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'Limit Theory' Game Cancelled Six Years After Its Kickstarter Raised $187K (rockpapershotgun.com)
AmiMoJo quotes Rock, Paper, Shotgun: Sandbox space sim Limit Theory has been cancelled, six years after a successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, because main developer Josh Parnell is simply exhausted from working on it for so long. He's spent, he says: emotionally, mentally, physically, and financially. "Not in my darkest nightmares did I expect this day to ever come, but circumstances have reached a point that even my endless optimism can no longer rectify," Parnell said on Friday. He plans to release the source code for folks to poke around but makes clear "it's not a working game."
Though Limit Theory blew past its $50,000 goal, drawing $187,865 in pledges (and remember Kickstarter takes a cut), development has gone on years longer than anticipated. Costs have burned through that initial cash and started eating into Parnell's personal savings but, more than that, he's just exhausted.
Though Limit Theory blew past its $50,000 goal, drawing $187,865 in pledges (and remember Kickstarter takes a cut), development has gone on years longer than anticipated. Costs have burned through that initial cash and started eating into Parnell's personal savings but, more than that, he's just exhausted.
We're not perfect—we're just less likely to season your beverage with polonium than some folks are.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Kickstarter is a 50:50 thing. As you also only pay something like 50% and as the games funded that way would never see the light of day otherwise, failed projects are not much of a problem, as long as about half succeed.
There is still a lot of people for whom this pretty simple math and economics is too complicated to understand and they will cry "fraud" and complain loudly, when nothing like that is the case.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Just that this is not what happened here. At all.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Though I am sad that he didn't finish the game, I rather feel more sorry for Josh Parnell than for me or my money.
He gave everything he got and it was not enough. Things like this happen. As far as I can see it, he did not spend money for things outside the project. Rather the contrary: my impression is that he poured is own resources and health into it beyond any reasonable expectation.
Other projects (e.g. Clang from Neal Stephenson) spent less effort for more money and tried to sell the sorry result (the game was less finished than Limit Theory by several orders of magnitude) as success.
As a result I am neither angry nor mad and wish Josh Parnell all the best.
I was a backer on the game, from me perspective, it was small money on a long shot cool idea. The guy didn't steal the money and run, he spent 6+ years of his life and got burned out. He's open-sourcing the project to see if the community will help continue it on, so at worst I just help bootstrap an open source game engine. It was a couple bucks, big deal. This isn't like these scam projects where the people disappear a few months after the project closes - this guy posted regular updates with screenshots and progress, etc.
Years later, this Dorkly video continues to get it right.
Another AC diversion, eh? Let me make some attempt to intrude in a more constructive direction. Or has "constructive" become a dirty word on today's Slashdot? (Only your AC troll knows for sure?)
Project management is hard, but Kickstarter doesn't care. They just take their cut without regard to results. From the Kickstarter perspective it's great if the project blows past its goal.
In terms of a constructive solution, I wish there were a crowdfunding website that EARNED its cut by providing project management support. Please let me know if such exists, but I've visited LOTS of them and haven't detected such an approach.
Let me try to make that more concrete: The imaginary website would vet the proposals before seeking funding. The proposals would have to be complete in terms of schedule, budget, resources (including people), such oft-forgotten factors as adequate testing, and success criteria. I actually think the success criteria are the most important part of project management. In exchange for doing that work, the website would EARN a percentage for providing the project management support, which should include evaluating the finished projects against their success criteria and reporting the results to all of the donors and to the public.
This approach would actually relate to MEPR, in that proposals involving people who have earned high reputations should be more attractive for funding. However I've already spent too much time on this topic for now, so I bid you ADSAuPR, atAJG.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Millions in crowdfunding and years later yet still no release :)
I'm American. Do not trust us. Ever. About anything. We are either actively attempting to fuck you over or being so self-centered it happens anyway. It is our national character.
You compensate by attacking your own soil and blaming others ;)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks
But no, I am not Russian. I do have some distant Russian ancestry though, so here you go, there's the direct Russian link -"Aye, comrade Putin" ;)
To be fair though, I am not even sure where you got "Russia" from. The OP referred to failed Kickstarter campaigns coming mostly from the US, which might be true or not. Russia on the other hand was the creative imagination of you folks
You have no clue what "fraud" is. You are not buying a product on Kickstarter. You are buying the potential of a product. Apparently that simple thing is too difficult for you to understand. Makes you the "fucker" here.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
running off with the money. The number of times this has happened on Kickstarter is ridiculous, and overwhelmingly it's carried out by Americans with grand ideas and pretentious pitches.
Serious question, why is it ALWAYS the Americans who steal and pull stunts like these? It's getting mighty difficult to trust you, and any time you deal with Americans you have to use extra caution.
We are good at it. What's your excuse for falling for it ?
No Man's Space came out meanwhile anyway (and failed). Maybe something where your action caused the world/planets/section of the universe to be regenerated based on what you did. Maybe you find a box on the planet and you regenerate it using the code you type on the console in JavaScript. No need to be slave to the original idea to the letter, it's enough to use it as a guidance but adapt as the world changes, as you change. I feel sorry for him too though.
Serious question, why is it ALWAYS the Americans who steal and pull stunts like these?
I like to shit on Americans as much as anyone. But the "stunt like theses" appears to be successfully funding a kickstarter, working hard to make it a reality, and when it didn't pan out for reasons nothing to do with "running off" open sourcing all the work put in to date, then I think your insult isn't as insulting as you may think.
As for your serious question of why: Your Selection Bias
By passing chowderhead regulations, Europeans run off with everybody else’s money.
Not fraud, but idiocy (or perhaps youthful naivete). You can make a retro indy game for $50k, with 3 people in an extended "game jam", but a game with physics and modern graphics? Not reasonable, even at 180k.
What you could do, and what guys like this should do, is spend 6 months with a small team (usually dev, art, and sound) making a very limited game with a fun basic gameplay loop. Set aside your grand visions at first, and make something tiny but actually fun to play. Get that right, and people will pay more for content. (You can find a couple dozen GDC videos making this exact point.)
Heck, all the stereotypical Ubisoft game is these days is a fun basic gameplay loop, and endless "open world" filler. Get that basic gameplay right, and have great ideas for actual content and story? That's a breakout winner, but you have to give your funders something fun with the understanding that more funds will be needed for more content. In the moder gaming world of stupid cosmetics and loot box DLC, people will jump at the chance to fund actual content!
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
That's not fraud, asshole.
Fraud requires INTENT. (or at least negligence beyond reason)
Trying and failing is not fraud. Edison tried/failed hundreds of times to get the light bulb working (and burned through a lot of investor cash). Are you implying that had he ultimately failed, he'd have been guilty of fraud?
Now, fuck off back to your basement.
No it's not.... unless you can PROVE he never gave it an honest effort. The burden of proof is on YOU.
Once again, go fuck off back to your basement.
You aren't head of state. You have no legal, or moral, right to speak for all of us. I don't try to fuck anyone over.. Thus your argument is 100% false and you are a cunt.
USA, Russia, Pakistan, India, China, Nigeria, pretty much where there exists people and money... My theory is that some people are greedy lazy assholes... regardless of race country or religion. But he some people would rather point at country X and say "Those people are scum!" As if by extension suddenly the country they live in is the epitome of purity.
Really sorry to hear how this ended, although I'm sure this isn't the end. Having a cool dream take off and snowball into a huge commitment sounds like a nightmare situation but this isn't the worst that could have happened.
So would you prefer to donate your money to (1) a project that has several programmers who have succeeded in prior projects, (2) a project whose programmers have a consistent record of failure, or (3) a project where the programmers have no reputation at all?
I say (2), subject to the condition that they can convince me that they have learned important lessons from their mistakes. Just too unlikely that projects in the (1) group would need or seek funding from any crowdfunding website. Nor do I like the gamble of (3).
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
But PEOPLE are scum.
FTFY.
You're welcome.
Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
Nobody is willing to donate money blindly to any of my completely mediocre and utterly attainable business plans.
APK harasses the entire site and deserves every bit of harassment he receives in kind.
Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
You make it sound like something new. Been this way since McCarthyism. Along with the Cold War, Reagan's Evil Empire and Trumps embracing of BFF Putin.
The Ruskies are EVIL turns up at least once a generation.
Every government needs a boogeyman.
Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
There is no need to swat a fly that isn't actually buzzing around your head.
And, by the way, have you stopped beating your wife?
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
How was I wrong when that was my first comment in this thread?
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
... redone the entire engine?
He definitely bit off more than he could chew. For a Kickstarter you also should have some sort of team and not be just a one man show. Also: Waaaaaay underfunded.
It's a really cool looking game, I hope it gains critical mass as FOSS.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Kickstarter is essentially a way to get funding without having to give away anything much to the funder.
Operation Northwoods never happened. You apparently missed the word proposed, so let me help. (One wonders whether such a scheme would be rejected by the current inhabitant of the White House as it was by JFK, but that's neither here nor there.)
"9-11 was an inside job!"? Pffft.
ExecSummary: You got nothin'.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
It's the same sort of childish nonsense as equating being wrong about something with lying about it.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Misrepresenting his ability to deliver a game is fraud.
No. It is at worst a non-actionable lie. But the reality here is that nobody can assure success in any kind of non-trivial project, hence no fraud.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Z^-1
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.