Game has been Abandoned, apparently

[Rasalas]

This is news to very few people, but I do see threads popping up of people asking for updates and wondering about it.

I'm no expert, but I've done some basic searching.

The devs have a Twitter account, which claims that they're working on MachiaVillain, but the page itself is just a wall of re-tweets of other games' teasers, trailers and other non-MachiaVillain-related things.
It hasn't had any real activity other than these re-tweets for over a year, from what I saw.

The devs have a website, which is basically a blog that has had no activity on it since 2020.

The game itself has a website link, which just leads to its Kickstarter page.

The devs also have a Facebook page. It has had no activity on it since (can you guess? Drum roll please! ............brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... ) one year ago.

MachiaVillain was developed by Wild Factor, a French company consisting of five people, three of whom are artists and a writer.
Their only projects were Freaking Meatbags and this game.

They do have a publisher for this game, which could be the controlling factor in the game's development, but the complete radio silence on social media and the fact that it seems Wild Factor isn't working on any other title probably means they either went bust (which seems unlikely, since their website is still up and that probably costs someone) or just stopped working as an independent company.

Apparently, the Wild Factor founder did some programming work for Ubisoft, so maybe he went back to doing stuff like that to pay the bills, who knows.

TL;DR

Yupp, it's abandoned.

[=M$= Oroberus]

*bump as it might slide to the second page within the next 24 month and won't be seen anymore*

[Unity's Helm]

I really wish the game was properly finished. I wish there was more customization for the tasks menus and such. Sadly that will never be.

[Wilku21]

It sucks it died, it looked interesting.

[Rasalas]

Originally posted by Wilku21:

It sucks it died, it looked interesting.

"Died" isn't accurate, as you can still play the game, and it does run.

It is abandonware, which means that we can expect to see no more updates, no more bugfixes, no more patches, no more content.

When can a game be said to have truly died?
To me, only "live service" games can really die - games that live on dedicated servers to which you need to connect in order to play. They can "die" because the servers are their life support systems - without them, the game does not function and cannot even be played.

MachiaVillain at least does not live on dedicated servers - it lives on your computer, and so the fact that the company behind it vanished without a trace does not prevent you from continuing to play the game.

The problem, of course, is that it takes more for a game than simply being functional enough to run in order to continue living as a healthy game.
Games fallow after long periods of silence and stagnation if left the way they are, revitalized by injections of new content and maintenance in the form of bug fixes and patches.

MachiaVillain is a zombie - it is not truly dead, but it is no longer truly "alive". It does not draw the breath of new content and its clothes went ratty and worn without anyone bothering to change or fix them.
It still shambles around its grave, but it isn't going anywhere. You can play, but you will reach a point in which you've seen and experienced everything the game has to offer and there will be nothing new, nothing more to explore or challenges to conquer.

The danger comes when you've sucked the last of the marrow from its bones and lost the taste to resurrect it through new playthroughs, because you've already done that.

Hell, some people even said that particularly old saves just don't load right anymore after a while, which means that truly long-term play may not even be possible.
Even then, the late game's nature has you play the supervisor of a crude Rube Goldberg contraption and your only real gameplay is ensuring that your bored minions are sufficiently fed through the conveyor belt apparatus.

At that point, the game lost its shine as a house-of-horrors simulator and the last of the slasher appeal is stripped away to reveal the mediocre mechanics.

You're bored of victims being dumb lemmings who just come to the mansion to wait for death, bored of the killings that are just zerging the victims with monsters beating them to death in a brawl, bored of the progression leading further away from any slasher experience and bored of the game lacking even the emergent storytelling potential its inspiration had.

You're especially bored of the bugs.

All problems that could have been solved by some maintenance and content injections, even community-made mods.

Then, when you get to that point, the game is truly dead to you.

[[59er]ʕ•ᴥ•ʔDungeonmaster]

Originally posted by Morta Skewart:

Originally posted by Wilku21:

It sucks it died, it looked interesting.

"Died" isn't accurate, as you can still play the game, and it does run.

It is abandonware, which means that we can expect to see no more updates, no more bugfixes, no more patches, no more content.

When can a game be said to have truly died?
To me, only "live service" games can really die - games that live on dedicated servers to which you need to connect in order to play. They can "die" because the servers are their life support systems - without them, the game does not function and cannot even be played.

MachiaVillain at least does not live on dedicated servers - it lives on your computer, and so the fact that the company behind it vanished without a trace does not prevent you from continuing to play the game.

The problem, of course, is that it takes more for a game than simply being functional enough to run in order to continue living as a healthy game.
Games fallow after long periods of silence and stagnation if left the way they are, revitalized by injections of new content and maintenance in the form of bug fixes and patches.

MachiaVillain is a zombie - it is not truly dead, but it is no longer truly "alive". It does not draw the breath of new content and its clothes went ratty and worn without anyone bothering to change or fix them.
It still shambles around its grave, but it isn't going anywhere. You can play, but you will reach a point in which you've seen and experienced everything the game has to offer and there will be nothing new, nothing more to explore or challenges to conquer.

The danger comes when you've sucked the last of the marrow from its bones and lost the taste to resurrect it through new playthroughs, because you've already done that.

Hell, some people even said that particularly old saves just don't load right anymore after a while, which means that truly long-term play may not even be possible.
Even then, the late game's nature has you play the supervisor of a crude Rube Goldberg contraption and your only real gameplay is ensuring that your bored minions are sufficiently fed through the conveyor belt apparatus.

At that point, the game lost its shine as a house-of-horrors simulator and the last of the slasher appeal is stripped away to reveal the mediocre mechanics.

You're bored of victims being dumb lemmings who just come to the mansion to wait for death, bored of the killings that are just zerging the victims with monsters beating them to death in a brawl, bored of the progression leading further away from any slasher experience and bored of the game lacking even the emergent storytelling potential its inspiration had.

You're especially bored of the bugs.

All problems that could have been solved by some maintenance and content injections, even community-made mods.

Then, when you get to that point, the game is truly dead to you.

Ok we see you like to play with words. Lets say it like that a dieing game for you means server stuff blablabala.


For us it means: They presented this game finished a year before release on some game con, then they put it on market. Its buggy, its unplayable after to reach the mid-late game because of ai bugs or other stuff that corrupts your game file.
And they dont fix it. so yes its DEAD only because some maniacs are ok to work with this bugs it still means, they sold you a car that dosent work anymore after 20km /miles

They never fixed the product they advertising. We didnt ask for more or new content.
They grabed the cash for this DEMO and left. SO yes the game is DEAD

[Rasalas]

Originally posted by 59erʕ•ᴥ•ʔDungeonmaster:

Ok we see you like to play with words. Lets say it like that a dieing game for you means server stuff blablabala.


For us it means: They presented this game finished a year before release on some game con, then they put it on market. Its buggy, its unplayable after to reach the mid-late game because of ai bugs or other stuff that corrupts your game file.
And they dont fix it. so yes its DEAD only because some maniacs are ok to work with this bugs it still means, they sold you a car that dosent work anymore after 20km /miles

They never fixed the product they advertising. We didnt ask for more or new content.
They grabed the cash for this DEMO and left. SO yes the game is DEAD

I say what I mean.
You're hung up about the term, and I don't get why. For some reason, you seem to think I'm defending the game? Friend, you're charging at the wrong windmill here.

"Dead" means the game can't be played. A multiplayer game that nobody plays is dead - because you cannot play it. A live service game that lives on a server and gets taken down is dead, because you literally cannot even boot it up.

Examples of truly dead games are things like Eternal Crusade or Deathgarden, which you literally cannot play anymore.

MachiaVillain is a lot of things, but "dead" isn't accurate - like you said, it's a car that breaks down after a while. I would also add it doesn't particularly go anywhere interesting well before it breaks down.
It's abandoned, it's too buggy to enjoy - but you can play it.

That's what I said.
I didn't say you should play it. I didn't say people should buy it. I said, it's abandoned.

The term itself doesn't matter.
What matters is that the game was left as a mess by devs who vanished without a trace and without an explanation - and people should be made aware of this.

[MycroftCanadaNS]

The game is a final release BUT that doesn't mean the game is actually finished. I have come across many games which are so badly broken, and lack content (you know the game isn't finished) but are still posted as being finished.

This has become a way for the developer to walk away, and not be held accountable.

All that we can do is report the game, and hope they remove the game, and stop it from being sold.

[Lion Llew]

soooo... can it be modded...? Let the people carry the light! If it can;t be done legitimately then I say it's fair game to jailbreak something people paid good money for, expecting more to come.

[constantinet2001]

Devs left last message on 28/2/2023 and also the game works fine.

[[59er]ʕ•ᴥ•ʔDungeonmaster]

Originally posted by constantinet2001:

Devs left last message on 28/2/2023 and also the game works fine.

lie

last post - 2020
https://steamcommunity.com/app/555510/allnews/

game abdoned and still a buggy mess

edit: last game update 2019.
So lets review the last 5 years of negative reviews and crash bug reports in this forum.
nothing happend, nothing got fixed.

[king]

Originally posted by 59erʕ•ᴥ•ʔDungeonmaster:

Originally posted by constantinet2001:

Devs left last message on 28/2/2023 and also the game works fine.

lie

last post - 2020
https://steamcommunity.com/app/555510/allnews/

game abdoned and still a buggy mess

edit: last game update 2019.
So lets review the last 5 years of negative reviews and crash bug reports in this forum.
nothing happend, nothing got fixed.

sad it is, game has/had so much potentail!

[[59er]ʕ•ᴥ•ʔDungeonmaster]

Originally posted by Dkrule:

Originally posted by 59erʕ•ᴥ•ʔDungeonmaster:

lie

last post - 2020
https://steamcommunity.com/app/555510/allnews/

game abdoned and still a buggy mess

edit: last game update 2019.
So lets review the last 5 years of negative reviews and crash bug reports in this forum.
nothing happend, nothing got fixed.

sad it is, game has/had so much potentail!

it really is, the devs are nice peoples, what they have shown on gamescom was so promising and everyone (including me) that went for bug testing on private betas got like real nice packages of t shirts, stickers and stuff worldwide. but then... they just vanished.

[king]

Originally posted by 59erʕ•ᴥ•ʔDungeonmaster:

Originally posted by Dkrule:

sad it is, game has/had so much potentail!

it really is, the devs are nice peoples, what they have shown on gamescom was so promising and everyone (including me) that went for bug testing on private betas got like real nice packages of t shirts, stickers and stuff worldwide. but then... they just vanished.

i wonder what happened behind there clossed doors?

[constantinet2001]

Originally posted by 59erʕ•ᴥ•ʔDungeonmaster:

Originally posted by constantinet2001:

Devs left last message on 28/2/2023 and also the game works fine.

lie

last post - 2020
https://steamcommunity.com/app/555510/allnews/

game abdoned and still a buggy mess

edit: last game update 2019.
So lets review the last 5 years of negative reviews and crash bug reports in this forum.
nothing happend, nothing got fixed.

You are right. My bad, sorry.... I saw this and thought there was a message from them but was the last post on this topic... sorry for that friend.

https://prnt.sc/VLrZT-UtQRXF

[king]

Originally posted by constantinet2001:

Originally posted by 59erʕ•ᴥ•ʔDungeonmaster:

lie

last post - 2020
https://steamcommunity.com/app/555510/allnews/

game abdoned and still a buggy mess

edit: last game update 2019.
So lets review the last 5 years of negative reviews and crash bug reports in this forum.
nothing happend, nothing got fixed.

You are right. My bad, sorry.... I saw this and thought there was a message from them but was the last post on this topic... sorry for that friend.

https://prnt.sc/VLrZT-UtQRXF

hay dot be sorry, its them who left this game down