Sad news today, it seems the indie game Towns is in a bit of trouble which is sad as it had so much promise.
I have followed Towns since it was first announced and followed it all the way through Desura, Greenlight and then actually getting onto Steam.
What I didn't know has now been pointed out by a developer on the official forum.
The developer speaks out about how he was given figures for his expected salary to work on the game (after the main developer just stopped) and it was nothing close to what he was told with sales declining rapidly, something he was not made aware of.
For the owner of the game to only give 15% of the profits to the only guy actually working on it too, I am surprised that developer ever agreed in the first place.
Hell, I was even shocked to see Towns release as a full game considered how obviously incomplete it was, although it did show promise. The game has plenty of bugs and features promised in future that were never delivered.
Towns sold really well on Steam for quite some time, even with that the lead developer claimed he had "burnt out", but this was after the game was released and he took the money.
The developer stated he is in talks with Xavi the main guy behind Towns about a sequel where he would be able to fix the glaring issues, I doubt it would get many fans after this debacle.
Towns reviews on Steam say it all really as they are mostly negative about the lack of updates.
I would say this is a lesson to learn about Early Access games, but it wasn't even in Early Access. Not sure what the lesson is here, but the developer Xavi has clearly lost gamers trust. Good on moebius for speaking up about it all. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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7 comments
For me the lesson is that on steam you can publish anything, no matter how horrible the thing is. So I need to be careful/paranoid about what I buy or I will end up with Towns or/and Earth Year 2066.
Like this will ever happen.
QuoteSo if I don't really get paid for it then I would pledge for rather making Towns open source. That way I could still contribute to it (without payment) and have other people help me with that. But that is a decision that I have very little to say about ...
Like this will ever happen.
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The lesson is always the same: read reviews and users comments before buying a game, unless you are comfortable with losing the amount of money you are spending.
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And that's why you should think twice before buying games in Early Access stage. You pay for an unfinished game and you have the chance that the bugs will never get fixed because the developers quits the project
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Considering price I payed (I thing about 10 EUR or little less) for the game and how fun it was even in it's incomplete state I do not feel cheated.
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I bought it last year and enjoyed it immensely, certainly sinking enough time into it to justify the price tag (can't recall if it was on sale or not). It is a pity we won't be seeing any more development though. I was looking forward to what the next version might bring.
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That's the problem. If it was differently, there could have been two or three developers and/or designers.
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The story continues here: http://www.townsgame.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11485
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