The Rise and Fall of Drag Her: A Crowdfunded Fighting Game's Struggle to Secure Funding

The development of Drag Her, a 2D hand-drawn fighting game featuring real-life drag artists, came to an abrupt halt in May 2024 due to a lack of funding. Despite meeting its Kickstarter goal of $69,000 in February 2022, the game's studio, Fighting Chance Games, was unable to secure additional funding to complete the project. According to studio director and producer Ian Ramsay, the Kickstarter campaign was intended to demonstrate the game's market potential and attract further investment, rather than fully fund the game's development. Ramsay acknowledges that the studio failed to clearly communicate this to its backers, which has led to criticism. The game's vertical slice, which was polished for presentation to investors, did help secure some grants and interest from publishers, but ultimately, no deal materialized. Ramsay believes that the game's all-femme, queer cast may have been a factor in publishers' reluctance to invest, with many expressing weariness about the fighting game genre. Despite the game's positive reception at events like Evo, the studio struggled to find funding, with Ramsay suggesting that the current industry climate, which prioritizes risk aversion, made it difficult for a game with a diverse and queer cast to secure investment. The failure of Drag Her to find funding has significant implications for the representation of LGBT characters and themes in games, highlighting the ongoing challenges faced by queer developers in securing support for their projects.