Developer Abandons Game, Offers To Make Sequel Instead

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Let me see, I gave you money for a game that will never be finished but the "bright side" is that you want more money from me to make a sequel? Where do I sign up? :rolleyes:

However, he did have one final piece of "good" news for the dedicated Towns fanbase, namely, that a "Towns2" may be possible. "Xavi and I were talking about a possible Towns2. At the moment this is just in an idea stage and we can't really say if he, I or eventually Ben have the time to create a Towns2. As faithful fans of Towns we would of course reward you in some way, when/if the new game is released."
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Why do I feel like they'll actually get some money? This is sad.
 
I probably have a good 100 hours into towns. It's fun to fire up for a few minutes when I don't have a lot of time. If it ended up in my steam library it means it was dirt cheap when i bought it so I'm not too upset. The game is perfectly playable as is. I'v seen way more unpolished games sold as finished.

I wont buy towns 2 unless they add a crap load of stuff to it so it's more like a graphical dwarf fortress. (which is what i was hoping towns would become)
 
Obviously some feature he wanted to implement was going to take a rewrite of his current engine - but I would of played this another way. I would have just called it done, 1.0 and then moved the features over to the next version and start marketing it that way.

Having headlines portraying your game as "abandoned" makes any good mindshare you accrued null and void.
 
Terminus said:
Obviously some feature he wanted to implement was going to take a rewrite of his current engine - but I would of played this another way. I would have just called it done, 1.0 and then moved the features over to the next version and start marketing it that way.

Having headlines portraying your game as "abandoned" makes any good mindshare you accrued null and void.
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Basically .. What every other developer does? Put a hard timeline in place. Once you reach that, all "new features" get rolled into the sequel. Current development would just be squashing major bugs.
 
Now that i'm looking into the issue it seems like the games hasn't had an update since September. It sounds liek the real problem here is communication. The dev has been dodging people for a very long time when asked about the promised updates. Sounds like he needed to grow a pair and tell the community that he was done developing the game. The classy thing would have been to release an update focused on mod ability so the community could develop the game on their own.
 
Absolutely would not buy a sequel to a game that hasn't even had a first game...

I mean come on.
 
This article ignores context entirely. It's sad that H picked it up without realizing that fact. Poor journalism.

This guy has nothing to do with the original development team that had already bailed on the game. This guy agreed to restart development based on a 15% of profits offer. They mislead him into thinking that this would actually be a decent amount of money. After development started again, he realized quickly that it wasn't going to work.

Instead, he finally called it quits on a project that was doomed from the start, and is considering redoing it all over correctly this time.

Why are we persecuting a man for this? It wasn't his fault, and he wants to do his best to make up for it with a game that's worth a damn.
 
TheCapulet said:
This article ignores context entirely. It's sad that H picked it up without realizing that fact. Poor journalism.

This guy has nothing to do with the original development team that had already bailed on the game. This guy agreed to restart development based on a 15% of profits offer. They mislead him into thinking that this would actually be a decent amount of money. After development started again, he realized quickly that it wasn't going to work.

Instead, he finally called it quits on a project that was doomed from the start, and is considering redoing it all over correctly this time.

Why are we persecuting a man for this? It wasn't his fault, and he wants to do his best to make up for it with a game that's worth a damn.
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I think he'd be better off just doing a "spiritual successor" and not a sequel.
 
I certainly wouldn't disagree with that. It's just disappointing to see this guy at the center of a witch hunt he doesn't deserve because of piss-poor journalism.
 
TheCapulet said:
I certainly wouldn't disagree with that. It's just disappointing to see this guy at the center of a witch hunt he doesn't deserve because of piss-poor journalism.
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I don't think you've realized the current state of journalism as a whole, have you?
 
I feel like I got my money out of Towns. I even built one city out of the bones of dead villagers when I couldn't figure out why they kept dying.

It was pretty fun.
 
TheCapulet said:
This article ignores context entirely. It's sad that H picked it up without realizing that fact. Poor journalism.

This guy has nothing to do with the original development team that had already bailed on the game. This guy agreed to restart development based on a 15% of profits offer. They mislead him into thinking that this would actually be a decent amount of money. After development started again, he realized quickly that it wasn't going to work.

Instead, he finally called it quits on a project that was doomed from the start, and is considering redoing it all over correctly this time.

Why are we persecuting a man for this? It wasn't his fault, and he wants to do his best to make up for it with a game that's worth a damn.
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Well, they as a group did a bad job at explaining the entire thing. Moebius did not explain everything, instead only mentioning why he decided to quit, and went on to talk about Towns 2 at the worst possible moment.

Then now the guy Xavi revealed that they are in talks with a company who may be interested in acquiring the rights and continue its development. If no agreement, he will hire someone else.
http://www.townsgame.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11485

I think they would have gotten better reaction from the fans and press alike if they released a proper statement that explains both moebious departure as well as Xavi's plan to find a solution to it (ie. it's not abandoned yet)
 
I will probably buy the sequel. Some of the worst projects are terrible on the first time through, and sometimes they are far better as they have learned from their mistakes. Give them another chance, don't just boycott him. I thought Towns was fun, wasted too much time into it, and found that it couldn't handle late game fairly early. I also hate that it was JAVA :(
 
Talk about abandonment and taking the cash lets throw in Rekoil FPS game. I didn't purchase it, I waited for the reviews and to see how the devs interacted with the community and it didn't go too good. No way will I purchase a sequel for Rekoil.

Rekoil does warrant a refund.
 
After getting frustrated with Dwarf fortress's UI, I looked at both Towns and Gnormoria as possible alternatives. I tried towns out first, and the first patch after I started changed how floors and rooms were done, make it more like minecraft. I then tried Gnomoria, and while it doesn't have near the depth of DF yet, it is much closer in functionality.

Since starting Gnomoria 6? months ago, there has been a patch every 2 weeks that either adds new functionality / content or fix bugs. The only break in the schedule was for the developer having a child.

If you are looking for something to replace Towns, or DF, give Gnomoria a try. The Humble Store has it on sale for $4 now https://www.humblebundle.com/store/p/gnomoria_storefront
 
What a bunch of slackjaw hooligans...it's like running over your foot with their car, then putting it in drive, and going forward to do it again.
 
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