Successful Kickstarter Faces Collapse

[surg3n]

They don't need programmers who know GO, they need programmers who know a better language.

Seriously, why did they choose GO in the first place, to proove some kind of point?

I don't like the way some people are using Kickstarter, to kick start projects that will go nowhere, to fund projects that will make money for everyone involved, except for those who funded the thing. The reality of indi development is that it's a struggle, a gamble, people might invest years of their life and get little return at the end - kickstarter is supposed to help developers produce games that people actually want. It's not going exactly to plan is it - how long before people lose faith in it, another couple of failed projects?, more con jobs?, big publishers trying to creep in?

Please don't say 'get over it' while a system that could do a lot of good for struggling indi's and faithful gamers is pissed all over.

 

[mew4ever23]

That's awfully strange, seeing all the programmers jumping ship even with a successful kickstarter. There has to be something going on that we're not seeing.

Side note, I'm not too sure what the appeal of the game was. I'm hoping the remaining developers manage to get it together and release it.

 

[MetalMagpie]

That's awfully strange, seeing all the programmers jumping ship even with a successful kickstarter. There has to be something going on that we're not seeing.

The BBC website [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20003916] is a little more clear on what happened.

Basically, they overran on time and ran out of money. There were only actually two programmers working on the project. The lead programmer was only contracted to work on the game for 12 months. His 12 months is up, so he has gone back to working for Google. The other programmer has also left to start a new job. As Dakan said, all the Kickstarter money is gone. So there's nothing left to pay anyone with anyway. Programmers have to pay rent, buy food, etc. just like normal people.

Estimating how much time and money is needed to complete a software project is (unfortunately) very far from being an exact science. Whether because of unforeseen problems they encountered or simply underestimating the work left to do, they got it wrong this time. But hopefully this project can still get over the finishing line.

 

[veloper]

The lesson I get from this is don't support any kickstarters where the coders aren't part of the core team.
If they're just in for the pay and not for the credit, then there's a very good chance they will leave if the budget runs out.

You want kickstarter teams who have the passion and who have a personal reputation to ruin should they fail. I even want to see their ugly mugs on kickstarter first.
This still isn't a hard security, but it's better than backing just any designer with a good idea.

 

[Cyrus Hanley]

In all seriousness though that is indeed tragic, it looks very good and you can see they care very much about it. I hope they pull through.

 

[Don Reba]

Developing the game in a language that has previously never been used for game development was a pretty ridiculous decision.

 

[Don Reba]

That's awfully strange, seeing all the programmers jumping ship even with a successful kickstarter. There has to be something going on that we're not seeing.

I think it was as simple as them not having had nearly enough money to pay those programmers. The total amount of money they were burning through in a month is what a normal game development studio would spend on a single developer. And even that proved to be unsustainable.

 

[wildpeaks]

They don't need programmers who know GO, they need programmers who know a better language.

Seriously, why did they choose GO in the first place, to proove some kind of point?

I suspect that's because one of the two programmers is from Google (according to another comment from the thread).

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

WHY in the world GO???? Fortran is so much better!!!

 

[Andrew_C]

The former lead programmer is obviously a dick. There are only 2 reasons to use an obscure language like Go for a commercial project.
1) You want to ensure job security
2) You don't give a damn about the project's success
3) You are an idiot

The guy works for Google so he is (probably) not stupid, so that rules out 1 and 3 and leaves 2.

But it's also the responsibility of the guy in charge to at least look up the language on Wikipedia and realize there only 3 people who know this language and that they all work for Google.