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After a successful Kickstarter that planned Linux support and now being released on Steam, the developer of Strength Of The SWORD ULTIMATE has issued a post about platforms no longer happening.

I spoke to the developer personally after a comment was posted on their Kickstarter a few days ago, noting that they were unsure if the Linux and Mac versions were going to happen. Since this was buried in a comment on a Kickstarter post, I wanted to find out what was going on. The developer explained the situation, so I advised them to be open and honest and make a proper announcement on it.

Now they have done so, in a larger post on Kickstarter and it's not a great situation. It's a case of a small two-person team biting off much more than they can chew. It goes over a bunch of issues they faced, along with funds getting low and a publisher leaving them "due to the delays", along with "personal and health issues" and so on. One of the developers is going to be moving onto other things too, so there will only be one person left to deal with everything.

The good news, is that they said refunds will be offered "as we get any revenue from the releases". So if you did back it on the Kickstarter back in 2015 it might be time to seek that refund.

Always a shame when things like this happen. Game development is a long and expensive thing to do, without seriously good planning so many things can easily go wrong.

It has been added to our dedicated Crowdfunding Page.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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21 comments
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Whitewolfe80 Aug 26, 2019
Well I had not heard of this game and maybe its just me but this game doesnt seem it should of taken longer that 2 years to make as it doesnt look that complex from a design point of view. So am guessing four years was taking the piss judging by the publisher dropping them. That is the problem with inde projects if the main dev has poor health there is no plan B and invetitably game funding goes on funding care to get back to work.

While a person health is ultimately way more important that a project,Project management is something indie studios either need to invest in or hire someone what will kick ass if its needed to get the project on track. The mark of sucessful indie team is delivering on time and ideally under budget.
TheSHEEEP Aug 26, 2019
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Really one of the reasons that when I develop a game, I won't go for crowdfunding. At least not for basic funding.
You'll just end up with responsibilities you might not be able to fulfill if things go south.

If you only put your own money in, at least you won't be wasting other people's money in the case of failure.

Quoting: Whitewolfe80Well I had not heard of this game and maybe its just me but this game doesnt seem it should of taken longer that 2 years to make as it doesnt look that complex from a design point of view. So am guessing four years was taking the piss judging by the publisher dropping them. That is the problem with inde projects if the main dev has poor health there is no plan B and invetitably game funding goes on funding care to get back to work.

While a person health is ultimately way more important that a project,Project management is something indie studios either need to invest in or hire someone what will kick ass if its needed to get the project on track. The mark of sucessful indie team is delivering on time and ideally under budget.
Quite true.
Four years does seem off, even for a very small team.


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 26 August 2019 at 11:13 am UTC
Nanobang Aug 26, 2019
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Quoting: LiamIt's a case of a small two-person team biting off much more than they can chew. It goes over a bunch of issues they faced, along with funds getting low and a publisher leaving them "due to the delays", along with "personal and health issues" and so on. One of the developers is going to be moving onto other things too, so there will only be one person left to deal with everything.

I'm surprised this game got onto any OS. Ever.

Quoting: Liam... I advised them to be open and honest and make a proper announcement on it.

Thank you. At some point this will be developer common knowledge, though we might have to gag all the lawyers and marketing people in the business to make it happen.

Every time I read the title of a new game followed by the word "Kickstarter," it's like the second word hits a mental delete key and I forget all about whatever it was I just read. Did I know about this game? I don't know, but I'm pretty sure I won't miss it.


Last edited by Nanobang on 26 August 2019 at 11:29 am UTC
TheSHEEEP Aug 26, 2019
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Quoting: NanobangI'd be surprised if this game got onto any OS. Ever.
It is being sold on Steam, so...
Nanobang Aug 26, 2019
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Quoting: TheSHEEEP
Quoting: NanobangI'd be surprised if this game got onto any OS. Ever.
It is being sold on Steam, so...

Well damn, so it is. Ok I've edited myself to reflect this. Thanks for the info :)
dpanter Aug 26, 2019
Haven't we seen it a million times by now? Development drowning in feature bloat. Adding, adding, adding, adding... pushing an eventual finish line further and further into an obscure future.

While I'm sad they couldn't make good on the Linux version, I'm glad they did finish the game and release something that looks both appealing and friendly to low spec machines. <3

Wishlisted for now.
Beamboom Aug 26, 2019
Unfortunately it's guys like this who pretty much destroy the entire crowdfunding model. I haven't funded a project in who knows how long now. And it's not because there hasn't been any who looked good on paper.
STiAT Aug 26, 2019
I'm surprised they released at all. Congrats for that to them.

They're not the only one who miscalculate, and even with way larger teams that happens. Shouldn't happen, but happens.

I've funded them with 10 $, which isn't too much afterall. I'll try to get it running on wine/dxvk (currently boreked according to protondb, which isn't really surprising since they use a home grown engine), and if I get it working properly won't refund.

I'm not really somebody who requires a native version, but it would have been nice to have it tested/working with wine. Afterall, I am spending quite some time playing with wine, even some games which do have native versions since they just run better in wine with dxvk/d9vk than the native versions do.
Goldpaw Aug 26, 2019
A lot of people go into game design with high attitudes, a lot of idealism and really just the best of intentions, unaware of the enormous amounts of planning, structure, strategy and sheer workloads they'll actually be facing. This isn't just true for game development, this happens with a lot of startups in all areas of society.

So kudos to these two for seeing it through and even offering refunds. Seems like they are very open about the situation, their intentions and everything. At least now. So they're ok in my book.
Cyril Aug 26, 2019
This is kind of sad. Indeed there are common issues about Kickstarter projects here, mainly financial and technical ones.
But here, there's an human issue too.

QuoteWe started falling so far behind...running out of funds...lost our publisher due to the delays...personal and health issues started...stress mounted up to unbelievable levels...team relationships started deteriorating...depression mounted up...misery all around.

Absolutely nobody wants that sort of situation, but the game is available on Steam, that's sort of a miracle IMO.
I particularly hate the issue about the publisher, like "faster = better"... this has to stop (but yeah it's capitalism isn't it?).


Last edited by Cyril on 26 August 2019 at 4:09 pm UTC
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