Developer gets game taken off of Steam, thanks to hostile tweets

On the other hand, I'm not sure that going back to a system that uses traditional publishers near-exclusively is a good idea, either: as I understand it, publishers tend to have a lot of leverage (especially when dealing with small studios or single developers), and as such have a tendency to come out with ownership of the game's IP—something that I feel to be a bit of a bane in the industry, and—in some cases, at least—deleterious to the creativity of the medium.

I'm tempted to suggest something along the lines of the Extra Credits Indie Fund, but I'm not sure of how to prevent that becoming in time just another publisher...

Come to that, does anyone know what happened to that fund? To start with, was a developer ever picked to receive the money?

My Games & Writing

They don't have to, but when the alternative is a publisher that treats both their employees and their customers like subhuman dregs, I frankly admire any developer that has the grits to market their stuff themselves.

Not much different from the music industry, if you think about it.

edited 27th Oct '14 1:28:28 PM by TAPETRVE

Fear the cinnamon sugar swirl. By the Gods, fear it, Laurence.

Not for nothing, but that is literally how the business world works. It's not "cultivating a celebrity public image." I'm pretty sure acting like a jackass is just never considered a good business move. If you don't want to deal with the PR stuff, hire an agent to do that for you. This is how it's been for decades in the industries of creative arts.

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.

That doesn't mean that it's the only possible way for such things to work—that things have been done that way for a long time doesn't necessarily validate them, nor indicate that no other way exists.

Look for example at the appearance of large-scale crowdfunding, a model quite different to the traditional models and proving quite effective—albeit with its own set of drawbacks.

I don't see a problem with giving at least some time and thought to looking for ways that work for those for whom the prevailing methods are ill-suited.

My Games & Writing

What made this whole thing so silly is that many people noticed that the 'early access' banner had been properly updated after just a few short hours on Steam. So it was likely just a server issue.

Guy essentially tanked his game career for nothing.

edited 28th Oct '14 2:31:52 AM by edvedd

Visit my Tumblr! I may say things. The Bureau Project

Still I can't help but feel sorry for a indie dev ([[{fez}} even at their most infantile and publicly embarrassing]]) when they out flip out and commit PR seppuku because they were frustrated with the industry with the behind-the-scenes pressures.

Designing and marketing your own game involves a lot of personal commitment it terms of sweat blood and tears. But all the talent and creativity in game designs isn't the same as business know-how or PR experience.

I'm not defending traditional traditional game publishers. They basically forced the hands of developers to go indie with their cowardliness and exploitative practices. I don't think the do-it-yourself ethos really is the best thing for the devs or the industry.

I don't know. Maybe rather than selling directly to the consumer maybe the small price style 'middle man' is needed. Like extra credits is trying to do.

edited 28th Oct '14 2:45:54 PM by joeyjojo

hashtagsarestupid

Honestly, as much as I'm certain that it sucks for people that blow up their careers like that, it's honestly not hard to not do anything stupid.

Rule #Way-too-many of the internet: do not post in rage. It never ends well. This goes double if your business depends on PR. Shout at something, hit a punching bag, whatever you need to let off steam, but don't ever hit "post".

The guy of the topic and others that had similar outburst made a terrible decision to allow their frustration get the better of themselves, and spectacularly explode in the single most public place possible. It's sad, but considering the huge amount of stupidity involved, I can't really feel sorry for them.

It doesn't excuse bad behaviour. Let alone death threats to your boss. But it's understandable when a dev can't help taking things personally and explodes in public when they doing everything themselves. Especially when they're is an expectation that indie developers have got to keep their fans and backers informed about every little detail and setback of production in timely fashion.

hashtagsarestupid

Buffy Summers gave some sound advice.

Let it go. Don't feed the trolls.

If The Slayer herself is giving that advice then maybe we should listen.

Currently reading up My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours

this wasnt an example of feeding trolls though.

A few earlier posts suggested that direction, and given what happened it was either this or Rage Quit but either way why give attention to another guy who thought making games was easy only to get steamed when something goes wrong?

With that said, if a little thing like this was going to cause such a reaction then maybe working on games was not for him. Imagine if for example the game needed patching. Or it had to be delayed for a more up to date character roster. What if fans brought up the trailer not portraying the actual game? Based on the death threats I would be very concerned about the guy's health and whether feeding the reaction would make things worse. Hence why The Slayer's words of wisdom seem like a good idea.

Currently reading up My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours

its not that he felt games were easy to make (or if he did, that aspect of his personality isnt relevent to this), its that he blew his lid when he saw steam misrepresent his game as unfinished (entirely by accident); that isnt a standard part of the game development cycle. its understandable that he was upset, just not how he reacted and how he tried to deal with it.

buffy's words only apply in cases of actual trolls being fed. this is not a case of a troll being fed in any which way. it simply doesnt apply.

Steamed, lol good one.

The reason I brought up writers earlier is that like games development it takes a degree of dedication to spend hours alone hacking away at a keyboard until you have some presentable. It take grit but it's not something that teaches you PR skills.

I don't know if chris's game was any good or not but he must of been reasonable talented to get it this far. Where he screwed up was it came to marketing and handling and disruption. Roles in which traditionally publishers would handle. Who for all their many many many many many flaws certainly were experienced enough to know than to threaten to kill people is really not a good business move.

Chris was just perhaps a loose cannon who eventually would of exploded anyway. But I think we're gonna continue seeing otherwise talented and hard-working game developers burnout and quit the industry for good if they continue trying to go at it alone.

hashtagsarestupid

The guy who made the death threat has rejoined the company.

La-dee-dah.

edited 17th Nov '14 2:11:22 PM by TotemicHero

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

So basically he quit the company and then realized that no one in the real world would actually hire him.

This is not an unexpected result.

The unexpected result is that the company actually let him back in. I would have kept him out.

^ The company only has 2 people in it.

Give me cute or give me...something?

Yeah guys were not talking about the head of General Motors here.

Publicly resigning and then quietly coming back when the dust settles is pretty much standard fare any anyway in corporate.

edited 17th Nov '14 8:33:43 PM by joeyjojo

hashtagsarestupid

May he/she use this as a learning experience then. If anything they can use this rage to market the game (no such thing as bad publicity if it lets people know your product exists.)

Warning: This poster is known to the state of California to cause cancer. Cancer may not be available in your country.

If there's one thing I've learned from being on Steam, it's this: If you're a developer, don't attack critics, players and Valve.

The game looked So Okay, It's Average (which is more than I could say for Day One: Garry's Incident or Guise of the Wolf), but I can't honestly say I have any sympathy for the dev. What An Idiot.

Together, we are one.