The creators of The Walking Dead: The Prison board game canceled their Kickstarter campaign over the weekend, announcing they've secured an exclusive distribution agreement with Diamond-owned Alliance Game Distributors. The officially licensed game is expected to be solicited this week.

"Given that we now have an amazing distribution deal with the perfect distribution partner, we don't feel comfortable continuing to ask for funding money through Kickstarter," the developers said in an update posted Saturday. "As such, in a short while, we're going to cancel our campaign for the game, and focus all our energies on getting the game to the distribution center as soon as possible."

They announced plans to offer Kickstarter exclusives to the 387 people who had supported the project. By the time the campaign was shut down, it had raised $31,830 of its $81,100 goal.

Announced early this month, the project is standalone sequel to Z-Man Games' hit 2011 release Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead: The Board Game, based on the bestselling comic series (rather than the television adaptation, like Cryptozoic's game). As the title suggests, The Walking Dead: The Prison uses the West Central Prison as a backdrop, but it also allows places to explore North Atlanta.

Designed by Keith Tralins through MegaGigaOmniCorp, and featuring art by Charlie Adlard, the game is priced at $49.99. Tralins provided background about its development in a recent interview with Comic Book Resources.