No Wonder.

General comments and topics relating to Giants.

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LostAgain
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No Wonder.

Post by LostAgain »

Email received from Nick Bruty, 20 February 2016:

First Wonder status

Dear First wonder Supporters, Friends,

I’m writing with the sad news that we are suspending the development of First Wonder. I know, right! Bugger it!

After the kickstarter failed we looked for other opportunities and partnerships to keep the development going. While your donations helped we were still self-funding 95% of the project directly out of pocket. The amount of investment needed to get the game to the next stage was too large for us to handle by ourselves.

We had some interesting conversations but regardless of how excited some were for the project it came down to numbers and risk. For publishers, the kickstarter showed we just didn’t have or couldn’t find the audience.

Rich posted his breakdown of what went right and wrong with the campaign but the crux of it was not being able to connect with enough of our previous fans and our demo was aimed too strongly at Giants fans to attract new ones.

We’re very proud of what we achieved in the 4 months of development. We were light years ahead of Giants development in the same time frame. Oh what we could have done with a full team, a real budget and Unreal 4.

Even though this time we didn’t succeed I’m still greatly encouraged by the strength of your support and the sheer bloody passion you guys had. We loved hearing about your early experiences with Giants and MDK. From all over the world! It was awesome.



But all that aside for the moment. We have some stuff to work out. You guys gave us some cold hard cash and we need to work out what to do about that. We’ve got a couple of options for you.

1. Full Refund

OR

2. Steam keys for the First Wonder demo and one of our previous releases Gunpowder. This would be the equivalent of a $15 value. If you paid more than $15 then you will be refunded the rest.

Reply directly to this email with your choice and we’ll take it from there. Remember not to reply all!

For those seeking a full refund please be patient. We have incoming funds dedicated to this but can only do so much per month. If everyone opts for a refund it will take us a little while to pay back everyone but we will get there. This is very important to us.


Whats next, will we ever, ever, ever, see a game like this?

For now Rogue Rocket is going dormant. Rich and I need to focus on other projects and jobs. I’m keeping my claws sharp contracting as an Art Director on an external title while I plot my next move and Rich has taken another Job in the games industry.

I’m still very passionate about making games like these. I always will be. They are unique and therefore rather hard to sell but once we get a foot hold I think they’ll be here to stay. I remain undeterred but it’s clearly been too many years since Giants and MDK and If I want to build games like First Wonder then I have to start off much smaller, simpler and grow a new audience. I have such a game in mind.

Thanks so much for your support.

Nick Bruty
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Mnich
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Post by Mnich »

Yea I know ... It's the worst news of this week.
buster
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Post by buster »

Rich has taken another Job in the games industry
We aint gonna see em again. Keheh[/quote]
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Salazar
Reg the Smooth Operator
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Post by Salazar »

No reason to live now.
buster
Yan the Pimp
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Post by buster »

Salazar wrote:No reason to live now.
well i dont suppose this is the end if they are going to continue developing this In s-s-some y-years...
its ok.
LostAgain
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Post by LostAgain »

I pledged $200 for the Kickstarter - I figured $13.33 (recurring) per year of playing Giants was a pittance.

There was always the risk that First Wonder would not have lived up to expectations, possibly due to the difficulties of translating something so special into something acceptable to another generation of gamers as well as fanatics like ourselves. That would have been worse than it never happening at all.

I wasn't too keen on those sticky-out wing-style jetpacks, anyway.
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