id Software co-founders John Romero and Adrian Carmack (no relation to fellow id Software co-founder and gaming legend John Carmack) launched a Kickstarter campaign earlier this week for a compelling new game called Blackroom.

The game, which was to be the first from new studio Night Work Games, was well on its way to reaching its $700,000 funding goal with more than $131,000 in pledges from 2,287 backers before Romero and Carmack pulled the plug on the campaign a few hours ago.

An update on the game's Kickstarter page said they're pressing pause on the campaign in order to make a gameplay demo.

Romero told Develop that people have been receptive to the game's concept but they want to see some gameplay footage. A demo was already in the works, Romero said, but it won't be ready by the end of the campaign so they decided to step back and wait until the demo is ready before moving forward.

While Romero laid out his vision for the game, the pitch lacked any actual game footage or screenshots, instead relying only on concept art.

The veteran designer said they're not in a massive rush to hurry up, get all the money and start making the game. Instead, they want to do it the right way and will finish the demo then hit reset. They expect to have the demo ready in a month or so and will relaunch the Kickstarter at that point with the same goal and reward structure.

The cancellation comes as a bit of a surprise, especially as others in the industry like Boss Key Productions founder Cliff Bleszinski had publicly vouched for Romero in recent days.