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Asylum delays and unfulfilled developer promises
The Truth
Well said. It’s easy to look at big kickstarter scandals like Star Citizen and see something reptilian and evil, but it’s much harder to imagine that in the adventure genre. Most devs realize that unless your name is Telltale Games, it’s not about money. To me, that makes it seem more likely that delays in this genre are the result of actual hardship, not scumbag fleecing.
That said, crowdfunding rarely offers any sort of guarantee - that’s why platforms like kickstarter deliberately distance themselves from the outcome. Backers have relatively little protection. It’s a gamble - not an investment, as the people who backed Oculus learned the hard way.
Talk to your kids about backing responsibly.
What’s the scandal with Star Citizen? Isn’t the game beign released next year? Didn’t they announce the voice cast recently?
but some are with long line of credits and others need to jump all the time to assure people and take responsibilities, if one of the crowd is bothered by something of some sort. and thats how believe not all developers are at the same circle; some goes for crowd fund and some dont, some develope a product full of glitches and some bring it out clean, some on time and some late or very late, and bottomline some fans can bare waiting and some dont.
That is true, but I think the problem is that when projects get delayed so much time less people will back future kickstarters and unfortunately this seems to happen a lot in agdenture game kickstarters.
That said I believe Asylum will come out sooner or later and I don’t mind waiting (and I prefer later if that means a more quality product - rushed games full of bugs or really small are even worse than delayed stuff).
The Star Citizen situation is too big and too ridiculous to explain comprehensively, and I don’t want to derail. If you’re interested, check out these articles from the escapist.
If you want to truly go down the Star Citizen rabbit hole, read this 500+ page thread, but be warned it’s a forum somewhat less wholesome than Adventure Gamers:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3744337&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1
You’re welcome to PM me, but I’m just an observer, not an authority. At this point I fall into the Star Citizen skeptic camp. They did announce the cast; the game will not be released next year, though it’s possible that another piece of it will be.
The scandal boils down to: 3 years, 90 million dollars, very little to show for it, all the while the devs continue to drive for more money in increasingly sketchy ways. As always, there are two sides.
The way I see it, the development time of 3 years is not even close SC needs to be what it aims to be. I think it’s safe to say they need at least 3 years more, maybe even 5. That has nothing to do with incompetence or fraud, but the fact that SC is at the moment the most ambitious game project out there (yes, even more than No Man Sky). They are trying to create a game many other developers have failed to create. AAA publishers wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.
But anyways, software often takes more time to develope than it’s at times originally envisioned. Games especially, because there’s other things in there at work than just coding (which in most cases is the part that takes least time). I’m not surprised that Asylum is late, especially looking at the quality of art they’re aiming at. Doing something like that is time consuming task and even many big games need to re-adjust their publishing date, a good example is Witcher 3, that was postponed multiple times. And sometimes games are pushed out the gates with severe flaws, while it would have been best to hold the reigns for a bit longer (Arkham Knight.)
Unlike many other jobs, software engineering and design isn’t an exact science. There’s a lot of variables that can go wrong and when they do, they tend to make the development cycle longer and more difficult. The initial choise you do can have an negative effect you didn’t foresee and cause delays (like with Star Citizen Cryengines net code had to be re-written as it didn’t work in the scale they need) or prevent developement for some platforms (Tesla Effect, where the chosen codec didn’t have Linux support in time, so Linux version hasn’t still come out).
It’s often easy to critizie, but the truth is, shit happens, like with SpaceVenture. Unforseen stuff, that effects on the development time. I don’t think that many devs set out to scam people. Very few have done so (hell, even Trowe managed to get Larry remake out, despite being an ass).
Sure, there’s a couple of scammers out there. But percentially speaking, I’d say they’re a minority, even outside the indie business.
Patience is a virtue. 
I’m very reluctant in backing (Stasis is the only game I’ve backed), because I feel that I have to believe in the project, believe in the developer’s vision/philosophy and in the odds of getting a finished product.
Stasis took almost a year longer than originally envisioned when the campaign started. I never worried and got a kickass game out of it.
Since the Asylum kickstarter, I’ve played Scratches (in the CPT) and read a lot of posts by Agustín Cordes, about how he goes about game design, what his vision is for Asylum, etc.
I have no doubt whatsoever that Asylum will get released, and that it will be good.
The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka
Kickstarter was supposed to be that laid back place where developers were free of publisher’s pressures and lack of understanding.
Fans would be sponsoring games, in the hope that they succeed. Funding, not investing.
Maybe it’s because we live in such a consumerist world, where the relationship buyer/product is so strong, that kickstarter was soon twisted from that good-hearted ideal into just another kind of commercial platform. Another way of pre-ordering a game.
And when things don’t follow the same path of a traditional-publisher game, complains start to surface. Suddenly every backer have a claim on how the budget should have been spend among the assets, or how long the project should have been.
It’s a sad thing to observe.
So… you’re surprised that people who paid money feel they deserve something for it, be it a product or some say about how the money’s used?
So… you’re surprised that people who paid money feel they deserve something for it, be it a product or some say about how the money’s used?
No, what saddens me is, that people give money to crowdfunded products without realising that there’s real risks involveld there. They don’t seem to really care about the warning tape that says “every crowdfunded project can fail.”. Many people treat it as a glorifiend pre-order system, but it really isn’t, as you are buying something that can change pretty drastically. It’s not an investment either really, more than it is a show of trust from the backer.
Now that doesn’t remove the responsibility of the project team to try and deliver, but what people REALLY should understand is, they are giving money to something that DOESN’T exist yet. And making that something takes time and might not even end up as originally envisoned. Neither of those are a scam, they’re just realities on any project.
The scandal boils down to: 3 years, 90 million dollars, very little to show for it, all the while the devs continue to drive for more money in increasingly sketchy ways. As always, there are two sides.
Thanks for links, seems like the usual problems of kickstarters but reactions increased x90million (dollars). I’m a backer but at the lowest level, I’m only looking forward to the single-player campaign. What I find more fishy about the whole thing is how can they where able to get 90million already. Why are people buying 100$-200$ spaceships for a game that is not out?
Suddenly every backer have a claim on how the budget should have been spend among the assets, or how long the project should have been.
It’s a sad thing to observe.
But it’s actually what the publisher would do as well. Every backer acts like a publisher, so there’s now hundreds/thousands of publishers per campaign. The difference is that a real publisher would know about the risks and delays with game development (where most of the backers don’t have a clue), and that a real publisher would do everything behind closed doors and the general public often wouldn’t even know about the existence of a certain game’s development until it’s near completion. With Kickstarter, everything is public from the start, and the only ‘weapon’ the backers have is ‘complaining online’.
Unfortunately, what you call “a sad thing to observe” has imo been inevitable from the get-go… 
The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka
Why are people buying 100$-200$ spaceships for a game that is not out?
They’re paying as much as 1200 dollars for them. They aren’t even ships at this point, just concept art. Even the SC faithful can see that the development isn’t coming along very quickly - so presumably they know that it’s going to be a while before they actually get to fly these ships. If they ever do.
If you’re in it for the single player you’re a bit better off - it’s more likely that portion of the game will actually get made. They’re definitely prioritizing Squadron 42, hence Gary Oldman and company. (Though that opens the door on new antics.)
i can understand the impatience here. Even before the kickstarter was announced it felt like we had been waiting a long time for this one. The game was announced in 2010. And the premise of the kickstarter was that it was a game that was almost done anyway, and this was just to help cross the finish line.
So, yeah, shrug.
Suddenly every backer have a claim on how the budget should have been spend among the assets, or how long the project should have been.
It’s a sad thing to observe.
But it’s actually what the publisher would do as well. Every backer acts like a publisher, so there’s now hundreds/thousands of publishers per campaign. The difference is that a real publisher would know about the risks and delays with game development (where most of the backers don’t have a clue), and that a real publisher would do everything behind closed doors and the general public often wouldn’t even know about the existence of a certain game’s development until it’s near completion. With Kickstarter, everything is public from the start, and the only ‘weapon’ the backers have is ‘complaining online’.
Unfortunately, what you call “a sad thing to observe” has imo been inevitable from the get-go…
But that’s the problem. They shouldn’t be acting like publishers(they aren’t!) that’s what the developers are running from. People throw money at the screen without thinking what are they doing, what kind of platform kickstarter is. And that kind of irresponsibility plus the lack of understanding of what they just did with their own money, is later translated into complaints.
I know it’s the way things are, but it’s just wrong and a bit unfair.
Suddenly every backer have a claim on how the budget should have been spend among the assets, or how long the project should have been.
It’s a sad thing to observe.
But it’s actually what the publisher would do as well. Every backer acts like a publisher, so there’s now hundreds/thousands of publishers per campaign. The difference is that a real publisher would know about the risks and delays with game development (where most of the backers don’t have a clue), and that a real publisher would do everything behind closed doors and the general public often wouldn’t even know about the existence of a certain game’s development until it’s near completion. With Kickstarter, everything is public from the start, and the only ‘weapon’ the backers have is ‘complaining online’.
Unfortunately, what you call “a sad thing to observe” has imo been inevitable from the get-go…
But that’s the problem. They shouldn’t be acting like publishers(they aren’t!) that’s what the developers are running from. People throw money at the screen without thinking what are they doing, what kind of platform kickstarter is. And that kind of irresponsibility plus the lack of understanding of what they just did with their own money, is later translated into complaints.
I know it’s the way things are, but it’s just wrong and a bit unfair.
Unfair? So the developers get to have their free ride without having to give a cut to the publisher, and you call that unfair? What’s more they’re constantly getting free suggestions direct from the public, their audience. They don’t have to listen or obey, unlike with publishers. And they retain all rights to their work. I don’t see any loss whatsoever on their part, only gain.
Besides, backers really are publishers. They finance the bringing to fruition the work of an artist. That’s what traditional publishers do - and are paid to do.
I was playing Asylum this afternoon, and it is pretty amazing. Sure, it’s taking longer than people would like, but it’s definitely not abandoned.
Bt
No, what saddens me is, that people give money to crowdfunded products without realising that there’s real risks involveld there. They don’t seem to really care about the warning tape that says “every crowdfunded project can fail.”.
The point is, when something fails / is delayed, people don’t go out and sue the developer or wait in the bushes and whack them on the head. They complain in public forums and on the kickstarter page, which seems fair enough. I don’t think developers should have carte blache to fail without fear of criticism.
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