/videogames/ - Vidya Game Lounge

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The sorry state of The Stomping Land, another abandoned Kickstarter video game
Still on sale on Steam for £19.

It appears that The Stomping Land, a multiplayer survival game about dinosaurs that raised over $100,000 on Kickstarter, is finally dead.

In January freelance 3D character artist Vlad Konstantinov announced he had temporarily stopped working on the game following the departure of its creator Alex "Jig" Fundora, who hails from Buffalo, New York, but has lived in South Florida for most of his life.

In a post on The Stomping Land forum(thanks, PC Gamer), Konstantinov claimed Fundora had ignored his repeated attempts at contact.

"I'm sad to say this but I have to temporarily freeze all my work for TLS project," he wrote.

"More than a month has passed since the day when I received the last reply from Jig. I've sent him five messages and haven't got any single reply. I don't know, probably he has some serious reasons to ignore me (and whole community) but to my mind there are no excuses for such behaviour. Not to mention the fact that Jig owes me the money for the latest model, he's put me in a very difficult situation because now I will have to pay our texture artist for his work from my own pocket.

"If this silence continues I will stop my participation in TSL and start taking the necessary measures to cover my expenses (sell the models for example)."

Now, Konstantinov has left the project, signing on to work on Beasts of Prey, another dinosaur sandbox survival game.

While "Jig" appears to have done a runner, The Stomping Land remains up for sale on Steamas an Early Access title that costs £18.99.

A message from Jig displayed on The Stomping Land's product page on Steam claims it's currently in development.

"It has had a year of progress and will continue to undergo production with frequent updates until the end of 2015."

Given recent events, that message now appears misleading. One customer review considered "useful" issues a stark warning: "DEVS ARE GONE. DON'T BUY IT!"

This after the game was pulled from Steam back in September 2014 following months of silence.

Disgruntled Kickstarter backers, who collectively pledged $114,060 to the project, have reacted in anger.

One, "Unicornz", pledged $90 to The Stomping Land. In a post on The Stomping Land forumhe said "I am thoroughly regretting it".

Unicornz asked Kickstarter for a refund, but it doesn't sound like the crowdfunding company will part with any cash.

"We expect all members of the Kickstarter community to act with honesty and openness," Unicornz was told.

"When we find that people are abusing the system or the trust of others, we do not hesitate to suspend their account or restrict certain account privileges, like launching another project. We have a dedicated Integrity Team that monitors our system and reviews reports that we receive from our community.

"While we can't speak to the nature of specific projects that have been approved or declined, we're constantly working on improving our vetting process for creators and we are grateful for the feedback that folks like you provide."

A clearly despondent Unicornz added: "This game has kinda ruined backing projects/Early Access games on Steam for me. Lost 99 per cent faith in this project, but part of me hopes that this wasn't a scam and that it will be completed one day."

:hero:

I've never given to a kickstarter game. If it comes out and it's decent, I'll buy it then. I did follow Starbound, that secured that I won't follow a single temptation to donate.

I did buy an early access game and get a refund. Now I've just got the money stuck in Steam and I won't use it. It's what I get for being an idiot.

I have never "invested" in a kickstarter, but my friend did buy me an early access copy of Starbound and I had to endure it a few times with him until I was able to convince him to wait until it's more finished. It's been what now, a year? And it's still boring as shit with boatloads of useless content with zero gameplay or progression.

Protip for any aspiring indies here: Do public free alphas/betas for the first few months/years, and don't fucking start charging for early access until your game is actually fun to play. Otherwise, you'll just burn any goodwill and hype you had. Better yet, if your game isn't in some way enjoyable early on, you're probably doing something wrong.

Also, don't just build a bunch of random-ass sprites and environments and throw them in there at once, like "we'll balance things later." Think about the progression from the start, so that early adopters will feel like "I'm playing the beginning of a game" and not "there's all shit and nothing to DO."

I was tempted to fund Mighty Number 9, and was really glad I didn't. I wanted to fund a bunch of others that could never realistically meet their financial goals like Gunlord, but decided against it.

The only fundraiser I've actually put money down on is Yatagarasu, and it's been delayed multiple times but at least the devs have an arcade release to show for it and it was only ten bucks for a copy anyway, so I don't feel ripped off. Other than that my brother pledged enough to get a physical copy of Sekai Project's Clannad localization. I'm really only interested in projects that look like they'd be able to deliver or if they have a track record for fulfilling their promises. I'm not going to fund someone's project if it only looks like they have an idea.

I was gonna invest in that Ron Gilbert point 'n click thimbleweed park, but I noticed Ron decided to be retarded and recreate those old, clunky, word based user interfaces from ye olde days of adventure gaming. (You know, the ones where you had to click on the options like: Talk to, use, turn, open, look at, give, open etc.)

Kickstarter has always come off as uncertain footing to me. I have too much experience with autism and how it flocks to the vidya to put down some money on an unfinished product. The only "unfinished" games I bought were Minecraft (big mistake but I've had a few good times with friends), Overgrowth (which is making fucking slow as shit progress but at least progress is being made) and Neo Scavenger from Steam early access which has been released and is mostly alright and while the developer delivered what he promised when it was released, the final product didn't blow me away.

>>582
>I was tempted to fund Mighty Number 9, and was really glad I didn't.
What happened to Mighty Number 9? Were the devs merchants and only pocketed the money? Did it come out and is really shitty? I was (and am, if it's still good) hoping to buy it on release.

As for me, I have never supported a campaign because I have yet to find one that seems to be ran by a person with competent finance skills just judging by their goals, for a simple reason. Usually the money is to just make the game itself, which is basically free to do if you put in the effort. If you really NEED the money to make a game, it's probably because you need the programs to make said game. If you don't have the program, then you have to learn how to use the program to make a game, and have to spend time practicing the techniques to making a good game.

This is where a really big issue comes into play. It takes many, *many* years to actually become good at making good games. Then it takes a long time after that to make a good game itself, at least if you want the game to be lengthy or have deep, fleshed out mechanics. This not only gives the payer and players a long time to forget about the game, but much more than enough time for somebody who has no experience making games on a certain program to give up either learning its ins and outs or making the game itself. And that's going off the assumption that the person doing the project got enough money to not have to work and focus 100% on the game.

Usually the stretch goals only make me really suspicious For example, the ones for the Underworld Ascendant by Otherside Entertainment. What especially bothers me is that, for going dollars 600,000 over the original goal, the writers suddenly get more creative and start making a "Deeper Lore and Backstory" for the game. What kind of creative block are the writers having that they can't do this without an extra $600k? Why are they holding the game's story hostage for extra cash, especially since a good story with great lore is something an RPG is usually expected to have? Goals like that just reek with suspicion and raise questions as to whether or not they care about the game enough to actually finish it.

There are some stretch goals that I would find acceptable, but I've never seen very many acceptable stretch goals myself.

>>608
>What happened to Mighty No. 9?

So many thiggs happened that it's become it's own mythology. The troubles started when Comcept hired one of the devs girlfriends as a community manager. Dina was a fucking crazy SJW that would completely silence all discussion on the backers forum and ban paying backers for not toeing the line. She was also hired as a concept artist and claims to have never played a megaman game or like video games in general. There was a big rebellion and a lot of disillusioned backers requested refunds and were denied. A hundred dollar backer was even blocked by the official MN9 twitter account.

Also the game looks bad compared to the original concept art, iwafune spent a lot of the kickstarter money on a trailer for a shitty looking cartoon series before the game even finished, and they are behind schedule.

http://techraptor.net/content/might-no-9-lesson-manage-community

>>608
Even today, the campaign is controversial not because of the game itself (some backers seem to enjoy it and are still looking forward to it), but to the events surrounding it. It just feels like a lot of the hype was overinflated and the sentiments that Inafune put behind the original campaign were insincere. It left a really bad taste in my mouth to see that there was such a huge blowup over the community manager, and that she's so terrible at her job that she deliberately antagonizes and polarizes disgruntled supporters of the game.

To me, the way these events were handled were just completely unprofessional and I sympathize with those who were excited about the game but feel emotionally cheated or baited by nostalgia.

On the lighter side of crowdfunding, what games did you not fund by buy afterwards (good or bad)? Anything you're waiting to be released?

Divinity: Original Sin did rather well for itself, as did DreadOut iirc.

>>609
Incidentally, some people backed with credit cards and were able to get refunds by requesting a chargeback from their issuer. If you're reading this and backed MN9, go do that.

>>572
I funded the Homestuck 'game'.

It was slated for a 2014 release. Now it's gone for a Broken Age format with the first half being released in 2015.

It was also revealed to be an adventure game, a la Broken Age. Now, that's cool and all, but I was personally hoping for an RPG of some kind.

It was also revealed to not have anything to do with Sburb, which is the major setting of the webcomic. Sburb was a 'game inside the webcomic' where each character was given a class, aspect and customised land. It was the RPG that you always wanted to play. To be told that the game about a webcomic about a game had nothing to do with the webcomic's game was disheartening, to say the least. While it was never presented as 'play through Sburb', the reveal that it would have nothing to do with it came after the chips were in and the money on the table.

It didn't help that this project was the cause of massive faltering in the update schedule of the original webcomic. It also didn't help that after the kickstarter, the webcomic started to decline in quality, to the point where 'the comic is shit' was a running joke. It seems to be picking up now, but it still stings.

Overall, I think I'd rather that the game hadn't been a thing. Unfortunately, that's not an option, so I guess I'll look forward to it getting released and Homestuck finishing properly.

I haven't paid for any kickstarter since im still in school but does anyone know the progress of TheUnsungStory. Did matsuno run off with the money?

>>664
Apparently after four months silence, not answering messages or e-mails, they put out this update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/482445197/unsung-story-tale-of-the-guardians/posts/1065801

>>665
The problem with crowdfunding is that devs don't know how to treat people who are customers while simultaneously being investors. Under a formal publishing model the devs would have been expected to meet regularly scheduled deadlines and to have something to show off for it, but at the same time they'd also have a regular salary to go along with it.

With crowdfunding, everything is so chaotic. You're not just trying to meet the expectations of a handful of producers holding the money, you're supposed to be able to please the vast majority of your backers. However, to get more money, you need more backers, which simultaneously means you now have more voices to please.

I feel like this model of funding is pretty flawed and I don't see it being good for the industry long-term unless devs can figure out how to correctly budget their time between development and community management, and even then I can only see it working for smaller, less ambitious projects.

invested in wateland 2, fucking happy with it

invested in double fine adventure a.k..a broken age, still waiting

Not a vidya, but I ordered a camera lucida from kickstarter. It's a type of prism that bends light to project on paper. The guys were offering them at 30 bucks each, which was way better than anything else on the market. I put down 30 for a preorder of the first batch and totally forgot about it until I recieved a pleasant surprise in the mail 11 months later. Thats the only crowdfunding I've ever done aside from some GG related stuff, but those didn't have expectations.

>>681
Your money probably went into DJ Phil Fishes tip jar.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/849914695/cat-simulator-an-exploding-and-exciting-cats-and-k?ref=nav_search

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1330754003/bear-simulator

When will people stop throwing money at these literal scams? Why this shit? I could understand if it was a game people were actually looking forward to playing, like STALKER 2, but this is purely intentionally garbage.

>>572
I backed Super Retro Squad, it got cancelled and with the director of the project blaming everyone except himself of the failure.

I don't know if this counts, but i also pre-ordered Starbound...

since them, i vowed to never again pre-order anything or buy anything from early access.

that being said, i really want broforce to get out of early access, because that looks like a very good co-op game.

>>572
Thankfully I've never donated to a kickstarter. That's not out of prudence, though, I'm just poor.

>>679
Agreed. The other issue is that when publishers are holding the money, it seems to be more difficult for developers to squander it. Generally they seem looser with the budget or just incompetent when it comes to money - nobody's giving them reasonable limits. Like how Tim S. blew all of his money away because he needed to work in an incredibly expensive city.

Saying that I've found another one that's fallen to the side: River City Ransom Underground.

There have been cases where the developers are able to handle the unusual circumstances, e.g. Shovel Knight but it does seem it's very few and far between.

It makes me wonder how a situation like the NightCry PC port will work out. They're developers who have been in the industry for a long time and they were already releasing the game (but just wanted funding for a port). They're still independent but their previous experience seems to be making them much more professional.

Similarly there's the Pathologic remake I want to succeed but IPL has been through some tough times recently so they could easily mess up again.

>>689
>When will people stop throwing money at these literal scams?
The bear one got written about on Shitaku so idiots and too much money. It suffered from the same issue the vast majority of Western VNs do: no creativity, determined to copy (in this case Hatoful).

>>572
starbound all though that was early acces basically the same thing anyway.
still upset about how shit the game is.

Other than Towns most of the DF like games are doing pretty good for early access or kickstarters

>>760
>Towns
trainwreck
>Gnomoria
very slow development
>Castle Story
flaming trainwreck, absolutely retarded dev team, kickstarter money went towards a swanky office in downtown Montreal instead of the actual game, the only PR guy refuses to speak english
>spacebase df9
fuck you mr. shitface

>>762
>Gnomoria
>very slow development
its one dude working his ass off and getting an update every other week done

>Castle Story
at first i thought they weren't even going to actually work on the game then out of nowhere they started going full speed on developing

>spacebase df9
you've got me there, that game was a train-wreck but i saw that from day 1

I backed Godus, something that I will never live down

Also Elite:Dangerous, which by the time it came out I no longer cared about

Cavern Kings, which was good and is still in development

Air Brawl, which wasn't successful (the dev went for Kickstarter too early, not enough people knew about the game)

And finally I backed Mionix's new mouse, which is somewhat gaming related I guess. The gimmick seems pointless but I wanted a new mouse and it was the same price to kickstart it and wait as it was to buy their new one, so I decided to wait, I wasn't desperate

>>826
And yeah before anyone says it I know I'm an idiot

>>828
>mouse tracks your performance using biofeedback

That's pretty silly.

>>829
I can't imagine it being useful at all, and with my grip I don't even know if it would work for me, but as I said I wanted a new mouse and I figured I may as well get that rather than the current one, at least it's something new

I backed the new Shantae game. I haven't played the GBC but I enjoyed the other games. The new art style is certainly different, but they showed that up front so it would be silly to complain about it. At the moment, it just looks like more of the same and I'm happy about that. The only thing that worries me is that a lot if Wayforward's talent have left and/or joined the Yacht Club, so things like level design that one can't really judge until one plays it might be lacking. I'm optimistic, but I'm not setting the bar all that high anyway.

Although technically not Kickstarter, I bought Starbound for me and my brother on early access. We loved playing Terraria together and we enjoyed playing Starbound too, albeit for a much shorter time. It felt like a long demo and I'd be lying if I say I'm not disappointed that it will never be finished. I'm very wary of both Kickstarter and early access now. The only thing on early access that has delivered for me is Nuclear Throne. Ignoring what an ignoramus Rami whatever his name is on twitter, its a great shooter and a blast on local coop.

I backed a bunch of Kickstarters, and am proud of all of them.
Divinity Original Sin
La Mulana 2
Armikrog
Wasteland 2
Lords of Xulima

and a bunch of others I don't remember atm.

I wasn't stupid enough to invest in obvious shady shit like Stomping Grounds or Yogventures. Anybody who backed these is a retard who deserves to lose his money.

My only regret is backing Double Fine's game: Nobody could have known how terrible it would end.

>>931
Nice resume. You should get into stock trading :^)

I never kikestarted something but I alpha-funded Underrail and Minecraft
Underrail is really turning up fine and I can't wait to play it.
The second game, on the other hand...
well we all know how it ended.

Crosscode

http://www.cross-code.com/en/home
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/crosscode

Many.
Door kickers, Prison Architect, Xenonauts to name a few.

Starforge is pretty much only one that burned.
You can usually see from the devmap that will the game pan out. Those examples i gave were all tight, relatively simple.