Wildman - Update # 3 Team Members Laid off at Gas Powered Games
 

Chris Taylor from Gas Powered Games appears in this third update from the games Kickstarter page. Apparently, Gas Power Games has laid off much of the team, since GPG won't be able to pay the members of the team severance pay if funding for this game fails. Chris Taylor now asks the backers if the Kickstarter project should be cancelled.


More information.

Ouch.

The cynic in me wonders if he's using fear tactics now?

The realist simply says its probably true.

It makes me wonder how well the studio did if he can't find a publisher now. Back in the day I just thought it was just another branch of Microsoft. I thought it spoke volumes that the first major release for XP (Dungeon Siege) required Admin access to install.

He can find a publisher don't worry. I'm not backing that game because of endless "rampage" mobs, but that's something most of publishers take as the only profitable thing so it would be a huge surprise if this Kickstarter failed.

There is bunch companies that could find publisher but chose kickstarter.Chance to break up from publisher and have their fate and profit from game in their own hands is too good to pass up I think.

Bad form at the very least, and makes me very wary insofar as backing the project is concerned. They really should have found a better way to deal with this.


-Carn

Chris Taylor replied in the comments,

Daniel.

Well I have no faith in him ever since he made space siege and the rest of his games after. Last game I enjoyed was Supreme Commander and it wasn't a big commercial success, and there following games weren't either.

I remember how Chris was excited about Age Of Empire Online and kept talking about how F2P was the future of his company. How did that work out Chris?

One could perhaps empathize with the displaced employees without necessarily being in agreement with Chris' development style… :-/

Nope. Software and game development like retail has a high turnover. People are fired or let go everyday. Sad but it's the ugly reality of any job market. No one job even mine is guaranteed forever.

Most will find new jobs if there talent is good and remember the golden rule you might have to settle for less. Don't be picky. Learned that myself.

That certainly was an odd update. I haven't pledged because I am not sure I like the concept, but it looks like it is on course to meet its goal (though not to blow past it like other projects have).

Don't you just love how mismanaging managers always survive the cuts. Too bad this project is so lame. Not the fault of the dev team that's for sure…

In business life what one wants to do and must do can be very different unfortunately. I remember a Feargus Urquart's interview before all this kickstarter thing where he said time for deep and long character creations left in the past and people didn't want them anymore. Or just look at inxile's past games. Microsoft paid the bills of GPG at one time, so what do you expect? That he says "we made this game, but it sucks. Don't play it" come on. Kickstarter gave this people a chance to do what they really want.

I'm working in a game localization company as project manager. What I really work with are single player RPGs. But, I can't. Because there isn't much money in this area, publishers don't want to localize their single player RPGs. So I have to work with MMORPG companies. Because that's where money is, that's what pays the bill. So I'm translating single player RPGs unofficially in my spare time as a hobby.

So there's no need for much skepticism.

Typical Chris Taylor PR spin. He's playing lying and deception game designed to trick us into thinking he's getting great feedback and community support. He's trying to get the ball rolling in his favor. He spins like this with every game in recent memory. IMO he's not to be trusted.

It is a mess of a situation, but an overly "scorched earth" attitude that devalues folks to the extreme in the gaming industry can't be the best path forward. It borders on magical thinking that talented folk will just generally land on their feet in the aftermath by that virtue alone---brain drain is a serious problem, and considering how fledgling this industry is versus cinema and the like, AND the overall bad culture of burnout and passing skills along to generations coming on up, you've got a sad trend of late with dev house shuttering left and right these past couple years…talent vanishing…IP rights and such descending into a muck of limbo such that they may never be situated again.

Hard to say what the fate of GPG will be going forward, and mistakes were certainly made, but losing a classic company in such a public spectacle would be quite a blow easily on par with the mark it would leave on KS if they somehow still wind up dropping the ball down the line. Potency still counts as paramount even accounting for the above---what this comes down to is trying to navigate Circumstance.

They seem to be doing decently well enough with their KS; not quite PE spectacular, but on track for their initial goal. Perhaps they were expecting more robust growth and they now have to be more cautious with their budget?

Well, when he said, "I can't believe all the love! Let's not count the actual votes!" it made me a little suspicious. I personally doubt he can trade his dignity for 3/4 of a million dollars though.

Hadn't heard of this project before today. Being a huge fan of the first Supreme Commander, I decided to check out the Kickstarter. Unfortunately, the game concept is not my cup of tea. And this latest update does smell a bit of manipulation.

I dont know if KS has a comment filter system but they correspond with the report made by this man. Lots of supportive comments (even though as only backers can comment, it shows that KS is not yet to attract people into paying just so they can express their opposition to something as it is seen elsewhere. Will add some new revenues stream if this ever happens. Just think of it, people backing just to state they do not agree with the project or the way it is managed)

He played the cards he had. The information was going public anyway. Not releasing it could have been interpretated as concealment (the studio is about to close, he's just taking the money from KS to pay back the debt and come clear out of the mess etc)

He came out openly about this, played the card of the independent studio/familial/small business etc so dear to so many potential backers and get a decent result out of it.

Just the way it works.

You can actually pledge 1 dollar, say whatever you wish in the comments section and then retract your pledge.