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[JunkerWoland]

The below quoted text was posted by a representative of 505 Games (Bloodstained's publisher) in the game’s official forums, as a response to a thread related to demands for refunds due to the Linux & Mac platform cancellations.

As of late, this is some of the most transparent information released on the game and seemed worth posting.

My quick takeaways: the Kickstarter money has been spent (reason given for no refunds); Bloodstained is still releasing in 2019, with a date coming “soon;” and while nearing completion, it still sounds like a decent amount of work is still needed on the game. I expect Bloodstained will go through the spring/summer convention season as a means of added promotion and hit retail in the second half of 2019, around October or November.

Direct Link to Forum Post:

Hi there. Apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

The main questions are ‘why no native support for Mac/Linux’ and ‘why no refund’.

The initial Kickstarter goals and platforms were chosen back in 2015, long before the first coder, artist or level designer was hired for the project. Things can change over time, but is had been our intention throughout development to provide native support for Mac and Linux.

Unfortunately, as we began platform compatibility work, we ran into difficulties with the ports that we did not anticipate. The developer time and resources needed to address these issues would have to be taken from other areas of the game.

As we look at the overall development of the project, we have to weigh the merits of putting time and money into each part of the game and make some difficult choices. This is one of those difficult choices, but we expect it to be the last.

While we are disappointed that we will not be able to provide native versions of the game for Mac and Linux users, we think that the PC version of the game will be playable on Mac and Linux using external tools.

As to the refund question, refunds for Kickstarter projects come out of the pool of funds initially raised by backers. As per the KS terms of use, if an element of a project cannot be completed and there are funds remaining, a refund should be offered. In this instance, the initial funding for the project has been expended on development. Our current progress towards launch is due to additional funding from the publisher, 505 Games.

As per the Kickstarter Terms of Use (https://www.kickstarter.com/terms-of-use#section4), we are working to complete the project in the most satisfactory way possible. We will continue to make regular project updates on Kickstarter and keep the community appraised of where we are in development. I believe the extensive work we have shown via Curse of the Moon and the backer beta are indicative that we are working hard to deliver the game.

To answer some specific questions:

Is DICO still working on the project: Yes.
Will the game come out in 2019? Yes.
When in 2019? We will be announcing a release date soon.
Will more crowdfunding be needed?: No.
How much of the game is done (levels/art/models/etc)? Assets, in-game systems (i.e crafting, inventory, etc.) and the levels/environments are nearly complete. Basically, all of the elements of the core game are there. We are working to populate and tweak the levels. We are also working on platform compatibility, playtesting and of course smashing bugs.

Thanks for your patience as we work towards launch. We apologize for disappointing our fans on Mac and Linux.

 

[dirthead]

haha they're so full of shit. For the amount of money they raised, the game could have had 2D sprite work and been released on every platform under the sun. I'm not sure whether it's just a scam where they're pocketing a lot of cash and not spending it on the game or if it was just that horribly mismanaged, but either way, this was a huge debacle and yet another failure that's going to make people leery about kickstarters.

 

[zeorhymer]

The main takeaway I read was that: Thanks for the fish to get the prototype running. We now have a publisher that's going to fund the game.

 

[JunkerWoland]

The main takeaway I read was that: Thanks for the fish to get the prototype running. We now have a publisher that's going to fund the game.

To be fair, the campaign was transparent from the start about it already having a publisher for the game, with the Kickstarter's purpose partially being to demonstrate consumer interest and potential scope of the project.

 

[dirthead]

To be fair, the campaign was transparent from the start about it already having a publisher for the game, with the Kickstarter's purpose partially being to demonstrate consumer interest and potential scope of the project.

Yeah so in other words literally used the fans. See, shit like this and Shen Mue are not what kickstarters are for. When you're already shopping big publishers, it's a farce.

 

[Spukc]

i heard jeff gerstmann talk about this on teh last giant bomb cast,
what a clusterfuck.

if the game turns out to be good i will get it

 

[#Phonepunk#]

looking forward to this. 2019 sounds good!

already loved the 2D sprite game that they released free for backers "on every platform under the sun". did you miss that, Dirthead?

 

[JunkerWoland]

Curse of the Moon (the 2D sprite-based prequel) was a $4.5 million campaign stretch goal; while backers at the level of $28+ did not have to purchase the game, it also was not given to them outside the confines of the campaign--ostensibly, the backers are the reason this game exists. Worth noting, Curse of the Moon was both developed and published by Inti Creates (meaning the main game's developers and publisher are not directly involved); it's also not available natively on Linux & Mac or in a DRM-free format.

I quite enjoyed Curse of the Moon, but it was not some gift benevolently bestowed on backers by the various parties involved with this franchise.

 

[dirthead]

Curse of the Moon (the 2D sprite-based prequel) was a $4.5 million campaign stretch goal; while backers at the level of $28+ did not have to purchase the game, it also was not given to them outside the confines of the campaign--ostensibly, the backers are the reason this game exists. Worth noting, Curse of the Moon was both developed and published by Inti Creates (meaning the main game's developers and publisher are not directly involved); it's also not available natively on Linux & Mac or in a DRM-free format.

Just shows how mismanaged the whole thing was, though. Making an entire separate game when you can't even finish your main game is pretty bad.

 

[Petrae]

“We need your money or this game can’t happen.”

Oh, well. Then you don’t to make your game... either you’re not pitching the project correctly or you’re not pitching it to the right people. I’m sorry, but it’s no skin off my teeth if developers can’t sell their ideas to publishers. I’m not a money tap, and I’m not in the business of developer charity. Get the work done and get your game made, then— if the end product is good enough— you’ll earn my cash.

I consider crowdfunding for video games to be a scam, like televangelism or Miss Cleo’s hotline. People can throw their money away on scams all they want— it’s their money, after all— but I’ll never do it.

 

[JunkerWoland]

Making an entire separate game when you can't even finish your main game is pretty bad.

Curse of the Moon was developed and published under contract by Inti Creates and was always intended to be available, prior to the release of Bloodstained-proper. The companies working on the main game were not involved with Curse of the Moon, so it's not like those teams were shifting focus away from the core product.

 

[kunonabi]

Boy am i glad that Wii u cancellation came early. It would have sucked to be out all that money.

 

[Madflavor]

Am I jumping the gun to think this is gonna be another Mighty No. 9 situation?

 

[dirthead]

Curse of the Moon was developed and published under contract by Inti Creates and was always intended to be available, prior to the release of Bloodstained-proper. The companies working on the main game were not involved with Curse of the Moon, so it's not like those teams were shifting focus away from the core product.

Exactly. They should have had more resources allocated to the core product, because it's not only late but looks like a cheap piece of shit.

 

[Joelenheimer]

Am I jumping the gun to think this is gonna be another Mighty No. 9 situation?

No, I honestly think everything that's been shown so far looks terrible. I heard that 8bit game they made is kinda fun though.

 

[Mecha Meow]

Game looks perfectly fine to me and I have always loved the look of 2.5D games since first experiencing them in 1995 (Clockwork Knight for my Saturn).

Them partnering with Wayforward to polish/finish things up is the icing on the cake for me.

 

[Dontero]

To this day i don't understand why they made it 3D.

Creating good graphics in 3D that doesn't suck is very hard.
Creating same thing in 2D is 2-3 man job at best especially with that kind of funding.

Do you think how many people created SOTN ? dozen people who at the time had such garbage tools that they had to spend weeks trying to animate sprites. Something amateur can do now without any coding experience.

 

[cireza]

Never backing a Japanese project ever again. And I am the kind of person who already thinks thoroughly before backing. But it has been only disappointment. The kickstarters I backed ended being what I call "a joke", with absurd delays for stupid reasons, or simply because the initial engagement was a joke to begin with.

Going forward, I will only back projects that :
- have a Proof of Concept that runs on the target hardware day-one
- have reasonable ambitions
- don't load their campaign with stupid stretch goals and stuff that WILL delay it

A guy sitting on a chair saying he is going to rebuild the entire world : that's not for me anymore.

At least Curse of the Moon exists because this kickstarter, so that's still that. It will probably end up being the better game anyway.

Also fuck these projects that you back with a lot of money, only to see the games being picked by publishers and released at the same time for half the price. Fuck this.