Them's Fightin' Herds accused of breaking promises as it ceases development of Story Mode

Developer Mane6 is ceasing active development on Them's Fightin' Herds, meaning there will be no new content once the game's Season Pass 1 is finished.

This includes its Story Mode, a feature which was promised as part of Them's Fightin' Herds' initial Indiegogo campaign.

The studio slipped this news in rather casually towards the end of a recent blog update about the game, where it detailed its upcoming DLC characters.

"As we look forward to the release of Nidra and Baihe, let's talk about what comes next. After the Season 1 Pass is complete, we will be ceasing active development on TFH," it wrote. "We will still be able to release small patches to address game-breaking bugs, but no new content will be produced. Unfortunately, that includes Story Mode."

The studio stated Story Mode was always an "ambitious feature", and one it "truly desired to implement" into the game.

"We know how much our fans have been looking forward to Story Mode chapters, and we hope you understand how much we looked forward to working on and releasing them. We are looking for opportunities to release content that has already been produced for Chapter 2, starting with a new stage, 'Restricted Section'. This stage will be a part of the version 6.0 update alongside Nidra and Baihe," the studio continued, before addressing Crowdfunding rewards.

The developer said it will need to "adjust" some of the perks it had originally planned for its community, with more information promised in the next few weeks. The relevant supporters have been asked to keep an eye on their emails and the game's Indiegogo channel.

"Thank you all for taking the time to read this announcement and for sticking with us all these years," the studio closed. "We will continue updating our players on our social channels and look forward to our new characters releasing soon."

Understandably, many are upset by this decision. While the game still has a largely positive reception on Steam, it has received an influx of negative reviews following this update, with many accusing the developer of breaking its promises.

"On the most recent development update, it was announced in a tiny paragraph after showing off the new characters, that development of this game is due to be ceased indefinitely. The story mode, which was advertised in the Indiegogo campaign and was part of a stretch goal is now scrapped after years of being told it was coming and that development was being done. What a joke," wrote one user.

Another added: "While I'm giving a negative review, this does not reflect the game itself. In fact, this game is great! However, I'm upset over the broken promises (most notably Story Mode). I understand that this is a small indie company that was mostly being crowd sourced, however, you should be a man of your word (er...company in this case) especially if they are people supporting you monetarily and had this expectation that you were going to fulfil the promises that you yourself set to your customers. It's in a way false advertisement and puts your honesty and integrity to question."

Others have stated they wish they could get a refund.

Them's Fightin' Herds started life as an unofficial fan-made title pitting characters from the animated TV show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic against one another. Series rights holder Hasbro eventually issued Mane6 with a cease and desist order, at which point the team opted to continue work on the game, retaining its four-legged fighting theme but with brand-new characters.

Friendship is Magic creative director and producer Lauren Faust then stepped in; having heard of Hasbro's cease and desist order, Faust offered to lend her talents and design an entirely new animal roster for the fighter, incorporating everything from alpaca to reindeer.