Once upon a time Double Fine hoped to keep in-progress space station sim Spacebase DF-9 going for five years. Now, however, theyâre abruptly pulling the plug, omitting many planned features from the âfinalâ version. Fans are, understandably, upset. Double Fine says it all comes down to one unfortunate reality: money.
Late last week Double Fine announced that their maiden early access voyage Spacebaseâa Dwarf Fortress-like simulation of space instead of, er, dwarvesâwill be decommissioned after its next big update. While things like a tutorial and tangible goals will undoubtedly make the gameâs mishmash of ambitious systems feel more cohesive, itâs far from the original end goal Double Fine shared with fans when its spacest of bases first hit Steam Early Access last year.
On the upside, Double Fine plans to release the gameâs full source code so that fans can continue adding their own features as they please. However, thatâs small consolation to those who dedicated money and time to Double Fineâs quirky sim, those who were in it for the long haul. Now the gameâs forums are overflowing with rage, and many want their money back
Studio head Tim Schafer took to Spacebaseâs Steam forums to explain what happened on Double Fineâs end. The short version? Money in didnât match money out, and there were no signs this was going to change.
âWe started Spacebase with an open ended-production plan, hoping that it would find similar success (and therefore funding) to the alpha-funded games that inspired it. Some of its early sales numbers indicated this might be the case, but slowly things changed, and it became clear that this was looking like a year and a half of production instead of five or so.â
âWith each Alpha release there was the hope that things would change, but they didnât. We put every dime we made from Spacebase back into Spacebase, and then we put in some more. Obviously, spending more money than we were making isnât something we can afford to do forever. So, as much as we tried to put off the decision, we finally had to change gears and put Spacebase into finishing mode and plan for version 1.0.â
Schafer also apologized for failing to communicate many of these issues better to fans. Double Fine and funding partner The Indie Fund were very upfront about Spacebaseâs financial situation when it was doing well, but they said significantly less about it after that.
Schafer added, however, that Double Fine didnât really know what the future held for Spacebase until fairly recently, so there was only so much they couldâve communicatedâwhich still wouldâve functioned as some kind of forewarning, so they probably shouldâve opened up about these issues sooner.
Especially incensed fans have demanded that Schafer and co stop selling the âincompleteâ game altogether or make it entirely free. That⌠probably wonât happen. Schafer wrote:
âWe wanted to keep working on Spacebase for years. But Spacebase spends more money than it brings in, and thatâs just not something we can afford to do any more. Set up against the expectation of the game being in development as long as Prison Architect or Dwarf Fortress, itâs hard not to find fault in the game by comparison. But we continued to sell the game, and will continue to sell the game, because we feel that based solely on its own merits, Spacebase DF9 is still a fun, clever, hilarious, beautiful and complete game.â
Double Fine stands by what theyâve done despite the fact that theyâre shutting down life support and sprinting toward the escape pods long before they originally planned to. Project lead JP LeBreton echoed that sentiment, writing that the team did âeverything we could to keep making the game the best it can be.â The latest alpha update, especially, was meant to add as much depth as humanly possible to an experience once criticized for a serious lack of meat on its bones.
So they triedâor at least, Double Fine claim that they did. However, people are (and should) be upset becauseâat the end of the dayâtheyâre not getting the complete game they were told about back when they first spent their spacebucks on Spacebase
A more polished, goal-driven version of whatâs on offer now? Sure. But Spacebase was originally envisioned as so much more, and many players were enticed by its pie-in-the-stars ambitionsâby the idea of a five-year-long developmental journey as well as the destination. Thereâs nothing out there quite like what it aimed to be: a sci-fi sim with tremendous depth, silly humor, and an interface non-cybernetically augmented humans could instantly understandâboth an antithesis to Dwarf Fortress and an evolution of it.
Double Fine will not deliver on everything they set out to do when they so adamantly claimed they were in this for the long haul, and that really sucks. Even if itâs not a slap in the face, it feels like one.
That said, itâs only fair that fans also direct a little of that rage/hurt at themselves. This is, for better or worse, the nature of Early Access. Some games will eventually cross the finish line, but many wonât. Theyâll instead crash and burn due to financial issues, internal drama, or a general inability to realize their vision.
Itâs surprising and upsetting that a company with Double Fineâs critically acclaimed professional pedigree (as opposed to a nameless amateur studio) dropped the ball like this, but game development is messy and these things sometimes happen. Itâs good that theyâre letting fans continue development if they so choose, but again, thatâs not much for those who paid to see Double Fineâs vision of a zany, brainy space sim.
Itâs a crappy situation, is the long and short of it. Nobody really wins. So by all means be mad, but also be wary. Between this and the seeming disappearance of dinosaur sandbox game The Stomping Land, weâve had quite a bit of trouble in Early Access paradise lately. Double Fineâs example serves as a stark reminder that even big-name studios can still make huge mistakes hereâin both communication and delivery.
So spend wisely. Maybe donât buy into Early Access games at all if you really want to avoid this sort of thing entirely. There are always risks. Itâs up to you to decide if theyâre worth taking.
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