Dark Matter Developer Blames Lack of Money For Lack of Ending
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
Ah, you do know that when someone fails to gain funding on Kickstarter.... they usually don't have funding? But these assholes then go and make it anyway, cut the ending and release it, for sale. Unless they said explicitly on the page "GAME NOT FULLY FUNDED, ENDING NOT COMPLETE" then they have delivered an incomplete game. People paid money for it. It's kind of like someone serving you a meal and then keeping the last course. You can't just do that, the customer paid for the ending, unless he was specially told the last course was not included.Sgt. Sykes said:
And what do you mean, indies just don't work like that? You think these guys, who have released an incomplete game and therefore, taken money from people who would have otherwise not paid it, are totally ok, but if EA does this, then is hunting season?
Please explain.
Couldn't they have sold this as an early access game in that case? Buy now, get the 6-8 (or 4) hours, and with your funding we'll make the real game. They could've gotten more money and the customers might have felt happy they contributed to a game development, instead of feeling cheated.
The worst part is, I still have plans for an indie game of my own someday, a space combat sim, and I wanted to call it Dark Matter. But now the name is both copyrighted AND tainted. Oh, woe is me. Please play the world's tiniest violin in light of my tragedy.
The worst part is, I still have plans for an indie game of my own someday, a space combat sim, and I wanted to call it Dark Matter. But now the name is both copyrighted AND tainted. Oh, woe is me. Please play the world's tiniest violin in light of my tragedy.
It doesn't change the fact that the devs were just flat out dishonest with the customer. When I saw this on steam and learned that they got a publisher, I thought "Oh good, they were able to get the money somewhere else and finish the game, that's cool, I thought this game looked interesting". But then when I went onto the steam discussions to get some feedback, I saw a thread of someone complaining about the ending, and that made me worried and wanted to wait a couple of days to get more news about it. If a dev is keeping quiet about an aspect of their game that would make me actively not want to buy it and not being upfront about the reduced length of their game compared to what they were planning in their kickstarter if I is doing something very slimy. It's a pity because I thought this game looked very interesting, but I don't want to buy a half finished product that'll never get finished.Sgt. Sykes said:
And no, this shitstorm (If you can count a thread only one page long a shitstorm) is not retarded.
As much as I feel bad for the Kickstarter not going through, I'm sorry but there is no excuse for that.
You don't put an unfinished game up on Steam for sale. You just don't.
You either restructure the game to have 6 hours of gameplay and an ending, or you don't put the game up at all.
No excuse. At all.
I hope this wasn't a paid games as opposed to a free 2 play one.
You don't put an unfinished game up on Steam for sale. You just don't.
You either restructure the game to have 6 hours of gameplay and an ending, or you don't put the game up at all.
No excuse. At all.
I hope this wasn't a paid games as opposed to a free 2 play one.
Oh darn I just spent 6.24 for Chivalry, I did steam wrong!! Anyways this just seems slimy on the devs part. It a shame that they ran out of money, but you do not just end the game halfway through and blame consumers. Their advertising was not honest and then they blame us for their problems. I'm sure they could of found a way to rework the story to have an end at whatever was the last boss, or just tell us that this is part 1 or something.Sgt. Sykes said:
From the video it sounds like the player just gets a new weapon and doesn't even have an opportunity to use it. This would be like half life 2 giving you the gravity gun and then the game brings up a wall of text saying "Gordon freeman walks into the town, he starts to get attacked by zombies, this is not the end of the story".
Actually, I think it's more accurate to say that this is what reviews are meant to prevent. Dark Matter isn't broken, and it does have an ending - maybe not a good one, but an ending nonetheless. Is it bad, is it wrong? It may be disappointing, but if you get four or five solid hours of gameplay for 15 bucks, is it really such a betrayal?Andy of Comix Inc said:
I don't think there's any question that the developer made a bad choice, but I don't think it deserves quite the level of vitriol that's been thrown at it, either. In a "letter of the law" sense, the game is complete, which puts it in far better stead than, say, something like Fray, which was almost unplayable when it launched on Steam and then became literally unplayable shortly thereafter. (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/9777-Fray-Review [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/9777-Fray-Review]) That doesn't mean that InterWave should get a pass, but it does put things in perspective.
It's pretty simple, it is their fault. They knew how much money and time they had. Even knowing this, they still failed to complete the game. It's not because of kickstarter they couldn't budget their resources well enough to complete the game. It's all them, and here they're trying to foist the blame on things beyond their control. It's bullshit.Rainforce said:
Another developer needing to heed Yahtzee's advice:
"Seems there's an obvious way to avoid this: make the intro first, the ending second, then everything in between. That way if anything feels rushed or cut down, it'll be one of the bits in the middle no one cares about, while the ending is what people will remember."
"Seems there's an obvious way to avoid this: make the intro first, the ending second, then everything in between. That way if anything feels rushed or cut down, it'll be one of the bits in the middle no one cares about, while the ending is what people will remember."
Advertise as Episode 1. Don't have black text "end of game" result.
State in Steam advertisement that this game, if it sells well, will go on to fund the continuation of the rest of the game. Should you have paid for this game you will get the rest of the game for free when it becomes available.
Congratulations, people buy the game, are not upset at the white text over black screen "ending", and you don't have steam being barraged with demands for refunds who - according to regional laws in some nations - have to give refunds despite clinging to EULAs and "company policy".
This developer done fucking GOOFED.
The solution to this problem has already been done before. Or haven?t you heard of The Walking Dead? A $20 game that was granted Game of the Year by many other publications?
State in Steam advertisement that this game, if it sells well, will go on to fund the continuation of the rest of the game. Should you have paid for this game you will get the rest of the game for free when it becomes available.
Congratulations, people buy the game, are not upset at the white text over black screen "ending", and you don't have steam being barraged with demands for refunds who - according to regional laws in some nations - have to give refunds despite clinging to EULAs and "company policy".
This developer done fucking GOOFED.
The solution to this problem has already been done before. Or haven?t you heard of The Walking Dead? A $20 game that was granted Game of the Year by many other publications?
The devs already said the failure of the kickstarter ended with all but 2 of the employees being fired, they released this version in order to make back some of the losses they suffered.
There is absolutely no chance there will ever be an episode 2, or part 2, the story is dead.
Hope the four hours of gameplay was worth $15, you're not getting any story with that.
There is absolutely no chance there will ever be an episode 2, or part 2, the story is dead.
Hope the four hours of gameplay was worth $15, you're not getting any story with that.
Of course the story is dead, the devs sh*t where where they slept. As much bitching as there is on Steam Greenlight forums, buyers are pretty patient and positive word of mouth can move copies. On top of that GL games are exempt from reviews so they'd be more insulated from some of the bad press.NiPah said:
Based on the Metacritic page for this game it looks like it's dead in the water, not enough activity or reviews to really assume the game was particularly popular, it would probably have done tons better on greenlight.