I recently wrote this as a response but I thought it deserved its own post.
If you haven’t heard, Gas Powered Games led by its CEO Chris Taylor, have a Kickstarter project up for a new game called Wildlman. He recently updated it to make it clear that the Kickstarter project is do or die for his studio and in preparation to see which way things go, he has laid off most of the staff (most of whom can be recalled if the Kickstarter project is successful).
Let me tell you a little bit about Gas Powered Games and Chris Taylor.
Chris Taylor is one of the best people I've ever met. Let me tell you about the man I know and why he deserves everyone's support.
Chris Taylor has run Gas Powered Games in a way that most people claim they wish companies were run. He has always run GPG as a compassionate person who cares deeply about each person he works with.
It’s not just a studio. It’s a company that was founded by people who have seen the cut-throat ways of the game industry and decided to do things differently. They’ve made some great games over the years – Dungeon Siege. Supreme Commander and yes, Demigod to name 3.
One of the things most people don't know about GPG is that one of the biggest challenges they've had is that for every game project you hear about there's often a project that got canceled that you didn't hear about. That is, big publisher X contracts studio Y to make a game and half way through there's some re-org at the publisher and they kill the game. So what does the studio do with all those extra people? MOST studios would just lay those people off. Not Chris Taylor. He would go to heroic lengths to try to keep everyone he could. He'd find some other project for them to work on even if it meant he would personally suffer financially to do it. He really cares about providing a stable environment for his people. He puts them first over his own interests.
I've seen people online (wrongly) claim that GPG has struggled because of game X or game Y. That's that even remotely the truth. The truth is that their struggles have come from the games you've never heard of that got canceled by a major publisher leaving GPG holding the bag. It's the plight of many studios and it's why there are so few of them left. The fact that GPG has been so successful for the past decade is a testament to Chris Taylor and his management team's skill.
Chris Taylor is universally admired and respected in our industry because he's an avatar of what our industry *could* be if we treated our employees, our partners and our customers better. It's easy to stand on the outside and come up with "Well, they did A, B and C!" without realizing that behind the scenes, he was having to choose between terrible terrible options.
I hope GPG is able to keep going. It's non-trivial to put together the kind of talent that Chris has put together over the years. It would be a huge loss to our industry as a whole.
If you want to learn more about their Kickstarter project, go here.
What do you think about Wildman itself?
Wow, some nice words about Chris Taylor. He really looked like a cool guy in those various videos and dev diaries a i saw, so its not that surprising. I am not that much into Wildman so far, although that may change in the future, i still hope though, it will be successful. Judging by the OP, Mr. Taylor clearly deserves nothing less.
From one decent guy about another decent guy.
I put my faith in you regarding WOM and Enchanted Sorceress, now I do it for Chris Taylor. Its such a shame that studios have to fight so hard to make games that people love. Too often studios are pushed into difficult situations and it has been made worse for GPG because Chris cares about his staff.
I own so many stardock and GPG games... Life would be dull without them.
Total Annihilation is one of the best games ever made. I upped my pledge from 20 to 30 bucks when I read the last update.
...timing... they are down to skeleton crew and might even cancel kickstarter.
unless it's a gotcha gimmick.
Well said Frogboy.
There are a lot of soulless, meat grinder game studios out there. We should support the good people making good games.
You've convinced me. I've chipped in $45 for them.
Quite the endorsement.
I went ahead and chipped in.
Good luck to them!
I also have kicked in as much as I felt the game would be worth to me ( I prefer the techno style games, and tend to skip the rpg types)
harpo
That's all nice and good, but I just can't back Wildman anymore. Why? Very high probability of the game being cancelled. It's obvious that GPG is out of money. They laid off nearly everyone. 1.1 million just isn't going to be enough to keep the company going for another 15 months to make this game. At least I doubt it. I just can't put my money behind it with a good chance of losing it. If they make it and the game comes out then I'll think about buying the game at that time, assuming it's decent.
I'm not backing the game because I don't think I'd enjoy playing it.
Hopefully enough people who will enjoy playing it pledge enough to get them to their goals though.
No reason not to back Wildman in Kickstarter. If it doesn't reach it's goal, you don't get billed for your pledge.
They are not talking about this. They are talking about it gets 1.1 million but the game never gets finished. Then you lost money and got nothing.
im sad that the devs of my fave game ever (FA) are facing the music. unfortunately wildman doesn't really appeal, and having already pledged for PA and star citizen, i just hope that others are keen enough to keep GPG afloat.
I have a love/hate relationship with GPG. I love GPG, I've bought almost every GPG game and so many of them are excellent games that I've played endlessly. I hate GPG, GPG has really annoyed me with some of the outcomes of their games (SC2, DS3, Demigod support, AOE-O,etc). I've really got some strong opinions on their Demigod support (re:Uberhack). How much GPG is to blame for these outcomes isn't public knowledge and could be (and has been) debated endlessly.
Really though, that doesn't matter. GPG has produced some incredible games like SC1, DS1, and TA (not exactly), etc. No one else in the industry has come close to these masterpieces (arguable, but the point of the comment stands regardless). GPG is currently suffering financial woes, courtesy (possibly, we don't have access to the finance history of GPG) of their publishing companies. We have a choice, take a risk on supporting a company with a track record for making awesome products -or- let them go under and cease to exist.If we support them, Wildman might turn out to be another legendary game. However, it might not be. Regardless, GPG will get another chance to make something, and potentially, if sales are strong enough, go on to create other, better games (Knights & Merchants).
If we don't support them, GPG (most likely) won't be making any more games.I'm investing money into GPG for their future games. Even if Wildman turns out to be another SC2, it's the game(s) that comes after Wildman that I've got my hopes on. This isn't pity, nor is it blind faith. This is a prediction based on GPG's solid track record in making (the occasional) brilliant game.So who do you support? GPG or EA? GPG or Ubisoft? GPG or Rovio? GPG or Zynga?
Nice sentiment but I'm not a charity for game companies. I would pledge if 1) The game interested me and 2) I thought the company would survive long enough to actually release it. I don't pledge for a "fund raising" to save the company.
Lol @Ptarth: DS1 is not better then Diablo 1 or 2. And TA is not better then Starcraft 1, not even better then WC3. One could argue some C&C series of games are also better. These games might be better to you but then don't go stating bullshit like "No one else in the industry has come close to these masterpieces".
I like GPG but Wildman is their first project that just looks bloody stupid.
It sounds like it could be a good game, but...seriously? Was this dreamed up by a twelve year old?
I would love it if there was any nicer way I could've put that, but as far as I can tell...not so much.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
