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Indie MMOG Developer Fails

Posted by Zonk on from the gator-no-longer-smiling dept.

Gamespot has the news that independent developer of the MMOG 'Twilight War' Smiling Gator has unfortunately closed up shop. Funding was the primary reason for their closure. From the article: "Twilight War, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game using the Source engine (first featured in Half-Life 2), would have been Smiling Gator's first game. The company had billed Twilight War as 'an MMORPG with an integrated first-person-shooter-style combat system where thousands of online players come together in an expansive and immersive three-dimensional world.'" The Twilight War HQ site has information on the game for those interesting in what might have been.

15 comments

  1. Ya' know... by Godeke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    An independent game developer with zero track record attacks one of the most thorny game development problems (the MMO) and fails. I think I'm going to die of not-surprise.

    Good grief, just go back and take a *quick* look at the company they are in and it becomes quickly apparent just how many have delusions of grandeur and then take the fall. Even the "big boys" screw up MMO development with alarming (some would say with near 100%) failure rates.

    Sadly, these kinds of companies are often trying to take the high road and do something innovative with the MMO space, but that only *adds* to the likelihood of failure. I used to code and admin MUDs and even with a fraction of the user base, trying to be innovative only brought us grief 80% of the time... and we weren't financially vested in the outcome to we *could* be innovative without worrying about ticking off investors.

    --
    Sig under construction since 1998.
    1. Re:Ya' know... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I guess this article answers the question "If a MMOG fails in the Internet, will anyone care?"

      Apparently not.

    2. Re:Ya' know... by patternjuggler · · Score: 1

      An independent game developer with zero track record attacks one of the most thorny game development problems (the MMO) and fails. I think I'm going to die of not-surprise.

      I'm on the same page as you- I almost thought it was an Onion article from the title.

  2. no, really!! by DrSkwid · · Score: 2, Funny

    What am I going to do with all my unpublished Twilight War Fan Fiction now ?

    --
    There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
    1. Re:no, really!! by patternjuggler · · Score: 1
      Dull orange stretched from horizon to horizon, shimmering in the blistering heat of the sun - that dun coloured orange sphere, disappearing over the horizon.

      When I read this first sentence I get the distinct feeling there is something orange being described, and also a horizon is somehow in the mix.

  3. MMORPG? by hal2814 · · Score: 0, Troll

    "Twilight War, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game using the Source engine (first featured in Half-Life 2), would have been Smiling Gator's first game. The company had billed Twilight War as 'an MMORPG with an integrated first-person-shooter-style combat system where thousands of online players come together in an expansive and immersive three-dimensional world.'"

    I think this should read:
    "Twilight War, a massively multiplayer online FPS using the Source engine (first featured in Half-Life 2), would have been Smiling Gator's first game. The company had billed Twilight War as 'an FPS that we will call an MMORPG so we can sucker you out of a monthly fee.'"

  4. it takes more than developer talent... by Beatbyte · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... to run a game business. it sounds as if the only problem they had was the problem of not being funded enough. if they didn't get the VC before they started, they wasted a humongous amount of time/effort/money in the months they've been "developing" the game.

    it takes more than developer talent to run a game business because it is still a business! it operates on the mathematical practice of incoming cash being greater than outgoing cash. once that fails, the business has failed.

    --
    Get paid to code OSS
    1. Re:it takes more than developer talent... by 2megs · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Most likely, they had the funding they THOUGHT they needed, but through a lack of development experience they underestimated what it would take to actually get their game out the door and ran out of money. Companies with no track record tend to not be aware of all the pitfalls and problems along the way. You'll notice that most would-be MMO developers are either very, very experienced teams (Origin, Sony, Blizzard) or have never done anything big before. They either know enough to pull it off, or they don't even know what they don't know. Middle-tier teams stay away: they know enough to know they don't have the resources. Occasionally someone comes out of nowhere and gets it right, but they're the rare exception.

      This project was probably doomed from the start for another reason, too. I've worked on a Source Engine project (Vampire) and at an MMO company (Mythic). Source does have some really really great tech for rendering expressive characters, but its architecture was definitely not targeted at a massive, continuous, persistent world with thousands of simultaneous players and 24/7 uptime. It's a great engine for building a single-player or 50-player game with discretely contained environments, but... right tool for the wrong job, and the fact that they picked it points back into the "not fully understanding the problem" issue.

    2. Re:it takes more than developer talent... by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 1
      if they didn't get the VC before they started, they wasted a humongous amount of time/effort/money in the months they've been "developing" the game.

      That seems to be giving too much credit to VC. There is nothing that says you have to fund a start-up with the help of venture capitalists, and indeed it's usually about the worst possible way to get funding because of the strings that come attached.

      The problem, it seems to me, is if you think you're going to be able to fund our own start-up on a reasonable business plan but then something goes wrong, and you haven't got any connections to pull in additional resources and make good on your efforts to date.

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
  5. What to do with fanfiction by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    put it on your own website of course! Then you can also rewrite it to conform to a universe of your own making, and attempt to roll it into your own game someday.

  6. Just imagine what could have been by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Yay! a MMO first person shooter! just imagine all the lag! :-)

    1. Re:Just imagine what could have been by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 1

      What la



      Your entire army has been gibbed by L337-LPB-h8r's slow moving but obscenely powerful combat units



      g?


      Can't see your problem myself. :-)

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
  7. Why imagine? by faloi · · Score: 1

    I've played Planetside. I know exactly what the lag is like!

    --
    "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
  8. Ah well... by SirBruce · · Score: 1

    I got to see the early concept work on this game and hear their pitch. I think their ideas certainly had a lot of potential. The problem wasn't that they underestimated their costs; it's just they couldn't get any investors actually interested in the project. (I tried myself, but couldn't get anyone who was actually willing to commit more money to the MMOG space.) It's too bad. At least my Twilight War posters are now collector's items.

    Bruce

    1. Re:Ah well... by kafka47 · · Score: 1

      What are you doing posting on /.? Get back to mmogcharting! </jk> :-)