Jawmuncher
Member
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dischan/dysfunctional-systemshere are two parts to this post. The important stuff and the rest.
The Important Stuff
We are halting full-time development on the Dysfunctional Systems series. We will be offering partial refunds to backers who pledged over $5 and who ask for a refund. Backers in the $5 tier received the product they paid for, so they will not be refunded. If you would like a refund, let us know via Kickstarter. Please be considerate when asking for a refund as most of the money is gone so I will be using my personal funds to make up the difference. Please note that refunds may take some time to arrive, first of all because bulk refunds are difficult on Kickstarter, and secondly because once our current funds run out I will only be able to refund backers as I earn the money to do so.
The Rest
There's a lot to say about this decision, but the short version is just that we made too many mistakes. I'll write a post later analyzing these mistakes, but I don't think I should get into them in this post. For now I'll just answer some of the obvious questions that are sure to be on your mind.
Isn't episode 0 basically finished? Is that going to be released?
Yes, episode 0 is basically finished. It's part of the reason for this decision. To put it simply: it's average. It's not good and it's not bad: it's average. Playing through it makes me feel like releasing the game would only disappoint the people who expect more from us. Therefore, we will not be releasing it.
What's going to happen now?
We're not sure. We may still work on Dysfunctional Systems when we can, but we will definitely not be working on it full time. It's slightly more likely that we'll clean up the prologue to the point where it could be released, but we can't guarantee anything.
We're most likely going to start working on small projects on a volunteer basis. Things we can finish without relying on the support of any third party or requiring months of development time.
I just bought episode 1, can I get a refund?
It's unfortunate, but no. We cannot afford to give refunds to the people who bought episode 1. We have a large enough debt to pay off already.
I'm angry and I want to send you hate mail. Can I?
You can. Please note however that one or more real human beings will read your message and feel like crap.
In closing, we're sorry.
I don't mind failure. I personally believe that if you aren't doing something with a chance of failure then you're not doing anything worth doing. However, in this case what bothers me is that we let so many people who believed in us down. I'd like to offer my sincerest apologies to all of you on behalf of myself, Dischan, and the team.
Thank you for your understanding, and we're sorry we couldn't fulfill our obligations to you.
Pretty much sounds like Dev Time was a mess and resulted in a product no one was satisfied with. Pretty bummed since I actually backed this.