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[sjm9876]

They haven't given up (officially), however what's been said is that Josh has postponed a face to face meeting yet again, and is still pretty much ignoring contact. I think Fenicks is borderline giving up at this point, and has taken it down so as to deter anyone new coming into the wait. But yeah - doesn't look too good, to be perfectly honest.

[forsaken1111]

At this stage I'd imagine the only sensible move would be to cut unfinished features until you get a minimum viable product and release that, then continue development on whatever sales come in for that version. I'd probably buy it.

[Xantalos]

At this stage I'd imagine the only sensible move would be to cut unfinished features until you get a minimum viable product and release that, then continue development on whatever sales come in for that version. I'd probably buy it.

That might be a thing that could be possible, judging by their pre-Kickstarter claims that they already had a game and just needed the thing for actual art money.

Unfortunately, seems Josh's entered a strange mood, to put a light tone on it.

[forsaken1111]

Sounds more like people are heckling them because of missed deadlines and now he's grown depressed or cynical and will likely just say "fuck it, and fuck them".

[ndkid]

Situations like this are sad, because there are no real winners. Josh and Joe didn't pull enough in to retire to a private island or anything; even if you wanted to believe ill of them (I don't), chances are good the days where the KS money could support a life of leisure have long since past. I guess the artists who got paid for specific delivered work got through okay, and I guess the folks who get to feel superior along the way because they either didn't back or got a full refund get the pleasure of repeating "I told you so", but for everyone else, including the dinosaurs, this mostly seems to be a pile of bitterness.

[Xgamer4]

Yeah, every time Fenicks comments on finances (...at least seriously), it's basically boiled down to "Josh is living off ramen, and even the dust has left our purses". They ain't doin' well, to sum it up.

That said, while I can sympathize, nothing really inspires confidence... If it's a failure, take it out back and put it out of its misery. If not, give us something. Anything.

[puke]

Good on them for giving it a solid try. 

Too bad it hasn't worked out, but maybe they'll release something if they are not overly demoralized by the hostile responses.  I wouldn't, but they're already better people than me for giving it a try in the first place.

Also too bad they lost so much of their own money trying to bring to life a product for the enjoyment of others.  I hope they manage to create something of it yet, but any reasonable businessman would have already stopped chasing the sunk cost.

[ZeroGravitas]

Good on them for giving it a solid try.

Personally I think this is giving them too much credit. I'm guessing they never really had the means or even a plan to make a real game. Just some ideas, that turned into some Unity mock-ups.

[Sergarr]

Good on them for giving it a solid try.

Personally I think this is giving them too much credit. I'm guessing they never really had the means or even a plan to make a real game. Just some ideas, that turned into some Unity mock-ups.

No, I think they got significantly further than that. It's just that they've forgotten a simple truth: perfect is the worst enemy of good.

[forsaken1111]

I think they had a game at 75% or so completion and would have finished it well within budget with the kickstarter funds but the stretch goals pushed the completion time so far outside of the budget that they're running into the red now and it might ruin any chance of the game ever seeing the light of day.

[Lapoleon]

Good on them for giving it a solid try.

Personally I think this is giving them too much credit. I'm guessing they never really had the means or even a plan to make a real game. Just some ideas, that turned into some Unity mock-ups.

Lots of things like the constant delays, some weird misspellings in sceenshots etc. point towards this.

The weird thing however is that there are external artists that have been paid. 90% of the money arrived during the Kickstarter, so there has been no point to stringing everybody along in order to make more money and Josh has spent so much time on the forums that he could have earned quite a few bucks working in the IT business in the same time.

It all leads me to believe that Josh is in a terrible place in his own mind where he is lying to himself that everything will be okay if he just had one more day to fix it. I've been there myself and it can be quite hard to break it, especially if you're outside your normal social safety net.

[Xgamer4]

It all leads me to believe that Josh is in a terrible place in his own mind where he is lying to himself that everything will be okay if he just had one more day to fix it. I've been there myself and it can be quite hard to break it, especially if you're outside your normal social safety net.

Agreed. Diagnosing mental disorders over the internet is a fool's errand (making me a fool, I'll completely admit), but at the same time, I wouldn't be too surprised if he'd slipped into a depression. Massive lifestyle change (Fenicks has hinted that Josh used to hold a pretty high-up position, that was presumably well-paid, and is now just barely slipping by at poverty-level) in order to accommodate a massive project that just keeps running into problems. Plus all the family stuff that helped cause some of the delays way back at the beginning. Trying to cope via avoidance explains why the small amount of work we've heard about has been polish and almost entirely unrelated to the core functionality, plus why he's cut himself off from all of his social outlets (removing himself from the forum, that he seemed to enjoy, is noteworthy-but-minor - dodging all contact with Fenicks is on a different level entirely).

Fenicks, I seriously doubt you're reading this, but on the off-chance you are - it'd likely be best to completely ignore all the beta backers about pressing for answers, and just meet up with Josh for lunch or something, and avoid discussing That Which Sleeps at all. See how he's doing, first and foremost. Especially if he has any history of depression or anything (which we definitely wouldn't know).

[Lapoleon]

Fenicks, I seriously doubt you're reading this, but on the off-chance you are

I just passed along your proposal to the Beta forums.

[Ludorum Rex]

It's a sad story, really, if this is where it ends. A broken friendship, a developer who is probably extremely miserable, disappointed backers, etc. There is no victor in such a scenario. No one benefits. If there is one lesson to be learned - crowd sourcing is a dangerous thing, and I would advise any rookie game developer, to strongly consider other options for the first game. Almost all of the success stories are from teams of people, who have multiple game releases behind them, and even then, very experienced developers can and do fail, even with significant funding.

I've been tempted myself to use crowd sourcing. Stories like this one remind me that it was a wise choice to resist. I do not envy that very dark place the King Dinosaur Games folks must be in. As indie colleagues and fellow human beings, I hope they come out of without too many weeks or months spent in regret and sadness. Hopefully wiser, more knowledgeable about game development and perhaps a bit more humble. Their vision was a great one, and I hope someone brings something like it to life at some point.

[nenjin]

Here's a question...

As a backer of over 10 KS games now, having watched the sausage get made on various games at various states of development....

Let's say the game does eventually come out. Do the missed deadlines, compromises, rushed things, taint the entire game experience? If it released would you even be able to enjoy it the same way as you might have if it hit all its deadlines (or at least most)? Would you, generalized you, be able to step back from the months of disappointment and judge the game strictly on its merits? Or is all this pre-release stuff part and parcel of the game experience and judgments about it?