According to Gamasutra, a website has popped up claiming that Cheyenne Mountain, currently developing the much-anticipated Stargate Worlds, has not paid its employees in 22 days.

Cheyenne Mountain's Kevin Balentine has gone on record as saying that there are indeed cash flow issues but that they are not hindering Stargate's development:

As of press time, it's been 21 days since staffers at Stargate Worlds creator Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment should have been paid. At least, that's what a rather stark, declarative insider website devoted solely to this claim.

Cheyenne Mountain actually seemed to be having a strong year; in March, the company's Joel Ybarra told Gamasutra that it has four teams at work on both the Stargate MMO and a second, unspecified online title.

And in April, the company formed its own publisher, FireSky, to handle Stargate Worlds and Cheyenne's other unannounced online titles.

But the company's Kevin Balentine, when approached about the "Days Since Cheyenne Mountain Employees Have Been Paid" website, told Gamasutra that the company is indeed facing cash flow challenges as a start-up in the economic downturn.

"At Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, we have always been upfront with the media and our fans that we are a start-up," said Balentine. "Like many start ups, we face the same cash-flow issues that all pre-revenue companies face."

Balentine says the company's core investors are still dedicated to the company -- "but the new economic realities are forcing us to seek out additional sources of funding, and that's what we're doing."

Meanwhile, though, Balentine claims that Stargate Worlds is still moving forward. "We recently completed a successful phase of closed beta testing and we will start a second phase early in 2009," he notes, calling the community thus far "fantastic."

Read more about Cheyenne Mountain and Gamasutra's continuing coverage at the link above.