Ant Simulator Canceled, Devs Spent Kickstarter Money On Booze and Strippers

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According to the programmer for Ant Simulator, the game has been cancelled because two of the three developers blew the money they raised on booze and strippers. I guess if you are going to blow your money, strippers and booze seems like a natural choice. :D
 
These cautionary tales of betrayal and sabotage I think are good for the online funding community at large.

I can tell you without a doubt it has made me extremely cautious when pledging funds.

I just won't touch these 2 and 3 or 5 man teams. It's risky as hell. I will however back 15 to 20+ member teams if I like the product.

Oh and btw, not surprised this happened. I've been following this project off on for awhile and had my doubts early on.
 
Really sucks for the lead programmer, especially since the people that screwed him over were his friends for like 11 years prior.
 
carnageX said:
Really sucks for the lead programmer, especially since the people that screwed him over were his friends for like 11 years prior.
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Maybe, but the whole venture was totally doomed from the start. $4,459 is not even close to enough to fund the development of the game. It makes me wonder if anyone actually intended to release anything or if the whole thing was always a scam. The numbers don't add up.
 
Quix said:
Maybe, but the whole venture was totally doomed from the start. $4,459 is not even close to enough to fund the development of the game. It makes me wonder if anyone actually intended to release anything or if the whole thing was always a scam. The numbers don't add up.
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Yeah $4459 is about enough money to sketch out some concept gameplay ideas and then call it a day. Booze and strippers is the best use of that money.
 
I mean really, this is one of those headlines that just fits this forum perfectly. You don't need to read or watch the video to know all you need to know about it. :D
 
That really sucks, hopefully this teaches him that you can't trust anyone when it comes to money. Also make sure next time to have a clause where improper spending of money will cost somebody their position in the group. However it sounds like this wasn't just a guy but was basically everyone but him involved in the money being wasted on stuff.

Quix said:
Maybe, but the whole venture was totally doomed from the start. $4,459 is not even close to enough to fund the development of the game. It makes me wonder if anyone actually intended to release anything or if the whole thing was always a scam. The numbers don't add up.
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How so? Five Nights at Freedy's started off with no money. Just a guy working alone during his free time at night after working min wage jobs. If you already have a computer and a full time job and are making a simple game at night and weeks you can get by on $5000. Need some money for some modeling programs and graphics programs maybe, unity I think is a free engine so no cost there. Given that you have multiple people I could see money being needed for things such as cloud storage and stuff like that, paying to get into the indy development program for ps4 release. setting up the LLC.
 
Technical_Advisor said:
Sounds like the developers at Studio Wildcard and something they'd do.
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Uhhh.....right...totally not a multi million dollar in sales game well on it's way to release with shit ton of support from the devs practically daily....someone sounds salty, I really hope you're being sarcastic lol.
 
Vercinaigh said:
Uhhh.....right...totally not a multi million dollar in sales game well on it's way to release with shit ton of support from the devs practically daily....someone sounds salty, I really hope you're being sarcastic lol.
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For refference, he's reffering to the dev team behind ARK: Survival Evolve, the top ten most played game on Steam since release to EA and one of the most actively supported games on Steam lol.
 
Exavior said:
How so? Five Nights at Freedy's started off with no money. Just a guy working alone during his free time at night after working min wage jobs. If you already have a computer and a full time job and are making a simple game at night and weeks you can get by on $5000. Need some money for some modeling programs and graphics programs maybe, unity I think is a free engine so no cost there. Given that you have multiple people I could see money being needed for things such as cloud storage and stuff like that, paying to get into the indy development program for ps4 release. setting up the LLC.
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His time isn't free you know. Even if you calculate it out at minimum wage that game cost a lot more than $5000 to develop. You could do it on the side but that would take a lot of time.
 
First thing that came to mind.

dt0k8Xh.jpg
 
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/...ers-respond-devs-claims-100-percent-bull.aspx

Looks like the other two here came out and called bullshit on this story.

First part of the story
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

looks like the $5000 was not for the game, but was a kickstarter for a how to make games series. One of this guy's friends put in money, the other two guys put in about $5000 together and this guy put in less than all of them.

Watching one of the game demo videos it does reference multiple people that worked on graphics. So that would line up with what the other two state in that they outsourced graphics and that it wasn't just the three of them making the game.
 
Secretly stealing business money? I'd buy that if the account was $500k deep, easy for a little there to go missing and unnoticed. But $5000, you tend to notice even the small things.
 
Spidey329 said:
Secretly stealing business money? I'd buy that if the account was $500k deep, easy for a little there to go missing and unnoticed. But $5000, you tend to notice even the small things.
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According to the video, the $5k wasn't all the money they had but he didn't say. Without any idea about how the books were kept, there's plenty of ways that money gets gone without trouble being immediately seen and he did say that he trusted the other guys.
 
Huh, whut, did Chris Roberts finally fess up?

(puts on glasses)

Oh, darn, I misread it. Never mind. Maybe next time.
 
Considering the vast majority of Kickstarter money for game "producers" is to pay them to actually make the game (and often an amount that doesn't reflect their inability to actually get a job), I don't find this particularly shocking at all.
 
heatlesssun said:
According to the video, the $5k wasn't all the money they had but he didn't say. Without any idea about how the books were kept, there's plenty of ways that money gets gone without trouble being immediately seen and he did say that he trusted the other guys.
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If we are to believe the partners there was over $10,000. They put in $5000, $5000 came from the how to make a game tutorial kickstarter and then whatever this guy and some external partner gave. Plus presales. All money was kept in an account that all 3 had access to and everything spent was reported to the IRS. Also if you believe the other 2 he actually stole what money was left and put it into his personal account.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Considering the vast majority of Kickstarter money for game "producers" is to pay them to actually make the game (and often an amount that doesn't reflect their inability to actually get a job), I don't find this particularly shocking at all.
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Kickstarter wasn't for this game, it was for a set of how to make a video game tutorials that they would post to youtube
 
Exavior said:
If we are to believe the partners there was over $10,000. They put in $5000, $5000 came from the how to make a game tutorial kickstarter and then whatever this guy and some external partner gave. Plus presales. All money was kept in an account that all 3 had access to and everything spent was reported to the IRS. Also if you believe the other 2 he actually stole what money was left and put it into his personal account.
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When I first heard the explanation, something seemed wrong. Very wrong. This explanation seems to make much more sense. Kickstarter is truly an awful way to fund a game.
 
People were able to trick folks into paying them upfront to build a videogame?

This world is full of wonders.
 
These small individual projects are higher risk due to the inexperience of the developers which is why I don't support them ... however, I have had great success on the big developer projects (Project Eternity launched ... Grim Dawn making final bug fixes before launch ... Torment in beta) ... kickstarter is a great tool for game development funding but not as much for the amateurs
 
Unfortunate.... but it didn't really look like it was going to be all that great IMO

Still waiting for a true SimAnt sequel
 
News that stops my heart, like development on an early access title.
 
Exavior said:
If we are to believe the partners there was over $10,000. They put in $5000, $5000 came from the how to make a game tutorial kickstarter and then whatever this guy and some external partner gave. Plus presales. All money was kept in an account that all 3 had access to and everything spent was reported to the IRS. Also if you believe the other 2 he actually stole what money was left and put it into his personal account.
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Thanks. Kind of figured this was a "he said, she said situation."
 
heatlesssun said:
Thanks. Kind of figured this was a "he said, she said situation."
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Yeah it's hard to say since they both have believable points. My guess is neither one told the entire truth, but I'm more inclined to believe the programmer, since the 2 investment guys stated that they DID spend company money on dining and drinking. In their words:

"I don’t know why he’s painting that picture, but the reality is that anything that was spent in a bar or restaurant was very reasonable in nature when you look at any business, including video game companies."

Uh, no. Not when your entire budget is 10k, that's not reasonable. You need every cent to count. They were acting like they were working for a multi-million dollar company. That makes me think the programming guy is mostly telling the truth. I think the acid test will be did they actually use business money at a strip bar. If so, you can't look much guiltier than that.
 
locsplitter said:
Must not have been good hookers or booze if they spent that little.
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Hookers were economical lot-lizards from the local Flying J. The booze were just bottom-shelf once distilled vodka.

They went for quantity over quality. Why have one premium hooker with Sky when you can 10 toothless hookers and enough vodka to fuel a semi.
 
tetris42 said:
Yeah it's hard to say since they both have believable points. My guess is neither one told the entire truth, but I'm more inclined to believe the programmer, since the 2 investment guys stated that they DID spend company money on dining and drinking. In their words:

"I don’t know why he’s painting that picture, but the reality is that anything that was spent in a bar or restaurant was very reasonable in nature when you look at any business, including video game companies."

Uh, no. Not when your entire budget is 10k, that's not reasonable. You need every cent to count. They were acting like they were working for a multi-million dollar company. That makes me think the programming guy is mostly telling the truth. I think the acid test will be did they actually use business money at a strip bar. If so, you can't look much guiltier than that.
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This! This is EXACTLY what I was thinking. Actually myself and two other guys are partners building a small company, and we have a very small budget as well, and we never go out to bars or fancy restaurants on company money. We have a nice dinner around christmas each year, but other than that it's fast food if its on the company's dime. Sheesh. These guys blew the cash and are trying to cover their asses.
 
extide said:
This! This is EXACTLY what I was thinking. Actually myself and two other guys are partners building a small company, and we have a very small budget as well, and we never go out to bars or fancy restaurants on company money. We have a nice dinner around christmas each year, but other than that it's fast food if its on the company's dime. Sheesh. These guys blew the cash and are trying to cover their asses.
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Who said it was nice places? They could have at off the dollar menu at McDonalds while at GDC (which was a business trip), might have ordered a pizza some night during a long work session, or went to the bar for a drink or two with prospective investors. You just stated that you spend some money every now and then on food. So what he is saying is true that isn't that unreasonable to spend a little on that type of stuff. Of course you don't go out and spend $2000 on a meal. But $100-$200 a year wouldn't be that crazy.

They spent $1000 to get setup for access to Sony's dev network. They paid consultants to make graphics, music and sound effects. That there would eat into most if their budget. Plus at this point it is still he said he said. They claim they had money left in the bank and this other guy cleaned them out, he claims they were out of money because they already cleaned them out. I have to say their side sounds more believable than his.
 
Last year I raised almost $5000 at Kickstarter. 1/2 of it I spent on booze and strippers but unfortunately the other 1/2 I wasted.
 
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