The real cost of staying independent( the truth about what happened to TUG and Nerd Kingdom)

[ATUGFAN]

Hi my name is not important, but what I have to say is important, and I request the moderators on this forum to give the backers and the community a chance to read this as a form of transparency, as in the past a user has been banned for simply telling the backers the truth about what happened to TUG, by posting this thread I hope this will be seen by many users who still lurk here, as users who bought TUG have a legal right to know what happened and we firmly believe everything below is being done with good intentions


this thread has tons more info on TUG and what happened, and it contains sources to back up all the info below:
https://www.reddit.com/r/tug/comments/bn18y2/the_cost_of_staying_independent_megathread_please/

I understand the steam hub believes that Nerd Kingdom ran away and took everyone's money in 2018, I want to debunk this rumor below as they actually closed down this year:

This is a very long story that is going to take some time, for those who want a TLDR (Too Long Didn't Read) version in short: IGG killed tugv2, they let go of Ino, the co creator, and nearly 95% of his former staff out of the company, and hit them all with NDA contracts baring anyone from explaining what happened. During 2018 the new COO dropped the Opengl TUG project, and tried to make a linear unity game called Best Buds that played kinda like Pikmin, it failed to get IGG to develop the game any further, and in 2019 the COO with the help of a IGG board member closed down the company on may 16th 2019 as Alex Padilla California Secretary of State reports : https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/CBS/SearchResults?filing=False&SearchType=CORP&SearchCriteria=nerd+kingdom&SearchSubType=Keyword

here is a link for those who still interested in TUG and TUGv2, and want to join in our efforts to bring back the community:

the leaked Best Buds playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSm1eXEBKEdNlrYm0MwHiAcQo4fNgrrGG

Walker Boys Studio confirms they were contracted to make a prototype in 2018, its the 5th one down: http://www.walkerboystudio.com/wbstudio/projects/

video from that prototype: https://youtu.be/NonvU224QdQ


The Unofficial Nerd Kingdom Community is trying to bring back the community, please join us on discord as we try to keep everyone updated on stuff we are doing to help backers and the community in some shape or form : https://discord.gg/yEujpyX


thanks for your time, I hope this gets pinned in some way, as I believe many lurkers will see this in the next few months and they will get a chance to understand what happened to TUG, though, if anything else https://www.reddit.com/r/tug is the source for information regarding everything above.

[Gerustroncio]

Whatever may have happened, they are never going to get a single cent more out of me, you can be sure of that.

They chose how to kickstart it(with a ludicrously low target), they chose what would be in the "game", they chose to sell out to a effen chinese company(that alone puts their judgement capacity at the moronic level).

Their choices, their mistakes, their problem, now you're trying to sell a sob story? not gonna fly

All I know is that I wasted good money on this garbage, that could've been better spent elsewhere, not gonna happen again.

[ATUGFAN]

Originally posted by Sapo:

Whatever may have happened, they are never going to get a single cent more out of me, you can be sure of that.

They chose how to kickstart it(with a ludicrously low target), they chose what would be in the "game", they chose to sell out to a effen chinese company(that alone puts their judgement capacity at the moronic level).

Their choices, their mistakes, their problem, now you're trying to sell a sob story? not gonna fly

All I know is that I wasted good money on this garbage, that could've been better spent elsewhere, not gonna happen again.

I know many like will not read the full thread, so let me try to tell you what's going on

you can't give them another cent of your money, because as of may 2019, this year, they are closed down, dissolved, GONE because iGG and another NK associate closed it down in California

now I totally agree with you, they made very poor mistakes, and that sums up to not understanding what kickstarter was, and if I am not mistaken ino had stated on steam he used the funds to hire more people and buy stuff to help make the game, when he failed to understand the money that was invested was for the whole game, all in all even backers way back then didn't understand that kickstarter is not a place to invest money in, it is a promise, and yes I understand that promise was broken, but not because they lied or ran away, because people lied to them in order to make some money off the minecraft trend

no one by any means is trying to tell a sad story to garner sympathy, at least not for the company itself

but the whole point is to tell you its not entirely the people who used to work at NerdKingdoms fault, ino, the co creator and many devs were forced into a gag order, right after someone at the company lied to IGG, who then forced INO to step down, and that person becomes in charged and let go almost 90% of the staff, who then was also forced to sign NDAs

this dev of the team should not hold all the blame, and for their sake I won't mention them here, but IGG, the makers of castle clash, lords mobile etc are the main ones responsible for ALL of this

so TLDR: NERD KINGDOM IS DEAD because of IGG forced the main team into leaving with nda's that save the company from holding any responsibility to his customers and backers, and no one was allowed to know this because the person who figured this out was banned so the narrative could be NK ran away with the money and didn't care. In the end of all this we have a company that got away with putting the blame on the devs and INO aka peter salinas, because IGG made them sign a NDA

if anything you don't find credible or want more info, please go to r/tug, or the discord, all that I have said is 100% true backed up by facts and sources to prove to everyone IGG is the real person to blame and they are the ones who should get all the blame, not NK.

but yea one more TLDR: nerd kingdom didn't run away with your money, they became the fall guys after IGG saw nerd kingdom was not making the pay 2 win game IGG wanted, and the past 2 years they screwed over the backers, steam users, yogventures backers and the devs that worked almost 8 years for TUG and all of us,

just to be thrown away because IGG and someone on the team got greedy

and the worst part of it all, no one but a few really know this happened, you all would have found out the truth if one steam users wasn't banned because the person in charged wanted to keep you in the dark about everything, he knew the truth, got banned for no reason and no one did anything about it

again and again I implore you to go to r/tug on reddit, believe me or don't, but we are trying our best over there to support those who still want TUG to be something, and the best part is no one is putting a cent to anything, its all community-supported, with alot of backers who still want to preserve the game in any way they can


thats it, I am actually surprised this is still up, I am assuming the dev that lurked around here is not here anymore to censor any more people, so I am hoping fans lurk back here and go to r/tug, a place we won't lie or ban for speaking out the truth

[Khelonos]

Originally posted by ATUGFAN:

Hi my name is not important

Said the spider to the fly.

Originally posted by ATUGFAN:

in the past a user has been banned for simply telling the backers the truth about what happened to TUG

"a user", right.

TUG was a straight up swindle and we all know it.

Their mouthpiece always spoke pure snake-oil-salesmen. Just like this post.

"the cost of staying independent" Independent? Sure...

They took money from backers, buyers and then sold themselves to that chinese company for millions. And were later shut down because they were never anything but smoke and mirrors. We all got swindled.

NK was never some brave little "indie". They were a predator and we their prey.

https://massivelyop.com/2019/06/28/lawful-neutral-tugs-nerd-kingdom-is-the-real-slim-shady/

The question is why are they still desperately trying to play innocent?

What do they fear?

[ATUGFAN]

Originally posted by Khelonos:

Originally posted by ATUGFAN:

Hi my name is not important

Said the spider to the fly.

Originally posted by ATUGFAN:

in the past a user has been banned for simply telling the backers the truth about what happened to TUG

"a user", right.

TUG was a straight up swindle and we all know it.

Their mouthpiece always spoke pure snake-oil-salesmen. Just like this post.

"the cost of staying independent" Independent? Sure...

They took money from backers, buyers and then sold themselves to that chinese company for millions. And were later shut down because they were never anything but smoke and mirrors. We all got swindled.

NK was never some brave little "indie". They were a predator and we their prey.

https://massivelyop.com/2019/06/28/lawful-neutral-tugs-nerd-kingdom-is-the-real-slim-shady/

The question is why are they still desperately trying to play innocent?

What do they fear?

I will agree INO promised stuff that he was very inexperienced to actually do, no one can deny NK and the devs were way over their heads on TUG

"They took money from backers, buyers and then sold themselves to that chinese company for millions. And were later shut down because they were never anything but smoke and mirrors. We all got swindled."

backers gave their money, willingly, all the money went to developing TUG, they were very transparent about this, to say they toke "money" is not true at all.

as for IGG buying them out, INO and others had to let them invest in order to save the game and the company, and the buy out was out of a false narrative by IGG that they were going to have full control, sadly IGG lied to them.

I would also not go to massively op, as they have outdated information and r/tug has always been update to date on TUG and Nerd kingdom stuff, massively op does not have great sources of information, r/tug backs up claims with facts, not half truths

in the end IGG is the real reason why Nerd Kingdom failed, they forced Peter Salinas to step down and the rest to sign a NDA in hopes they wouldn't be called out for laying off tons of devs in 2017. IGG was the predator and the prey was the devs they tricked into thinking they cared about helping Nerd Kingdom make the game they wanted to make

"The question is why are they still desperately trying to play innocent?
What do they fear?"

the devs have moved on and nerd kingdom again DOES NOT EXIST IGG closed them done this year in 2019, but high tier backers that spent alot of money, are working with me and others to get REAL answers, to get the truth for those who deserve a answer, and the only thing ex devs of Nerd kingdom fear is being sued by IGG for breaking the NDA , and the idea many believe they tricked their user base, which they didn't, and again r/tug on reddit can prove this is not the case


again you all have been lied to, ino, aka peter salinas didn't throw you and everyone under the bus, one developer working in the company did around 2017, which led to peter and the rest of his team losing their jobs and in the end they signed the NDA not because they were scamming us, but because IGG made a deal they couldn't refuse

I could go on and on, with facts and sources, but read the pin on r/tug, don't take it from me, take it from the sources and links on the subreddits pin

Nerd Kingdom is not fully at fault in all this, but again in the end, if anyone you should be pissed at, it should be at IGG, not NK , or the devs, IGG hold all the power, not Nerd Kingdom or devs and they clearly made it so they toke no blame in all this, and that Nerd kingdom would take all the blame in it, and the best part of IGGs plan, no one would know the truth since they made everyone sign a NDA baring them from speaking about it

[earlyaccesscontrol]

Thanks for posting this.

[FangElon]

All in all this whole story changes nothing. The incident was brought about by a single decision made by NK that doomed the whole game. You can argue that IGG is poison but it is NK that decided to ingest such poison and now is blaming the poison for it's own death.

[jintoya]

you have to AGREE to an NDA, it's in the name nondisclosure agreement, you can't suddenly activate one like its a supervillain pit-fall trap, i know most companies are bad, but they aren't Dr. Evil.
if it says "you cant talk about being treated poorly or verbally abused"
but you still sign it, you cant really act surprised when i start yelling.....can you?
any time someone says "i will pay you not to tell people" you should be walking away... because anyone who says that is up to no good.

[GuyWonder22 ♿🎮]

It was all a scam and there is never going to be anything or excuses to change that fact apologize for make excuses all you want in the end we got scammed.