The latest from Discord . . . .

[okjd]

Hi guys!
First I want to say sorry for our silence and our lack of interaction with the community. I will clarify our current and past situation.
As you might guess, the launch of Pantropy was not optimal of us financially. Initially it was planned to release Pantropy earlier. The delay allowed us to fix more issues of course but each month also cost us money. That resulted in draining our reserves and brought the company pretty much to a point which you could call bankrupt. We didn´t run away with any money. All the money we´ve earned went straight to our investors. So far we haven´t earned a single cent but still have to keep up the infrastructure that comes with running the game and the company.
I´ll try to be as transparent as possible as far as our NDAs allow me to be. I have personally invested more than 300k Eur into the game and both Julian and me aswell as other team members have worked 80-100 hours per week during the months before and after the release. I haven’t earned anything back and even if the company breaks even I would rather invest it back into the game than cashing out.
After running out of money we had to do some side projects in order to avoid bankruptcy of the company and the total loss/failure of the game.
We now do have the time and I´ve put some additional money into the company that allows us to continue to work on the game. I´ll not make any promises and everything will take time. But there´s progress after all.
This may not be the wisest decision from a business owner´s perspective but we really want to try to save the game and deliver the vision that we had in mind for Pantropy.
It´s really hard to read the Discord chat, get personal threats and still keep our sanity. This is why we´ll try to focus on the game and update you whenever we have something to show.
I hope you will understand our situation.

Best,

Sebastian

[Method4DMad]

Nope, too late, all you had to do was post "we're still alive and there's a lot going on" ANYWHERE, Discord, Twitter, FB, Steam, plenty of options, and we would have been understandably disappointed, but patient and understanding. Literally takes 5 seconds out of this supposed 100 hours/week.

But, what, 7 months of complete silence is unacceptable. "Might not have been the wisest decision," it's literally the worst thing you could have done. I have no interest in this game now, no matter how good you might make it.

If you knew me you'd know I am extremely sympathetic and understanding to small devs. Even you guys, I fought for you initially. I defend their decisions far more than criticize them because, I get it. It's expensive and time consuming. But you REALLY dropped the ball on this one, it's simply inexcusable, and too little too late.

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

And as IONSTORM said there is simply no way you've been working on this 80-100 hours a week. That is total BS, you're lying to us to make us feel bad, and you're digging your hole even deeper.

[Rex Smashington]

300k was not money well spent. Musta been having caviar delivered every day and charging it on the company credit card.

[Oppai]

Sew

Originally posted by  IONSTORM :

Not sure if I quite believe he's been working 14 hours per day.. or the 300k part!

It doesn't take 1 million EURO+ to get a game to the level of Pantropy, no way!

Gotta add, this is from Sebastian, NOT Julian..

I think Sebastian screwed Julian out of everything. Sebastian's currently a CEO/Owner for a Stock photo company called SciePro(has been since 2005), Julian is currently working as a freelance coder on Xing and Upwork. Honestly don't see this game coming back unless Julian can get legal action going against him.

Proof: https://www.xing.com/profile/Julian_Kaulitzki
https://sciepro.com/about
Edit: Actually, are they related? Julian and Sebastian share the same last name. So was this backstabbing or did they do it together?

[Method4DMad]

Originally posted by  IONSTORM :

Originally posted by MadK1ng:

And as IONSTORM said there is simply no way you've been working on this 80-100 hours a week. That is total BS, you're lying to us to make us feel bad, and you're digging your hole even deeper.

Yeah impossible they were working 14 hours per day and then working on Upwork also, it's just excuses to hold off legal action from Kickstarters, cos' no doubt they're fuming!

Was thinking about this, as would be expected from these guys the post is quite....unclear. It's possible he meant the collective 20 people were working a combined 80-100 hours a week.

Assuming this is the case, I suck at math so correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that would mean they were only working on it 4-5ish hours a day 'at best, allowing weekends off, which is still a joke. AND EVEN THEN, 4-5ish hours a day, for 7 months, with absolutely 0 to show for it, other than using it to make us feel bad...

Like....come on, do they really think we're THAT stupid?

....Some people maybe, but still, it's insulting no matter how you look at it. Either way, this whole thing is extremely disappointing. I tried to get several friends to play and I'm SO glad they said no because otherwise they'd blame me and never listen to me again!

[Method4DMad]

Originally posted by Oppai:

Sew

Originally posted by  IONSTORM :

Not sure if I quite believe he's been working 14 hours per day.. or the 300k part!

It doesn't take 1 million EURO+ to get a game to the level of Pantropy, no way!

Gotta add, this is from Sebastian, NOT Julian..

I think Sebastian screwed Julian out of everything. Sebastian's currently a CEO/Owner for a Stock photo company called SciePro(has been since 2005), Julian is currently working as a freelance coder on Xing and Upwork. Honestly don't see this game coming back unless Julian can get legal action going against him.

Proof: https://www.xing.com/profile/Julian_Kaulitzki
https://sciepro.com/about
Edit: Actually, are they related? Julian and Sebastian share the same last name. So was this backstabbing or did they do it together?

More likely than not they were in it together

[Method4DMad]

To me it seems more a case of mismanaging time and finances more than an evil plot to steal people's money. Inexperience and carelessness most likely. Somewhere along the line they fell behind and then it just spiraled from there.

We're all human, we make mistakes, we've all messed up and had something similar happen at some point..................................but unfortunately there are still consequences when you make these mistakes, and in this case they've dirtied up their name and reputation before they even started, and lost at least one customer.

I don't even have two hours, my only regret is not returning it before the 14 days was up.

[Andy8583]

This is no more than an attempt at leeching more money from anyone foolish enough to believe them... what a scam.

[Zothen]

300k.... Best fairy tale in 2019.
And this, kids, is how not to run a games company... ;)
....Please dont try this at home...!

[Arsat]

thats why i dont wanna support Early Access or kickstarter games no more.

A lot of coder means they know something about coding games and managing money respectively companys.

I lost so much money because a lot of coder have no skills only dreams and stop development or release the game in Alpha status with a lot of bugs and missing features.

[Spyware006]

coglioni, sto gioco demmerda

[browsergame2010]

Ich lese was davon, dass das Game Crowdfundet gewesen sein soll. Und ihr kommt mit Investoren. Das ist ne ganz merkwürdige Geschichte. Die Investoren haben wohl, angesichts der Qualität dieses Spiels kein Vertrauen ins Produkt. Dann frag ich mich, warum ich dem Produkt vertrauen soll?

Ich rühre mal die Werbetrommel für den EPIC-Store. Vielleicht setzt ihr euch mal mit denen zusammen. Wenn sie euer Produkt finanzieren, könnt ihr euch auch 5 Jahre an die binden. Ich habs nicht eilig, ein Spiel zu erwerben, dessen Devs angesichts der Qualität des Spiels an "Investoren Beträge auszahlen müssen".

Vor allem, wer einmal Beträge an Investoren zahlen muss, zahlt sicher auch weiter Beträge an Investoren. Die Fertigstellung des Spiels stelle ich mir dann ungefähr so vor. Eines Tages ist das Spiel aus der EA-Phase draußen, weil einfach kein Geld mehr für die Fertigstellung vorhanden war.

[Method4DMad]

It's unfortunate because I am a big fan of Kickstarter and early access. I still regularly buy early access games because I like to be part of that early community and help the game to grow. Seeing suggestions you made be implemented in a game is an amazing feeling. Getting on a first name basis with a developer who ends up making an awesome, successful game is really quite gratifying.

But the fact is you are rolling the dice, there's a big fat disclaimer saying BEWARE THIS PRODUCT IS NOT FINISHED, and you either take the risk and hope for the best or do the smart thing and wait for the full release. Personally I'm a risk taker lol so I will continue to support early access games I find promising, I do think they produce more good than bad, but this is certainly a stain on the reputation of not only the dev but early access/Kickstarter in general, which I find extremely unfortunate.

Shame on you Brainstone. Seriously.

[Zeradus]

You say you invested 300,000 euros in this game and this is the result? At least try to throw a believable number out there because if hundreds of other indie devs can put out games that have better everything than this one on a fraction of the budget the problem is with you and your spending.

[Method4DMad]

I haven't been following since Kickstarter so don't know what they got but it is 'possible' that's all they had, the game is pretty low quality (I've played single player mods far more comprehensive than this that were made for free), still sounds like they didn't appropriate their funds very well and just gave up completely.

[okjd]

Just a quick update, Julian has been working on the game since lockdown started, and is developing the android faction.
These are AI, and will harvest, build, and attack players bases. He has released video, so far, of what he has achieved, and will get a game update out once he has solved the last few issues with AI droids, and many bugfixes.

I understand how many of you feel about this games development, and have no intention of trying to change your minds.

Just putting this here for the remaining few who might be interested.