Greed Monger ran off pre-made platform
Last week on Destructoidwe reported on the colossal failure that wasGreed Monger. Cancelled after three years of development and $100,000 raised via crowdfunding, those who pledged to the game would no longer be receiving the MMO after a long, drawn out and drama-ridden development process. This was naturally a bummer for those involved.
Fortunately, the developers ofThe Legend of KilgoreandUtheroushave stood up and offered anyone who pledged to the game one of 100 copies of their games as consolation.
Those who wish to claim their copies of the games can do so by posting theirGreed Mongerforum username and profile link onKilgore’s forumsand onUtherous‘ forums, while also posting intheGreed Mongerthread announcing the cancellation of the game. A slightly convoluted system, but as theLegend of KilgoreandUtherousdevelopers have no official connection toGreed Monger, this is the only way it could be done.
The games are incredibly similar to whatGreed Mongeraimed to be – an MMO based on crafting – and according toKilgoredeveloper Alan Spurlock,that is no coincidence.
The Legend of KilgoreandGreed Mongerboth utilise a pre-made Unity platform by the name ofAtavism. Itlays the foundations for developers to make MMOs in Unity,with featuressuch as account management, trading, and chat channels included in the platform. In Spurlock’s own words:
Greed Mongeruses a framework called Atavism Online. It’s made for Unity. It’s a “near” full-fledged MMORPG framework. And believe me… it does it all. But don’t expect much to come from it. You still have to be able to program, design, and most of all, know how to use unity lol.
Considering the foundations for an MMO are already in place due toAtavism,Greed Monger’sfailure despite raising $100,000andusingAtavismhas caused some controversy amongst fellow developers. Spurlock explains:
[Greed Monger]has never needed money. Neither do I. No one that usesAtavismdoes. The core of the programming is already being done.
Further controversy behind the game can be found on theAtavism forums’ thread forGreed Monger,beginning at the bottom of page seven and continuing through to the end.
According the developers of the game, none of the $90,000 raised through Kickstarter changed hands when the development of the game moved from the creator of the campaign to the new team that eventually canned the project:
Jason did NOT sell GM to us. He gave it to us. No money exchanged hands in this deal.
As for the KS Money we are backtracking through all the money spent over the last 3 years. So far based on Server costs, what team members were paid, the amount spent on assets, License, ect. We have been able to account for $21.5k out of the $100,000+
If the backers were to file a lawsuit it would be against Jason not us. We made sure there was a section in the documents we signed that made it so that Jason was responsible for everything in the past including the KS Funding… We are responsible for whatever happens in the future from the time GM was signed over to us.
Somethinghappened withGreed Monger.The game raised $100,000 and used a premade Unity asset base, was then handed off to an unfunded team and wound up cancelled. Thankfully, at least some developers are trying to make this entire shitty situation right by offering their own games, despite not being related to the development ofGreed Monger.
