My interpretation of the recent update.

[[RM] Thunderhunt]

Originally posted by Mister Wekonu:
Originally posted by Escvor:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/mightanddelight/announcements/detail/528706478197965653

We have some news at least!

Honestly this announcement bothers me a ton. It says virtually nothing about the status of BoT and Meadow, which internally have no team members left outside mostly Sofia and Arvid working on code. None of the writers, artists, musicians, designers that made BoT what it is are here anymore.

If their plan is to provide hotfixes and "preservation," they need to tell the community how. Is it player hosted servers? An offline version? They need to not string along with mystery and hope of stuff like more maps and just admit if the projects are being canned for the new one, which most the old team didn't even know existed in the first place.

I agree, it also bothers me as its got a bunch of implications that the lead dev/studio head should just be straight up about.


I'll translate the update as i see it


"We’ve been around for nearly fifteen years as an indie game developer, and we have a long, proud history of making games. We believe in game preservation and we aim to make sure our games are available to anyone who has supported us throughout the years. As we make decisions for existing titles and future projects, please know that this will be our guiding principle."

We are feeling the heat and may not be around long term due to finances, we/I care about the art we have made and want to make it available long term.
BoT will be redesigned to be locally hosted once we decide to turn off servers in 6 months to save on costs.


"Our team is smaller now, and we will need to be mindful of how many projects we work on simultaneously to ensure that we keep our team healthy and our projects manageable. However, our intention is to keep up maintenance of our existing titles, as well as finish development of projects that have been in the pipeline for a while."

We can't continue developing content for games that aren't making us money, we are going to do maintenance updates so we don't have drama/potential legal issues.
We need to be realistic about our teams capacity for output.

We have been working on something else that will hopefully make us money and we are going to focus on that as our already released titles and BoT are not making us much and are not attractive to investors.

That last part I think is accurate because BoT is then specifically mentioned below, so it implies the ''been in the pipeline for a while'' isn't referring to BoT.


"Regarding Book of Travels, our main focus for the foreseeable future will be to roll out several patches that are in the making – including fixes and community requests – and we’re also aiming to, among other things, do a balancing pass for the inventory, and look into releasing some map updates. During the next couple of months, you’ll notice our activity picking up on Discord and Steam. We want you to know that we are here, we listen to your feedback and we’ll do our very best to keep you all in the loop as we roll out future patches."

we know BoT isnt in a great spot, we have planned for capacity to hotfix/add a couple QoL, we know inventory system is dog and will fix some numbers, we have some ideas for ''map updates'' that ''might'' happen.
(look into? this doesnt sound like a development plan)

''we listen to your feedback and we'll do our very best to keep you in the loop''

This isnt a great statement.
It should be - we will be putting google form surveys into the discord monthly to elicit your feedback, we will publish quarterly dev blogs/updates explaining how we have implemented that feedback.

I doubt they have the capacity to commit to this, which is what it is, it does seem to be pretty wishy washy though as they've said this before and it never amounts to anything, they'd be better off not saying it.



"We are excited to say that we have a new game project slated for release in the fall of 2025. When we were a bigger team, we worked on the concept of this game in parallel for a couple of years, and at the time of writing this, we’re already halfway through development. We look forward to sharing more about it with you in the new year. For now, however, our main focus will be on our existing game catalogue."

We have experience in the industry and realize that our niche games coupled with the high chance of projects failing means we have put our eggs in multiple baskets, for better or worse as a business is a business and we need to diversify as thats the reality of indie game development.


"Also, for all you lovely people who supported Book of Travels on Kickstarter; please keep an eye on Kickstarter updates and/or your inbox. Beyond upcoming Steam updates, we will also be sharing some information directly with all backers early next year."

Please dont make drama or attempt to sue us, it wont work and we don't have the bandwidth to deal with it, we want you to buy our next product.


"Throughout this year, the one thing we’ve always come back to is the fact that we have such an incredible community. We’re not exaggerating when we say that you are the main reason that we have managed to weather all the changes of 2024, and fight for a chance to not only continue the support of our previous games, but also to be able to release something new.
A studio is only as good as its players, and we’re incredibly proud to have your support. Know that you can expect to see a lot more from us from now on."

We havent been talking to you because it doesnt make us money, we are releasing something new soon and need your money, so now we are talking to you and giving you a pat on the head, we realize we are going to have a harder time financially unless we can leverage the existing community.


"2024 has been a turbulent and chaotic year (for many, not just in the video game industry) so we want to wish you all a peaceful and cosy end of the year. We really hope to start off 2025 with a sense of normalcy, and we want to be more active – both with our online presence, and with our upcoming patches and announcements.

Have an amazing Holiday and we’ll be in touch soon ❤
Cheers from all the developers at Might & Delight"

we are going to try and do better in terms of engaging with the community and posting updates because we want to? and we need you to buy our next project.



Remeber that this was the update from two years ago:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1152340/view/5024356235721877885


Don't forget this discussion:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1152340/discussions/0/3807282428848884335/?ctp=4

from the COO of MaD

"About the game.... There is speculation about it dying, being dead, not making progress etc. Firstly, who is paying for the development of this game, those of you who are complaining? No, I am. There is money from the kickstarter, money from past game sales, loans, investments and the money the game makes itself from early access sales and my personal investment, both time and money. So the person who needs to be happy with the progress is me. Now you can argue “but we bought it” or “we backed it on kickstarter” and they would be valid arguments to a point but the overall vision of the game, that was promised during Kickstarter, remains true. If we make it singleplayer or offline, then it is no longer true. The development team is completely different, as we have said before. I now manage over 50 people in four different countries working on multiple projects. Those people needed to be interviewed, hired, trained. A very lengthy process. I don’t need to sit here and tell the internet what they are all doing. I don’t need to ask the internet for advice, nor opinion, because I know how to make and deliver games as I said above. It might be you wont like what we make, but as pointed out we know you like this theme, because you keep telling us. It was top 10 on Steam on its launch day. I know it is liked, I have to deliver it, and when I do it will not be just on Steam. Therefore Steam forums are not my priority at this moment in time."


Question for the devs - are you sticking to the original vision of the game still being online? or are you going back on what is said above?
Genuinely asking, as it would be good to know, thanks.

I'm not having a go at MaD, just calling it as it see it, i could be incorrect.

[evolgenius]

:( Man, I hope they open the game up to Modders and stuff if they kill it. This game could be so much more while still retaining it's core identity, art style, musical direction and vibe. Give us SDK!

[Hiddles]

I'd love more than anything for it to be the amazing experience they sold us on, but it bothers me to see what reads as resentment towards those of us who are frustrated they have yet to do so. They claimed they had the experience to have a handle on how to run things effectively to give us confidence to back their kickstarter but they proved that it wasn't true, they weren't able to deliver in the time they claimed and still haven't. Saying now that they had to do all these other things that took up their time as an excuse means they chose to spend time and money in other ways and it looks like that didn't work out.

[Inaros]

i mean for those of us who did kickstart it we could go at them since they have yet to deliver on everything that was promised to us for backing it.

[Sleeptokin]

I love how I find this game, to find out its an abandoned project that still says "early access"
Sad, honestly.

[Kaya]

The worst thing about their update post is, they´re not taking any responsibility but instead are blaming "the weathering storm that is the gaming industry", what a joke.

[[RM] Thunderhunt]

Originally posted by Kaya:

The worst thing about their update post is, they´re not taking any responsibility but instead are blaming "the weathering storm that is the gaming industry", what a joke.

they did the same for covid.

[Kaya]

Originally posted by RM Thunderhunt:

Originally posted by Kaya:

The worst thing about their update post is, they´re not taking any responsibility but instead are blaming "the weathering storm that is the gaming industry", what a joke.

they did the same for covid.

Whow they blamed covid on the gaming industry, that´s rich! x)

[Arkorat]

Damnit. i just got here after watching DoshDoshington's video on Wurm, thinking "wow, this reminds me a bit off BOT, should get back into it, its such a great game"... Like, ♥♥♥♥ me i guess... 😔

Feel like the most upsetting part is how unclear it is. Like, where are we supposed to stand? which of the games are safe? are they safe at all? or is everything going under?

Look at League of Geeks' goodbye post for comparison. (rip btw) they where straight out the gate "♥♥♥♥ didnt work out. none of these games are getting finished, sorry. we might be back but probably not."
Atleast then i know if i boot up the funny starship colony sim game, it probably aint going to have any improvements tomorrow.
But BOT? Who freaking knows!?

[Bovine]

I've been following this game for a long time and frankly I think it's insulting how forward they are about mismanaging timelines and spreading themselves so incredibly thin that everyone knows it's not going to be finished to anyone's satisfaction at the end of the day. Meanwhile they're actively selling it for $44.99 CAD on the store. Reminds me of when Kinetic Void shamelessly sold for full price for years when it was abandoned at 1/4 off it's advertised potential. Also Space Base which I bought and promptly got burned when they called version 0.2 Version 1.0 and left the project.

Steam should offer a mechanism where someone reviews a title like this and decides whether a developer/publisher is acting in bad faith and puts a warning up. I think they are already doing some sort of abandonware warning soon , this game seems like a prime candidate for it.