Smiling Gator goes belly up

While others were ringing in the new year, the death knell was tolling for Florida-based startup developer Smiling Gator. In a posting on its Twilight War: After the Fall Web site yesterday, the company revealed that it was closing up shop.

"Our committed funds have run dry and we were not successful in the hunt for additional investment," the posting read. "The Web sites and e-mail will be disabled in the coming days, so this is our last announcement before we shut down for good."

Twilight War, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game using the Source engine (first featured in Half-Life 2), would have been Smiling Gator's first game. The company had billed Twilight War as "an MMORPG with an integrated first-person-shooter-style combat system where thousands of online players come together in an expansive and immersive three-dimensional world."

The posting directed gamers still interested in the now-canceled title to the Twilight War HQ fan site.