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Nekro (see the original greenlight page here), a game funded on Kickstarter with $158,733 which isn't a small amount of money has been officially abandoned by one of the developers. Sadly though, the story isn't very simple.

The Steam page has been removed, and the community page is being closed off. Writing on the Steam forum, a developer stated this:
QuoteYes, the game failed to make enough money to continue production. I will be making an official statement when able. For now, the game and forums are closed.


It becomes a little more unclear when the co-creator of darkForge games LLC has been locked out of everything to do with the company, and he has been forced to write a review on Steam to explain the situation:
image
Click to make it bigger.

A bit of a murky situation, and I hope something gets sorted. Hard to tell what the real story is, but it's not looking good.

There's always a risk when it comes to crowdfunding, as it's often run by inexperienced developers who have no real idea of the time and money it will really take. Even worse when relationships seem to break down like this too, and if what the other developer is saying is true then that makes Scott (the one posting on the forum) quite a shady character. I'm not going to pick any sides here but the customers side, so I really hope something is worked out.

Honestly, when things like this happens there's a good reason to open source it to allow it to continue and not go to waste. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Storminator16 Apr 19, 2016
Quoting: Ignis@Storminator16, lawyers are fine but slow. It's not like you can't do both.

Trust me, I know and they are huge pain$ when you need one. However, there is nothing lawful about a message board post. That's he said/she said in the court of kangaroo. If he doesn't have anything legally binding that is a basis for a civil case, then he should just move on with his life.

In this situation, I just don't have any sympathy for the developers and those who gave money. I guess I'm too old to see everything that went wrong in that Steam message board post, including the fact there is a Steam message board post.

When we buy games that complete, we are taking a risk; we may end up not really caring for our purchase. When we pre-order or crowd fund something, that risk is greatly magnified. And like MountainMan said earlier, we are 100% taking a risk when we do pre-order or crowd fund.

So, it is what it is. I've kick started (I believe) 3 games in the past year. Will I ever see them? I don't know and I don't even remember when the final release dates are expected to be. I know I'm suppose to have beta access to one of them but I haven't seen a beta access e-mail. The reason I gave my hard earned funds? To give the developer's at least a chance. I took a risk. If I ever see those games, that would be a nice surprise but I'm not losing sleep over them.


Last edited by Storminator16 on 19 April 2016 at 8:54 pm UTC
Cybolic Apr 19, 2016
Quoting: Guest
QuoteHonestly, when things like this happens there's a good reason to open source it to allow it to continue and not go to waste.

This.

Give back to the community who funded you the code you have made thus far. Doing so will also reveal if you actually did ANY work, or if you're a criminal who stole everyone's money and should be prosecuted. Obviously if it were the latter, that would explain why they'd refuse to share the code that they do have.

It's on early access, you can play it right now. They obviously did work on it.
HadBabits Apr 19, 2016
This is why people should not think of crowd funding as preordering, and more think of it as being a patron of the arts. The point of donating is to help get something get created that otherwise may not have been, it's a risk and people certainly shouldn't donate if they're looking for a sure thing.
Cybolic Apr 20, 2016
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: CybolicIt's on early access, you can play it right now. They obviously did work on it.

Then it's probably crap and reeeally not finished, otherwise they wouldn't have abandoned it.
Let's stick to what we know. There's enough animosity involved with this title as it is.

Quoting: sevenvery sad indeed, i realy liked Nekro and supported it from the get go. its a very unique game and the visual assets are stunningly well done.

the developer stated once on the steam forums that he was struggling wit personal issues and was not able to work on the game for some time.

i hope this gets sorted out cuz the game is great
Quoting: NaibGits... I backed this and it was quite fun... Kept meaning to go back to it once some game breaking bugs were fixed. [...]


Last edited by Cybolic on 20 April 2016 at 2:17 am UTC
slaapliedje Apr 20, 2016
I have only backed a few games so far. Satellite Reign, which is awesome!, Bard's Tale 4 (still waiting on that one) Wasteland 2, and some game I can't even remember the name of right now (was supposed to be a Chaos Engine style game that they were even going to do an Amiga OS4 port!). I also popped in and got in as a 'backer' on Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen.

Notice two of those are from a reputable development company. These all had some previous developers involved, ones known for greatness in the industry. On the other hand, you always can run into something like Godus, where Molyneux thinks that he shits gold, and then it just stinks like everyone else's. So sad that the guy who came up with Populous could sink so low...

Either way, crap happens, as is the way of life. While these individuals that were working on the game have now had their dreams dashed, at least hopefully no one paid a huge amount for the game.
Tuxee Apr 20, 2016
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: Cybolic
Quoting: Guest
QuoteHonestly, when things like this happens there's a good reason to open source it to allow it to continue and not go to waste.

This.

Give back to the community who funded you the code you have made thus far. Doing so will also reveal if you actually did ANY work, or if you're a criminal who stole everyone's money and should be prosecuted. Obviously if it were the latter, that would explain why they'd refuse to share the code that they do have.

It's on early access, you can play it right now. They obviously did work on it.

Then it's probably crap and reeeally not finished, otherwise they wouldn't have abandoned it.

No. Not really. It was already perfectly playable about a year ago. It was perhaps lacking content - though I didn't play it long enough to find that out.
STiAT Apr 21, 2016
Well, didn't invest in this one (background check told me it was an unexperienced team, not going to invest in things like this), but it's sad, because basically it was pretty far along the way already.

Open sourcing will be an issue. They obviously have issues with each other, and both have their IP in the product, and it's not too far from the finish line. Getting an agreement between them to pass on their only possible way of getting a return of investment if they ever can agree to some sort of finishing it is hardly going to happen.

This can happen. It's a micro investment, and investments can go bad. I usually do background checks, so none of the games I invested in failed (yet :D). But I'm aware it can happen, my first will probably be Kingdom Come: Deliverance, since it less and less looks as if it's going to see a Linux release which was promised.
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