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Mrs. Obama retires from game development (The Stomping Land pulled from Steam)

J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
(Thanks to Enco for the heads-up.)

The Stomping Land, a dinosaur-laden MP game that last year blew past its $20k Kickstarter goal to ultimately finish with $114k and, back in May, released on Steam as an Early Access title, has been pulled from the store following months* of inactivity.

stomppatchklos3.jpg

* The admittedly small consensus on the tiny patch pushed out two weeks ago is that it was released by Valve rather than the developer as ARMA 3 received a similarly-sized patch at the same time and there are no noticeable changes.

Additionally, the developer has been stripped of his developer tag, which means he no longer has access to Valve's Steam Partners site, the hub from which developers maintain their various Steam apps and packages:

stomppatch2zhof9.jpg


What this all adds up to, despite the recent interview in which it was claimed that the game is switching to UE4, is that the development has effectively been abandoned. There's no word yet from Valve (or indeed the dev), although I firmly believe refunds should be offered on Early Access titles only in fringe cases like this but as a matter of general policy as opposed to first requiring a ruckus like Earth: Year 2066 -- titles in active development, by their very nature, often have an uncertain future.
 
S

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Were do you propose Valve gets the money from to return your purchase? They gave it to a developer who is using the money to (theoretically) develop the game which means it would be gone by the time this situation arises.

Dunno, think it's a buyer beware situation.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
StoOgE said:
Were do you propose Valve gets the money from to return your purchase? They gave it to a developer who is using the money to (theoretically) develop the game which means it would be gone by the time this situation arises.

Dunno, think it's a buyer beware situation.
Click to expand...

Developers are paid monthly, so at the very least Valve could offer a small window of opportunity. See: GOG's 30-day refund guarantee. Additionally, Valve does allow refunds on game pre-orders, some of which are available to purchase months ahead of release, such as The Witcher 3, and there's no time limit on this aside from the obvious requirement that it be done before release.

Edit: It's also worth noting that Steam's automatic refund feature refunds the cost to your Steam Wallet, so Valve could restrict Early Access refunds to this process, in doing so ensuring that the money it's returning will be put back into Steam.

Edit edit: I should clarify that I don't know if Valve pays developers at a certain point each month with a lump sum or a month after a purchase is made. If it's the former then the latter would need to be the case for what I propose to work without Valve eating into its own pocket.
 
M

Mesoian

Member
StoOgE said:
Were do you propose Valve gets the money from to return your purchase? They gave it to a developer who is using the money to (theoretically) develop the game which means it would be gone by the time this situation arises.

Dunno, think it's a buyer beware situation.
Click to expand...

It totally is, but at the same time time, it completely submarines any faith I have in early access.

Why support it at all when everything that's a part of it is in such a questionable state of flux?
 
U

Uncle Rupee

Banned
Seems like the risk you take buying games in early access. You shouldn't expect refunds from abandoned projects if you bought into them before they were finished. Sorry.
 
Sanic

Sanic

Member
MetalDeer said:
And thus why I don't buy Early Access games.
Click to expand...

I think you have to take things on a case-by-case basis. Some games, like this one, have fizzled out or ended being a generally poor buy on the part of the consumer. Others receive great support and have (or eventually will) leave early access. 7 Days to Die is an example of a game that I think is doing Early Access the right way.
 
R

Recall

Member
Uncle Rupee said:
Seems like the risk you take buying games in early access. You shouldn't expect refunds from abandoned projects if you bought into them before they were finished. Sorry.
Click to expand...

I feel sorry for those who raised the 114k for the initial Kickstarter.
 
J

Jb

Member
And that's why I don't buy Early Access games. Really not a risk worth taking when you can just wait and see how the project ends up.
 
M

MetalDeer

Member
Pandoracell said:
I think you have to take things on a case-by-case basis. Some games, like this one, have fizzled out or ended being a generally poor buy on the part of the consumer. Others receive great support and have (or eventually will) leave early access. 7 Days to Die is an example of a game that I think is doing Early Access the right way.
Click to expand...

I suppose. I'll admit I did buy Minecraft when it was in beta, but that was already pretty much a finished game at the time I bought it. Personally, the only games I would buy in Early Access would be ones that are almost finished. And by finished, I mean at a point where I wouldn't be completely pissed if they just stopped development.
 
R

RulkezX

Member
StoOgE said:
Were do you propose Valve gets the money from to return your purchase? They gave it to a developer who is using the money to (theoretically) develop the game which means it would be gone by the time this situation arises.

Dunno, think it's a buyer beware situation.
Click to expand...


I can't remember off hand , but does it have a disclaimer on the store page that the game may never be finished ?

I'm pretty certain that valve are completely liable for the refund if it was bought on Steam in the UK with the new laws.

Edit

Early Access Game
Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops.
Note: This Early Access game may or may not change significantly over the course of development. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you may want to wait until the game progresses further in development.
Click to expand...

So yeah, my contract would be between me and Valve, wouldn't it be Valves responsibility to refund me , and then up to them if they wanted to pursue the developers for the money they are out.
 
S

SomedayTheFire

Member
Buyer beware. Do some research before buying an unfinished game and know exactly what you're getting into. Once you put your money up, you're getting no sympathy from me.
 
A

atomsk

Party Pooper
This was one of those games I left in my wishlist in the hopes it would eventually be awesome because there are not enough awesome dinosaur games.

=(
 
U

udivision

Member
Sho_Nuff82 said:
So, no explanation of the context of the Obama picture there?
Click to expand...

Uncle Rupee in this thread is named Uncle Rupee and has the avatar of an old Rupee... but in real life he's probably not a form of currency from a Zelda game.

People call themselves anything, is what I'm saying. Don't think there's much more context than that...
 
M

More_Badass

Member
So in other words, The Stomping Land is extinct?

Stuff like this gives EA a bad name, when you have trustworthy hard-working devs working on games like DoorKickers, Prison Architect, Invisible Inc, XenoRaptor, etc. People are quick to damn Early Access as a whole, but really it should be judged on a game-by-game basis
 
P

Poodlestrike

Banned
Damn shame. I had high hopes for this one when it was originally announced (didn't back it though, thank god), but the combination of inactivity and dev goals that kind of ran counter to what I was hoping the game would turn out to be put me off it. I'd love to see somebody else pick up the concept and run with it.
 
G

GuitarAtomik

Member
This sucks. The impressions I've seen from early access seemed to be pretty positive and I was ready to jump in once it was complete. Curious to see what the dev's response is if there ever is one.
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
eznark said:
http://kotaku.com/relax-steams-big-dinosaur-game-is-still-alive-1616027611

Nathan Grayson: Ace Reporter
Click to expand...

To hear main developer Alex "Jig" Fundora tell it, The Stomping Land has not been abandoned, left to rot like moldy bones miles below the earth's surface. Right now he's working on porting the whole game to a better engine, Unreal Engine 4, he told Kotaku.

Excellent! So there you have it: The Stomping Land is still alive. It hasn't been abandoned, as many gamers feared.
Click to expand...
lol
 
T

Turin Turambar

Member
Mesoian said:
It totally is, but at the same time time, it completely submarines any faith I have in early access.

Why support it at all when everything that's a part of it is in such a questionable state of flux?
Click to expand...

Wait, you had faith in early access in first place?

tsk tsk tsk

Everyone knew it was a question of time, not a "maybe", for this to happen.
 
O

Omega

Banned
what a shame. i was looking forward to this

a game with dinosaurs, what wasn't to like? i knew it was too good to be true, last decent game with dinosaurs was Turok on the N64
 
S

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
It would be nice if EA game prices reflect what you're getting rather than the finished product, as a risk mitigator. But I can see the drawbacks of that as well. Devs may not want a lot of gamers with low interest in the product jumping in to get a cheap deal. The quality of the feedback could drop as a result.

Being an informed shopper is hard here, because everything looked fine on the surface. You can buy with the risk of the game evaporating, but if that's a high likelihood then EA is a tough sell. Therefore, it's in everyone's best interest to prevent stories like this. Devs seeking EA access need to be vetted to make sure they have a good plan to get the game in a good state.
 
bengraven

bengraven

Member
Damn, first negative Kickstarter to affect me.

I was having issues running the game due to a poor internet connection, but I assumed I'd be able to start fresh once it was out of EA and I was in a better place with a better connection. I didn't even realize there were issues.

Out $30. :/
 
S

spwolf

Member
StoOgE said:
Were do you propose Valve gets the money from to return your purchase? They gave it to a developer who is using the money to (theoretically) develop the game which means it would be gone by the time this situation arises.

Dunno, think it's a buyer beware situation.
Click to expand...

he is proposing to do what Paypal often does in these situations and then everyone rags on them :)

Also, game was obviously developed, just not finished... nobody took money and run.
 
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