The RTS/RPG hybrid Wildman was touted at the time as Gas Powered Games' last hope.
Gas Powered Games has cancelled its Wildman Kickstarter project.
The Supreme Commander developer stated that it was going to focus on keeping the studio running as opposed to putting any more resources into the proposed title. At its close, the project had met just under half of its $1.1m goal with only three days left on the clock.
'We are profoundly grateful to those of you who backed this project and Gas Powered Games,' reads an update on the Kickstarter project page.
'At this point, it makes sense for us to focus our attention on other ways to keep Gas Powered Games running.'
The studio has not shared specific details on what this will entail.
Studio chief executive Chris Taylor had previously said that he was taking a make-or-break risk with the Wildman crowd funding project. Shortly after the project was announced, the studio had to let go of approximately 40 employees.
The ambitious Wildman was set to be an RPG RTS hybrid. Although Taylor told Rock Paper Shotgun that at least one publisher was interested in helping the game out with extra funds, this was only on the proviso that it hit its Kickstarter goal. With this in mind, it is not necessarily the end of the road for the game or the studio.
Founded in 1998, Gas Powered Games is the home of several former Cavedog Entertainment developers. Cavedog made a name for itself through the iconic RTS Total Annihilation, released in 1997.
5 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyKickstarter works well for games that take a underserved/languishing genre, and bring them bang up to date - see obsidians RPG, Star Citizen or Planetary Annihilation for examples.
It doesn't work well for DOTA/Diablo clones, or, I'd imagine COD/BF3 clones.
its a shame to see GPG go down the pan, but CT steadfast refusal to give the fans what they want (SupCom3 (or new RTS IP)/Kings and Castles) means that he now finds himself in the situation he does.
TA licence are with cavedog who went bankrupt. Not even sure who owns Cavedogs licences these days. But i know its not GPG.
They also maybe able to save the company by doing this so its not all bad news.
PA will also massively struggle to get 5-10k units moving on a computer. The demos ive seen of the game running have 200-300 units total on the screen and the movement seems to be already struggling.
Getting that Engine to scale to 5-10k seems to be a bit dream land. Considering its due for release summer 2013. if we get 1-2k unit cap on release ill be pleasently suprised with maybe the mod community dealing with the cap for higher.
Supcom forged alliance with 1k units per player struggles on most pcs passed 2-3 players. If you Add 3-4 AI the game bearly runs at a playable fps on any system. ( using mods to break the hardcoded 500 unit limit)
Come to think about most games struggle when you put loads of units on the screen the games run outta physical memory to be able to cope passed a certain limit due to the 32bit code that most games are based around.
Sins of a solar empire rebellion with Battlestar mod is a fine example. 4 cylon AI is around 5000 units on the screen and the game just crawls due to the amount of fighters and bombers flying around the screen.
To get that mod working you have to use a mod tool to make the exe 64bit and allow it access to more of your system memory.
Add in the fact he doesn't have the capital to build the next SupCom-with-a-new-name without a publisher and you have your answer why he was doing a smaller, derivative title. Was I thinking Wildman was going to be an unexpected GOTY contender? No. However, I'd have fun playing it for a few hours, mess around with the mod tools a bit and get my money's worth. In turn, GPG would actually own an IP and be making any money they sold the game for instead of the pittance they generally get from publishers.
Hopefully Gas Powered Games can continue, though they should have tired to have done a new Transport Tycoon as a kick starter, as alot of people would like to see a new game.
Though with PA coming prehaps Square Enix will look at Supreme Commander 3, if PA sells well.