$4,358,128 Taken, 5 Years Developed, No Game released

The definitive survival experience. Turns out it's the company that is fighting for survival and not the players inside the game they paid for.

Other kickstarter to court videos:

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#deadmatter #2022 #kickstarter

[ItsJustOkay]

The moral of this story is that management is more than just a title. It is a skill, one that can make or break a company depending on how good the people in the role can do it.

[silmarian]

This just drives home for me that if your employer doesn't pay you on time, leave and, if needed, sue them to get your money. The entire basis of your relationship with them is based on you providing services in exchange for money. I've very rarely seen a startup make good after starting to delay payroll.

[hafhdrn]

Gonna be honest, as despicable as this company is, there's a certain sick joy I get from hearing that Tencent pissed money into a dead project.

[WinslowVS]

Getting fired as a moderator was the best thing that ever happened to me in relation to Dead Matter. Nik blocking me on socials when I asked the company about the possibility of a refund was the 2nd best because I didn't have to attempt to defend his behavior any longer.

[illegalskillsexception]

being a modder doesn't make you a game developer. Modding is a good start for game development path because it teaches you fundamentally how games are built, however as a modder you still see what the developer lets you see. there is a difference modifying something that somebody created and offered you means to tweak and creating something from scratch.

[ingamingpc]

The moral of the story is don't waste your money on kickstarters that have ideas bigger than their budget or their team

[dougray]

Your deep-dive narrative videos are terrific. I love your off-the-cuff stuff too, and I enjoy having both to choose from.

[mhc]

It’s very telling that the dayz mod never asked for money, the mod just appeared and gained traction like dota in wc3.
Now I don’t remember if dayz kickstarted when they went to create their standalone game, but the fact that they FINISHED the mod demonstrates they had the focus to achieve the ideas they had.

[demavend]

This was one of the kickstarters I contributed to and promptly forgot about later. Good to know the story of what happened. Good work, and thanks for your work!

[Kilo]

Pro Tip: Don't invest in any Kickstarter campaign unless you're willing to lose your money. Especially games from unknown developers. Worse, don't give money to modders that have zero experience in managing a game studio, and running a project like this.

There's a huge difference between a game mod, and a fully fledged game, yet these modders believe that because they were able to create a mod, that they're fully qualified to build a game from the ground up, and run a dev team, all in a timely matter. But, it always ends the same.

These videos are proof that people are easily parted with their money. It's pretty sad.

[MaraLightfoot]

I’ve just watched through all your kickstarter to court videos and I think it’s an amazing series! Super interesting and compelling. Can’t wait for the next one!

[xm]

Thank you for making this video! I almost backed this game a long time ago and I saw big fry’s coverage and have been hesitantly waiting ( and waiting and waiting) for this game. But I really didn’t know most of all of this history about the dev team. And it def explains A LOT about what is going on with the project!!

[JeffreydeKogel]

Damn, the entire part about mismanagement, false promises and workplace-related problems is pretty much exactly what I experienced as part of the design team on a mobile strategy game back in 2018 (which I won't name for obvious reasons), although in my case the leaders of the project were both incompetent and malevolent, which is why I was gone after about a year of development.
Stuff like this has been rampant in the (indie)gaming industry for years now, but I'm glad you're covering it so extensively.

[Arcademan]

I completely forgot about Valve's Greenlight program, I wasn't aware they cancelled it either, there's so many unfinished games on there

[victornielsen]

Every zombie survival horror game the last 10 years :

"A zombie survival horror game where zombies will be the least of your worries"

[dustinherk]

0:33 this game already exists. its called Project Zomboid, and its also still in development. only on build 41, with 42 coming soon(ish). this started 10 years. its going strong, and growing bigger and bigger ever since they implemented multiplayer too the roguelike surival genre.

[errolisdynamic]

As someone who’s a developer in the games industry, having good management is really important. You could have the best developers/artists in the world but with terrible management they won’t ship anything.

[THEspindoctor]

This is the third video I’ve watched from this series in the last day or so. They are very interesting and high quality, keep it up!

[randomrobin]

I remember this game being announced, I never heard anything from it and I thought it was cancelled.

[tuskaroffalkreath]

Great video! It never ceases to amaze me just how much money (to say nothing of time and talent) is wasted on projects like these. Both extremely unfortunate and morbidly fascinating.