@devs: If you're not gonna pay Andrew Hussie back for all the money you stole, can the Hiveswap kickstart backers at least get a free copy of this game?

[Eidolon]

I mean, I contributed like $20 bucks, and instead of making hiveswap with my money you went ahead and made this. I feel like I deserve something in return.

[Cat]

I payed for Hiveswap too. And I bought this game and I enjoy it. If the thing with Hussie is indeed true then he so should get the money back. Hiveswap is still being made though but at a very slow speed. It's already around 1.5 years late. People need to be careful what company they choose to make their games with and read the contracts. Something's fishy in this whole situation. Did Hussie not bring a lawyer with him to proofread the contract before he signed a $2million deal? idk.

[Gabby]

Despite what Hussie claims, they didn't steal money. This matter was settled out of court. And I'll be plain and simple, in most cases where the plaintiff agrees to a settlement, it's because they want to keep details out of the record. (If he had really had a legal or even practical right to the money, fighting in court would have gotten it back. Obviously he didn't.) TOG likely settled just because they wanted to controversy to go away. Yet seemingly fans feel they can break those agreements for the people they claim to be fans for. Hussie hired TOG to work for him and then set them to work for months while essentially putting everything on hold. Then tried to blame them for the delay he caused. Hussie violated his agreement with them.

In contracts like this, there's usually a fee for wasted time, because programmers like most human beings need to eat and maintain their business even when a fickle customer tries to cheapskate on them. They likely kept their down payment.

Now since there was a settlement, that means the money either is legally theirs (which it should be) or it was returned to Hussie.

Either way, the statement and claim that TOG stole anything is an outright lie, at best.At worst you all got scammed by Hussie and just really don't want to come to terms with it. Activision wouldn't have hired TOG if there was something fishy going on with them, as unlike Hussie, they're a registered company that has a paper trail.

[Cat]

Seraphna님이 먼저 게시:

Hussie hired TOG to work for him and then set them to work for months while essentially putting everything on hold. Then tried to blame them for the delay he caused. Hussie violated his agreement with them.

In contracts like this, there's usually a fee for wasted time, because programmers like most human beings need to eat and maintain their business even when a fickle customer tries to cheapskate on them. They likely kept their down payment.

Now since there was a settlement, that means the money either is legally theirs (which it should be) or it was returned to Hussie.

I wonder how much of the actual game ToG produced in those months? It didn't look like there was anything produces except a few sketches in the first few months.

[wilco64256]

This issue was already settled by the parties involved long ago, there's really no need to keep attempting to dig it back up.

[Gabby]

^ What Wilco said.

For the record though, the blog had character renders and scenery rendered out when they were let go. Having renders is a pretty big sign of progress. Hussie took it all down though. But as some like to point out, most of what he's posted of his own progress of the game has been deeply derivative of what they did.

[Cat]

Seraphna님이 먼저 게시:

most of what he's posted of his own progress of the game has been deeply derivative of what they did.

Shouldn't it be derivative though if he payed them to do it for him? I mean it makes sense it's deeply derivative since he's continuing where they left it off.

[Gabby]

Not when it's clearly all their dev work and he's just saying he's doing it. <_<;

That would be like you drawing a picture of Sonic the Hedgehog and claiming that means you designed Sonic 3.

[Cat]

Seraphna님이 먼저 게시:

Not when it's clearly all their dev work and he's just saying he's doing it. <_<;

That would be like you drawing a picture of Sonic the Hedgehog and claiming that means you designed Sonic 3.

I remember from my Law class a while ago that if you hire professionals to do designs for you then their designs belong to you. Sega hired an artist to design Sonic the Hedgehog. Now Sega owns Sonic.

[Gabby]

Belongs to him? Yes.

Claiming he did the work? ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Cat]

Seraphna님이 먼저 게시:

Belongs to him? Yes.

Claiming he did the work? ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Oh, is he claiming that he did the work? Because before you said "most of what he's posted of his own progress of the game has been deeply derivative of what they did" which means that he's just continuing making the game using the assets they made for him.

[Gabby]

No, half of it appears to be reposts of what TOG put up months ago and he keeps saying this is progress. <_<; Some of the time there's "new" stuff, but it looks like he just painted over what was already done.

[Cat]

Seraphna님이 먼저 게시:

No, half of it appears to be reposts of what TOG put up months ago and he keeps saying this is progress. <_<; Some of the time there's "new" stuff, but it looks like he just painted over what was already done.

I see. I haven't been following Hiveswap's creation much so I didn't know this was happening. If true, then I'm very surprised because Hussie looks like a hardworking guy, or atleast he did back when I was into Homestuck.

[Gabby]

He was. But the order of events speaks ill.

He collected a huge amount of money on Kickstarter. Signed with TOG.

Then stated that he would start really planning the game after he finished Homestuck.

Then suddenly decided he needed to go on hiatus.

Months later, he picked up Homestuck again, but by then backers were asking what the delay meant for the game they just gave him millions for.

So he claimed TOG was taking too long.

Note: He claimed they were taking too long on a game they couldn't really set a completion for because the source material wasn't even done yet.

It appears after that he tried to pull the rug out from under TOG. Demanded his down payment back. Then discovered that intelligent business people ask for that down payment as insurance against this very sort of behavior, clients who want work done but don't want to pay for it.

They went to court.

They settled.

And despite Hussie not saying anything since then... people have decided to go on claiming TOG stole the money.

Reality: Hussie made bad business decisions and wasted the money.

[timmo4444]

fox.Eidolon | playcomp.tf님이 먼저 게시:

I mean, I contributed like $20 bucks, and instead of making hiveswap with my money you went ahead and made this. I feel like I deserve something in return.

no but you can have a cookie for your poor kickstarter-backing-decisions

[Gabby]

But yeah, to address the OP.

You paid Hussie to make the game. TOG did not use your money to make this game. It doesn't work like that. They used money given to them by Activision to make this game.

I should also point out that the only standing reference to TOG's work on Homestuck, Hussie claims they did their part already, wound down, and are no longer involved.

A developer does not instantly work for you on all their future projects because you gave some guy who hired them in turn money for a completely unrelated project. What you should be doing is asking Hussie where the game he promised you is. TOG owes nobody anything. TOG made this game for Activision, so if you want to claim anyone stole your money, you should be trying to accuse them... since all funding for this title was provided by them.