a unicorn, while another had him charge across the ocean on the back of a narwhal.

It seems that someone, somewhere didn't see the funny side of Glorious Leader!, however. The team behind it, Moneyhorse Games, has stated that it was the victim of a hack over the Christmas break, which it says has "destroyed data pertaining to Glorious Leader! and other projects we had in development."

"The timing couldn't have been worse," Moneyhorse's Kickstarter update continued, "as it hampered our ability to attend to the Kickstarter project."

As a result, Moneyhorse has pulled Glorious Leader! from Kickstarter, and the future of the game now seems uncertain:

"This is not the first time we have been targeted because of Glorious Leader! Between the hacking and other threats, we think it is time to reevaluate our commitment to Glorious Leader!We thank our fans and supporters, and we are sorry to let you down."

Moneyhorse have also admitted that it "made mistakes" when it came to the Kickstarter campaign's pledge levels and rewards. Before Glorious Leader! was pulled, it amassed $16,816 of its $55,000 target. The studio also said elsewhere that it had "no reason" to believe that the hack had any direct connection to North Korea, but was instead "inspired by the attack on Sony."

Whoever the culprit was, the hack appears to have brought a much-publicised game (it's appeared on Fox News and in The Guardian) to a premature end. A pity, because the poster was spectacular: 

PC Gamer