Sorry everyone, we can't finish this game
Hello all, this is Matt ... (Oof, this is tough. This post has been a long time in the making, so buckle up cuz it's gonna be a rough ride ...) Right off the bat, we are very sorry to announce that we cannot finish A Wizard's Lizard: Soul Thief. We've spent countless hours and te
Hello all, this is Matt ...
(Oof, this is tough. This post has been a long time in the making, so buckle up cuz it's gonna be a rough ride ...)
Right off the bat, we are very sorry to announce that we cannot finish A Wizard's Lizard: Soul Thief. We've spent countless hours and tens of thousands of dollars of our own money on trying to make it happen, and after years of toil, we're ready to throw in the towel.
I can't tell you how awful we feel for letting you down, and we're deeply sorry. Being unable to finish an ambitious game is sadly pretty common in this industry, but the lack of communication is not cool, and normally unlike us. Traditionally we've been very open on our blog and podcast, but we flubbed this one. LDG fans deserve better and we didn't deliver the communication you deserve.
We know most of the fans of our work are developers yourselves, and may be curious about the take-aways, and what we could have done to help avoid this situation. Here are some of the high level points:
1. Should have made a more traditional sequel -- Geoff and I are ambitious, and we wanted to solve ALL the significant problems that the original A Wizard's Lizard suffered from. We also wanted to experiment with interesting new mechanics, like melee attacks, mana resources, and a new undead mechanic. Sigh ... man, in retrospect we just did not have the resources for that, as much as we wanted it all. Scope is a killer and we should have just made a game very similar to AWL, but improved as much as we could in the little time we had. Sorry about that.
2. Should have understood the Kickstarter results -- Honestly you guys, the Kickstarter failed, and that should have sent us a message. "Hey, Geoff and Matt, not enough people are willing to finance this game. It's over." But we ignored the message, strapped in, and charged forward. Leeroy Jenkins indeed. Sorry about that.
3. Should have had funding lined up before Early Access -- This is where we truly dropped the ball, because an unfinished EA game just sucks for everybody. We knew we could finish the game "eventually" but we did not have nearly enough cash in the bank to make it so. Blindly following our passion, we pushed forward anyway, hoping that an EA audience would find the game, help fund it, and we could fill in the gaps by working extra on contract work. That was a fool's errand and just bad business. We suffered for it and so did you, the fans and players. Ugh, sorry.
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Eventually LDG ran out of money (we essentially had to fire ourselves), and Geoff and I started picking up contracts. These kept us apart and very busy, and so our time for this game took a huge hit. We should have been more communicative on Steam around this time ... all I can say is that we felt a lot of shame, and were embarrassed that we couldn't pull it together. We've felt the shame for years, and still feel it ... Naively, we also felt like we'd eventually finish it. Somehow, we'd find the time and money. Somehow, eventually ...
Once the writing was on the wall, I even tried making a small game-jam type game to see if it could pull in enough interest to further fund development for this game. No dice. I reached out to publishers, I pitched at GDC ... sadly, nothing panned out. Eventually the contracts picked up enough that I had no time for LDG at all anymore.
This is another time when we should have been communicating this to you, and we're sorry we didn't. Eventually the contracts turned into jobs and we tried to focus on that. Geoff and I are now employed and happily making mobile games, but we still feel regret about not being able to finish this game.
... damnit ...
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What's next? Well, it's understandable if you're sore with us, as you have every right to be. The shame runs deep, and writing this has been difficult. The reason I've finally found the time and mental state to write this post is due to the worldwide pandemic -- in isolation, I feel somehow closer to my past work and the LDG audience ... maybe because I've been online more, or more nostalgic ... IDK.
But next we're hoping to take the game down from Steam. We cannot do this on our own, but we've reached out to Valve for help ... it's an ongoing process. I'll actually check this post in the future, I just need to step away for a while to recover and clear my head ... wish I could go for a walk ...
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I don't want to leave you completely empty-handed, so here are some cool things that might be relevant to your interests:
* Noita is an amazing action roguelike where every pixel is simulated.
* Sparklite is a beautiful overhead action game with roguelike elements, made by longtime Lostcast listeners.
* The Spelunky Showlike is a podcast about one of AWL's biggest inspirations, Spelunky.
* Spelunky 2 is coming this year and it's going to be incredible.
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Geoff and I are very sorry for letting you down. We thank you for your interest in our work, your generosity and support over the years, your patience and understanding ... and we hope you stay healthy, safe, happy, and ... as always, ship it.
Tiger hats for all,
-Matt