Wild Man Kickstarter canceled
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Gas Powered Games shuts down crowd-funding campaign for RTS/RPG hybrid to focus attention on ways to keep the company alive.
Following a round of significant layoffs, Dungeon Siege and Age of Empires developer Gas Powered Games today announced it has canceled the Kickstarter campaign for a new RPG/RTS hybrid called Wild Man.
In a video update , Gas Powered Games CEO Chris Taylor said he is currently working on new ways to keep the company afloat, though he would not go into specifics.
"I've been working in the background to keep Gas Powered Games running," Taylor said. "The trouble is, when you start doing things like that, you can't update people on it. You can't share all that information. And if all goes well, which I think it will, I'll be able to give you all some great news in the weeks ahead."
The Wild Man Kickstarter campaign asked for $1.1 million, but only attracted $504,120 from 9,235 backers. The effort was planned to end later this week.
Failure was always a possibility, and in fact an outcome that could be "fantastic," Taylor said when the Kickstarter campaign launched last month.
"Even if we fail, it's still fantastic. It's still a wonderful adventure to go on," he said at the time. "You look at people climbing the face of a rock cliff, and you say, 'Why the hell would they do that? They could fall.' And usually someone does and they die. But that's the thrill."
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
118 comments
Cant wait for the new Brothers in Arms: Battle of the Bulge :D
I hope they will announce it soon ! You can check a link of the video on my youtube page: Joedemadio
Just goes to show, if your company is badly managed and incapable of producing stuff that sells, not even trying to dip your hand into the Kickstarter cookie jar can save you. Good riddance.
1 Like It wasn't going to hit its kick starter goal. The amount it raised was pretty respectable but the goal it had was too high. I thought it looked interesting but it wasn't one I was going to touch as it was already looking iffy.
Looked like a cheap Dota clone using cavemen. With Dota 2 and Blizzard Allstars coming out within a year , this was not a good idea.
1 Like I love Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander (1) and the Forged Alliance expansion, but all I can associate Chris Taylor with is the person who ruined it to "appeal to a broader audience" instead of building on what mare them good.
I bought Supreme Commander 2 a year after its release, by that time it got fixed up to a more playable state, but it was no longer Supreme Commander and pretty generic and boring.
When I saw his "Project Mercury" madness (online only "mod toolset") and the "sad eyes" all-in Wildman kickstarter I just knew he's going to fail again.
On the other hand, the Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander developers are now working on Planetary Annihilation, which is a project I'm looking forward to very much though.
If Chris Taylor gets back in touch with reality and Wildman turns out to be a good game, then I'll buy it, but from what was shown so far I am not really inclined to do so.
If he'll be picked up by a publisher and it's going to be either UbiSoft, EA or Activision, then he's immediately on my no buy list though. (out of principle)
1 Like Sup Com 2 was paid for by Square Enix. They told Gas Powered Games how to make that game.
1 Like It's asking a lot of money for something that's still a bit too niche for modern audiences, especially concerning today's economic climate.
1 Like @jurk182 yeah I kinda agree I think that's a hard thing to do when your in a per beta state and trying to get some cash going to develop a game.
Obsidian did a better job of handling there kickstarter by just showing some concept art, and writing and talking about what kinda game they wanted to make. I was not sure about the concept of wildman, they were not to clear on what it was? a RTS or RPG or what ever you call them DOTA type games
so yeah I think you need to be clear to your audience for kickstarter
Next Gen PC title , it's in prototype but still looks addictive .
Unreal Engine 4 Project :
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1312036782/project-awakened
@MXVIII @PcGamer4Ever1 The clips at the beginning are unreal 3. If you put it in fullscreen you'll see that it says "does not resemble final quality." Much of the back half of the video is about how they'll use UE4 to be awesome.
This is like the 4th article (or commercial) this editor has put on gamespot about this kickstarter game. There is like 1000's of kickstarter games going all of the time, please Eddie Makuch go give your friends over at Gas powered games a consoling 'reach around' and put more important news up- like squareenix signing for a new Legacy of Kain game.
I really enjoy dungeon siege games 1,2,3 (yes 3 was a blast with two players), But not every studio makes the right decisions or deserves their own commercials each time they go to kickstarter for a project. Please get on with the news.
"'They could fall.' And usually someone does and they die." WTF?! I don't think I would want this guy as my boss...
He has a point though. Look at people who free climb, parachute, race or do anything else where half the thrill is that is can kill you if you mess up. It may not be the best way to approach a business, but it's still there.
If this didnt have the RTS elements it could have been a great RPG like dungeon siege one was i would have been much more interested.
I think they would have made it if they didn't have to fire the studio mid keep kickstarter.
This comment has been deleted
1 Like @jedediahpelland In a Kickstarter campaign, the money only changes hands if the goal is met.
@FatalImage @jedediahpelland LOL I just thought of that right after I posted I guess I should think before I post.
Apart from some people here not knowing how Kickstarter works, in all fairness they were not going to reach the 1.1 million goal anyway.
3 days to go and still 600 000 $ needed (over 50%) - not gonna happen. Not with some Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War mixed with Diablo clone.
Now that being said, I would have personally actually supported this (if I had known about it).
And it doesn't mean we won't see the game sometime into the future after Gas Powered have worked through their financial difficulties.
1 Like They did say that the most of the employees that were let go would be rehired if the kickstarter was successful.
I glanced at the kickstarter and it didn;t look like they were going to make the goal anyways, so no loss here.
I personally don't understand the hate for Supcom2.
I realise it released in quite frankly, an incomplete state and the campaign was clearly man handled by square into stupidity.
However they fixed it, the Multiplayer is enjoyable and offers plenty of options both in setting up your match and in how you actually fight. Real shame so many people gave up on it too quickly.
Anyone with a copy who abandoned it shortly after release, give it another go, you might be pleasantly surprised.
@Tren2100 I think most of the people who disliked SupCom2 were big fans of SupCom 1/Forged Alliance and/or Total Annihilation... by those standards SupCom 2 was horribly dumbed down.
I personally don't see the need to have multiple tiers of units that become fairly obsolete late in the game nor do I need to add economy micromanagement to make the game feel more challenging, but I guess if I spent a lot of time perfecting those skills and strategies I might be upset that they were abandoned.
2 Like @arleas @Tren2100 The big problem I had with SupCom 2 was how it just wasn't remotely anything like SupCom/FA - tiny maps, a handful of units, no supers (The list goes on).
What really caused a lot of ire as well was that these limits were imposed because SupCom 2 was also released on the 360 (Which had no chance of handling SupCom/FA-type scale), leaving fans feeling like Chris took a big **** on the fans in the hopes of appealing to console gamers.
So having him now appeal to the fans he tossed away was never going to work.
@Mausingen True, but on the other hand, you can go out in your sleep after years of suffering, or you can go out in a blaze of glory thinking "Woah, this is cool" or possibly "AIIIIIIEEEEEEE!!!!!"
Their last good game was SupCom, I'm not sad to see them go after the constant shit they delivered over the years.
1 Like Chris games over the years where piss poor..People remember how bad they are..Space siege was horrible with no fat loot a terrible diablo clone..Demigod failed in so many ways ive never played it so cant say other wise..Supreme commander 2 was a failure from what i here people hated it..So people do remember how chris made these games horrible..If he actualy made ds3 maybe people wouldve cared an than put in for wildman..He said it was a new idea no it wasnt..Yall remember spellforce..Same concept people also remember that game so no its not a new idea..So wildman also looked horrible..No offence..Also i funded elite dangerous, an the other one star citizen, and also project eternity..These devs been around for so long..That people trust them to make good games..
Im sorry but Chris need to come back to reality an star making games that people care about again..
You folks are letting Suikogaiden troll you, he can't possibly be that obtuse unintentionally.
1 Like They coulda got alot of money outta supreme commander 2. To bad they fucked it up, so i guess things went badly for em slowly afterwards
1 Like this is what happens when you dont make a game for like 10 years.... most of these studios that we are seeing going under are either mismanaged or havent made a game in an eternity and just plain run out of money.
3 Like @Geminon I'm guessing you don't know much about GPG, leat alone something called Demigod... which came out in 09. So yeah, 10 years ago I guess. *facepalm*
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