Chronicles of Elyria Developer Soulbound Studios Shutters Following Its Settlers of Elyria Event

Slapshot1188

goozmania said:

Vonatar said:

What a scam. I mean, how can you promise something with a budget of X, receive X and then say I couldn't deliver because X wasn't enough? That's 100% your fault for being unable to cost and manage a project to completion. This should be a warning to everyone out there who gets sucked in to hype and crowdfunds a game.

People with no experience in business thinking they don't need to spend money on accountants or financial analysts... This will always be the result.

He actually raised DOUBLE the money he said he needed to deliver the full game, tested, etc...

They just never found that “adult” voice to keep them focused and moving.  They got bogged down on stupid shit like making 4 unique maps instead of one. Like trying to make a mud version, failing, trying to make a voxel version, failing, trying to make a low-res version....

Alomar

Can't say I'm surprised, it started out looking very promising soon became bottom of the barrel in terms of expected mmo failures.

Slapshot1188

Sal1 said:

I'd like to hear from someone that played the game. Was the Settlers event and the game overall any good?

WTF? Played the game?  There was no game to play.  The Settlers event was a sale.  You clicked on a map and bought virtual land.  The closest they got to a game was the stupid,  bug-ridden parkour demo they released a week ago.  A few people got to move low-res avatars around.   That’s it.

Ungood

Slapshot1188 said:

Sadly, when the "armchair developers" know more than those collecting $8M to roleplay one, this is the result.   

It's not all on Caspien though.   While he shares the largest portion of blame, those who felt compelled to fight and argue with the "Harbingers" also share it.  Especially those who made no investment at all and argued what they had to know was a stupid position, just because they didn't like the Harbinger.

If that was you, look in the mirror.  You share culpability here by trying to enable this train to run off the bridge when there was still a chance to get it back on the tracks.  You share the blame for $8M lost.  You share the blame for people losing their jobs amid a global pandemic. Many of those people have families.

Have a good long look in that mirror and maybe, just maybe learn from this next time.  Swallow your pride and understand that what you did was reprehensible.

No, this was mainly the fault of people endlessly shitting all over the game and mocking it every chance they got,... Hummmmm.. Wonder who those people were.

jahlon

When you start your business from a perspective where you basically insult your customers, you are doomed to failure.

Remember when Caspian did the interview where he said "We never imaged people would be surprised by the news the game would require more money to finish"? Well what's to be surprised about, you launched a Kickstarter with a goal. The way KS works is your target goal is what you need to finish the project, not to bring it to the next stage of development to find investors.

Made that cool million over the Christmas holidays; wouldn't surprise me to find out he paid back all his early loans to the company before cashing out.

Imperil

It was doomed to failure from the beginning. I have friends in the industry that worked with Walsh (I personally haven’t) and he wasn’t brand new, but wasn’t even close to senior. He was also a chronic project starter and never finishing anything, even things such as his MMO tutorials on Gamedev.net which he started and went through the easier parts in the beginning and then randomly quit one day. He also was building an MMO tech engine to license and randomly quit one day. It’s no wonder he took on yet another large project and continuously changed it (even changing engine mid-project!), never finished anything, and then had to pivot once again to another new project.

A ton of people in the industry felt bad for the backers that pledged on this (and many posted warnings), as since he’s never finished anything successfully and we knew this was going to be an unfinished project.

Kajidourden

It was never going to launch anyway. Good thing something came along to kill the project before even more people gave them money.

Slapshot1188

Imperil said:

It was doomed to failure from the beginning. I have friends in the industry that worked with Walsh (I personally haven’t) and he wasn’t brand new, but wasn’t even close to senior. He was also a chronic project starter and never finishing anything, even things such as his MMO tutorials on Gamedev.net which he started and went through the easier parts in the beginning and then randomly quit one day. He also was building an MMO tech engine to license and randomly quit one day. It’s no wonder he took on yet another large project and continuously changed it (even changing engine mid-project!), never finished anything, and then had to pivot once again to another new project.

A ton of people in the industry felt bad for the backers that pledged on this (and many posted warnings), as since he’s never finished anything successfully and we knew this was going to be an unfinished project.

I feel bad for the backers that bought in early.  Not so much those that continued to toss good money after bad.   Even less for those that defended him over and over again on these forums.  THOSE people have to look in the mirror and share the blame for this.

Funny how even today some of them are still self-delusional and refuse to accept responsibility.

Ungood

I totally agree how some people are delusion and refuse to accept responsibility for their actions.

wyldmagik

wth is this "shutters","shuttering" please dont tell me it should be "shuts","shutting"

Slapshot1188

wyldmagik said:

wth is this "shutters","shuttering" please dont tell me it should be "shuts","shutting"

The Studio fired all employees.

KnightFalz

I can't help but feel that Covid-19 is being used as a convenient scapegoat here, in an attempt to ward off critique by dressing the closure with a cloak of responsible nobility.

Ungood

wyldmagik said:

wth is this "shutters","shuttering" please dont tell me it should be "shuts","shutting"

It's a polite way to say they Shit Canned it.

Wizardry

I am not pointing the finger only at this studio but ALL of the crowd funded studios,you CAN NOT build a game going on a whim,not knowing or having the money to pull it off.

IMO this entire project was nothing more than a smokescreen in HOPES of getting an investor.After a full year and no investor it was clear this was never going to work and to me it never was anyhow because CF/KS'rs do NOT work to build a HQ game.

Slapshot1188

Wizardry said:

I am not pointing the finger only at this studio but ALL of the crowd funded studios,you CAN NOT build a game going on a whim,not knowing or having the money to pull it off.

IMO this entire project was nothing more than a smokescreen in HOPES of getting an investor.After a full year and no investor it was clear this was never going to work and to me it never was anyhow because CF/KS'rs do NOT work to build a HQ game.

Aided by what Russia would call "useful idiots" that defended and obscured for them.  It's not JUST the Studios.  It's those that enable them.

Ungood

I sincerely think anyone that had been shitting all over a game for the last 4 years of their life, banging their drum about how it was going to crash and burn should own up and have the brass to break out the marshmallows when it finally happens.

anemo

Ungood said:

I sincerely think anyone that had been shitting all over a game for the last 4 years of their life, banging their drum about how it was going to crash and burn should own up and have the brass to break out the marshmallows when it finally happens.

I'm surprised I was expecting another year or two.

DafAtRandom

Well, at least they had picked a song.  Otherwise, we might not have taken them seriously.

Slapshot1188

xD_Gaming said:

Ungood said:

EponyxDamor said:

Oof. Can't say I didn't see this coming, however, it really does seem awfully scammy to spend several years in "development" (collect several million dollars) and then release the first playable version of the game (which is essentially an asset flip) juuuuuust before closing.



Seriously? Where did those millions of dollars go? Because you can't convince me a reasonable studio with a similar budget would only develop what was shown.



I'd be pissed if I had spent any money on this steaming pile, much less having spent it during the latest "donation" drive.

Well lets see. The first Crowdfunding happened in 2016,  so that's 4 years. The claim I hear people make is that they raised 8 million total.

Looking up Soulbound Studios, They are listed as having anywhere between 11 - 50 employes. 

Game Developers makes anywhere between 60 - 120K. Lets average that to 80K a year.

So.. mid run would be 25 employees, making 80K a year, and That's roughly, 2 million a year in payroll alone, and that's with the CEO making a very modest paycheck, of an average developer.

That also does not include things like Office Space, Computers, Software, Electricity, Etc

So yah, it's very viable they simply spent the money on what would be normal operating costs.

They worked at a college on free computers , Did you not see the image of the 5 people at the table. That is a college setup with dell xps's. The split the money 5 ways . The got 1.6mil each.

This was a scam from day one. I also bet that those aren't even their real names.

Don't waste your time.   

aslan132

Honestly, as someone who had no interest in this game, except as an outside observer, I think we all saw this coming. People have called this vaporware from the beginning, and not many (except the backers with the most invested, and therefore the most to lose) ever thought the game would release. 

I hate to ever see a game fail and a dream die. I have always been cautious with CF anything (only backing a few board games here and there), but something like an MMO, that takes tens of millions should not be done with CFing. Would I have played the game if it released? Maybe. But theres no way in hell I would put money into something that doesnt exist first. 

And as one last note, again I had no money in it, so just an outside observer. But it does feel like he is using the current COVID-19 situation as an excuse. Blaming backers has always been his "thing", and he admits he could have asked backers for more, and probably gotten it. It sounds like he has been looking for a way out for some time now, and he finally got the excuse he needed to back out with minimal consequences. 

Iselin

aslan132 said:

I hate to ever see a game fail and a dream die. 

So do I. So do most of us.

But there is a big difference between an honest dreamer, dreaming a game and failing at delivering - that's sad - and a cocky and self-deluded huckster failing with $8 mil of other people's money. Some people just can't tell the difference between the two.

This game had vaporware written all over it in capital letters and some just obstinately refused to see it despite mounting evidence year after year.

I can feel bad for the honest backers who wasted a lot of money on this. But the aggressive defenders and enablers of this shit-show are a sad bunch that get no sympathy whatsoever from me.

BruceYee

Is 8 million not enough for the FBI to investigate? That McMillions HBO documentary was a 21 million scam and they went multi-state operation for it. The DOJ is currently going after people selling hand sanitizer for $10 instead of $5 so why not a company that perpetrated a 8 million dollar fraud? Oh, right cause no gives any ___ about fraud when it comes to video games. Stuff like this gives the green light to every white collar fraudster interested in making a few mill that they can get away with it and never be investigated. Put that Doug Matthews guy from McMillions on the case he can probably handle the whole thing solo.

Mendel

Iselin said:

aslan132 said:

I hate to ever see a game fail and a dream die. 

So do I. So do most of us.

But there is a big difference between an honest dreamer, dreaming a game and failing at delivering - that's sad - and a cocky and self-deluded huckster failing with $8 mil of other people's money. Some people just can't tell the difference between the two.

This game had vaporware written all over it in capital letters and some just obstinately refused to see it despite mounting evidence year after year.

I can feel bad for the honest backers who wasted a lot of money on this. But the aggressive defenders and enablers of this shit-show are a sad bunch that get no sympathy whatsoever from me.

What a day to sleep in.

Maybe this example will finally, firmly cause people to understand why we shouldn't give people money on a whim.  The sooner we customers take command of our own wallets, the sooner that these types of cults will go back to trying to sell roofs door-to-door.

The less reputable the endeavor, the tastier the Kool-Aid.  Please learn from this.

Slapshot1188

Does anyone else see the irony that even this article title is spelled wrong?  This project was a clusterfuck from start to end.

slowz2secret

I never will support games in developement like this, just grabbing money and run away, next will be ashes of creation and patheon..