Developer Farewell

[Helen]

Hi Everyone,

I mentioned in our last update that there would be some changes to The Kindred this year.

At that point we were hoping to move the game on to another development team that may have been able to complete the game or take the game further than we are able to. However, after speaking to our publisher this wasn't going to be as easy as we'd hoped.

We've been pushing through our roadmap for the last year as it has become more apparent with time that the market just isn't there for our game. With working full time from home while also caring for a toddler full time, continuing work on the game has skewed our work life balance and we just can't continue investing our time in a product that isn't financially viable. Unfortunately one you take Steams cut, publishers cut, sales taxes and income taxes out of the revenue we're left with an amount that is barely a tenth of our living costs during our peak sales periods.

We started the project in 2012 and after finishing a prototype we were approached by a publisher in 2015. We were hopeful that this game would be able to provide enough sales to grow the team with time. Unfortunately after a modest opening day, sales declined and have been low to non-existent for most of it's history. It's a very bittersweet ending and we had intended to just continue putting in our all for those of you still playing but... based on the figures we can see on the back end this is a very, very small number. This lead us to picking up full time jobs and reducing our time on the game. It started to seem crazy to be putting in 10-20 hours a week into the game on top of a 40 hour work week for what is essentially 0-1 people playing at any given time.

It's been an adventure and we appreciate and sincerely thank those of you that have stuck with us throughout it all.


Sincerely,
Helen and Matt

[Rad.]

It's very sad to read it.
Please, can you provide a steam key for the game?
I'm a fan of city builders and I want to try the Kindred.

[Stevenx1986x]

Wouldnt mind a key here either... Just sayin...

[PhrostB]

+1

[Ryusho Yosei]

This is rather sad to hear, I actually had just recently found the title and had it on my wishlist as one to pick up once I got money in again this next month, I'm sorry it fell apart for you guys.

[Bruce Wayne]

I had this on my wishlist!

[Unholyfroggod]

I'm sorry to hear this but I understand. This really is a nice relaxing game to play. I'm sorry it didn't work out. I followed this on twitter from day one and bought it in early access hoping it would make it. I think the flood of games that have hit Steam in the recent years probably contributed to this. If no one wants to take over development maybe make it open access one day and some talented modders can work on it?

[Daisii]

Maybe someone else will pick up this game and run with it....I found it to be fun and relaxing..was looking forward to more "tech" tree items...

[|WøR| Inoyka]

Originally posted by Bruce Wayne:

I had this on my wishlist!

Same here.. :/

[Ferinzz]

This is why I didn't buy the game yet! Been burned too many times by devs not finishing this type of game and again, it happened with you.
We've learned not to jump on something unless it's complete. People want these games, we just never get one that's finished.

[Marv]

Last time I have been burned. Promised! Guys, pls stop me from any other purchase in this segment. I missed out an Timber&Stone, Towns and some others but fell for this one. Fool me once....

[Firebrat]

Aw, damn...

This is extremely sad for me to hear because of how much enjoyment I've gotten out of this game, but as a creative type also struggling to balance work and art, I completely understand. I'm still going to hold onto a hope of some kind of direct or spiritual successor to this game somewhere down the road, but in the meantime, thank you guys SO MUCH for your hard work and dedication while you could manage it.

Take care and hopefully see you guys in the game development world sometime in the future!

[Envie]

I'm very sorry you had to give up developing this game, I have truly enjoyed playing it and for what it's worth, the content you've got is very playable and fun. I liked the modern take on it rather than medieval village builder and I especially liked that the Kin would pair off and have children. So very few games ever attempt that and you seemed to have implemented it very well! It was possible to watch generations of Kin grow up and start new families. I loved it.

Please come back to it if you ever can, even if just as a side project from time to time. I still think it was mislabeled somehow in steam as it never came up on searches or recommendations, not ever and I play a lot of these games so the same genre gets repeatedly recommended but this one was just never in any lists.

Good luck and don't give up your dream to make a game, you're both very talented at it!

[Nox]

Hey - if one of you will shoot out a friend invite to me... I'd like to discuss ways to move this forward. I am sure we can work something out, and I like this title.

Granted you may be constrained about changing ownership but you aren't constrained about who works on the title. I can tell you more about who I am and provide references once we get in touch.

[Minoes]

I bought it so I am a bit disappointed.
Although I kinda felt this comming already quite early on already, because the game didn't seem to catch on.

Well, atleast you are being honest about it instead of just dropping of the planet without ever saying anything. Thanks for that, I appreciate it.

[Thygod]

Originally posted by Helen:

Hi Everyone,

I mentioned in our last update that there would be some changes to The Kindred this year.

At that point we were hoping to move the game on to another development team that may have been able to complete the game or take the game further than we are able to. However, after speaking to our publisher this wasn't going to be as easy as we'd hoped.

We've been pushing through our roadmap for the last year as it has become more apparent with time that the market just isn't there for our game. With working full time from home while also caring for a toddler full time, continuing work on the game has skewed our work life balance and we just can't continue investing our time in a product that isn't financially viable. Unfortunately one you take Steams cut, publishers cut, sales taxes and income taxes out of the revenue we're left with an amount that is barely a tenth of our living costs during our peak sales periods.

We started the project in 2012 and after finishing a prototype we were approached by a publisher in 2015. We were hopeful that this game would be able to provide enough sales to grow the team with time. Unfortunately after a modest opening day, sales declined and have been low to non-existent for most of it's history. It's a very bittersweet ending and we had intended to just continue putting in our all for those of you still playing but... based on the figures we can see on the back end this is a very, very small number. This lead us to picking up full time jobs and reducing our time on the game. It started to seem crazy to be putting in 10-20 hours a week into the game on top of a 40 hour work week for what is essentially 0-1 people playing at any given time.

It's been an adventure and we appreciate and sincerely thank those of you that have stuck with us throughout it all.


Sincerely,
Helen and Matt

I dont want a steam key and you should and better not supply people with em I want a refund