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Posted By Gabriel B. about 6 months, 4 weeks ago
KickStarter-Funded Game Stopped Dead in its Tracks As Programmers Quit ,
The definition of disappointment: A turn-based strategy game where you pit monsters and humans against each other not getting released.
Haunts: The Manse Macabre was one of the many successfully funded games games that came out of the KickStarter boom this year. The game, which is a “Turn-based horror game,” has players play as humans who are breaking into a haunted house filled with terrible secrets or the monstrous denizens of the house, who are protecting their home. The game, once it is released, can be played against an AI opponent or against other players online.
Unfortunately, the game’s release might not happen due to the programmers leaving to pursue other jobs. Rick Dakan, the game’s creator, wrote an update today which stated the game’s dire straits. Dakan had expected one of the programmers to leave but had not expected both to leave and not be able to work on the project in their spare time, which leaves the game in a state of limbo, almost finished but too bug-ridden to release.
Dakan and the game’s artist unfortunately do not have the necessary programming knowledge to finish the game and are taking their game around in hopes of finding a studio that will help finish the game. Currently they are in talks with Blue Mammoth Games, the group behind Dungeon Blitz but they will keep exploring any options that get the game finished.
Now before anyone cries “SCAM!” know that Dakan has released a gameplay video, showing the game’s current status, and made a bold promise: anyone who donated to the Kickstarter campaign and would like a refund will receive one out of Dakan’s own pocket (since the money raised in the campaign will has already been put towards finishing the game). The video is below:
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Also, can someone from BT please fix the Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down code? It’s been messed up for weeks, and it’s getting downright annoying.
Hopefully he’ll be able to find someone to help finish it. Though, this should serve as a cautionary tale to people who put their money in to Kick-starter as well as indie developers who don’t really understand the “Business” side of what they’re doing.
You get yer money back if it doesn’t go through, so it’s not like yer losing it.
Assuming that the money isn’t already spent by that point. If there is no money in the company’s funds to provide the refund, then it’s in limbo and will probably not reappear. In this case, the owner has offered to reimburse investors with his own private funds, but I wouldn’t hinge my hopes on his personal resources being inexhaustible.
Without knowing the context, I want to say that the second programmer is kind of an asshole for ditching the game when it sounds and looks like it’s in its late alpha stage. However, I don’t know the reason for why he quit, so I can’t really make any judgement. Kind of sucks that the contributors might not even see the game they funded.
If the money went to developing the game, then it seems this was basically a budget issue; they managed to pay the programmers up until they were unable to pay them any longer, and now they’re stuck trying to find people to finish the game for them and release it.
“Dakan had expected one of the programmers to leave but had not expected both to leave and not be able to work on the project in their spare time” – seriously? He knew a programmer would leave but did nothing to safeguard against it? And according to the context, it was the team’s only programmer?
I’m sorry but that’s just irresponsible.
Actually according to the context it was one of two programmers that he expected would leave so he thought at least one of them would still be there. The one who was leaving had planned to leave after a year but then the second programmer also quit.
Sounds like an age old tale of finding cheap labour, labour in a different country, poorly thought out contracts organised by people who don’t actually know what they’re doing or a combination of the above. I suspect there will be a lot of this sort of thing in the coming years, but the Kickstarter outcry won’t really start until a few failed projects refuse to give money back… so good on him for that at least.