 |
welcome, guest |
| General Forum | ||||
 |
| |||
 GimmeCat  |
It's just brought up often in threads about CO. I deliberately didn't name it in my post because I didn't want to spark a discussion about it here, but it was inevitable.  |
|||
 Wrong Banshee Dragoler  |
You kinda set me up for it Gimme But OK, back to the relevant topic... I don't actually know how to feel about it. It's sad for fishing cactus, but I never had that high hopes for it... I guess thinking about it as creatures on your phone made me more interested than thinking of it as a sequel though. Creator of the TWB/TCB genome base.  |
|||
 CosmiSynth |
Yeah, Grandroids sounds like it's going to be something else, but true, back to the topic. The fact that CO is probably getting delayed is a sad thing, but I wouldn't lose hope on it yet. They've already spent a lot on it, so I'm guessing it'll be finished sooner or later. If not, though that'd certainly be a tragedy, there's still a lot of modding going on in this community for the old games, plus whatever Steve Grand himself is going to be doing in the future. Basically it's an issue worth being kind of disappointed over, but not necessarily despairing. Fishing Cactus may or may not have made some mistakes in biting off more than they could chew or not keeping in good enough contact with the Creature fan community, but there were a lot of things they were honestly trying hard on too. It's not fair to demonize them when they were making (and are probably still making) an attempt to revive an old but important series like this. They're people too. The Crafty Shee & Co. |
|||
 Razgriz |
(The topic is about CO and FC so Grendel Man's request to move discussion of other things is entirely reasonable imo) Before I say anything else I'd like to reiterate that when your project is tied to a publisher, they ultimately have the final say in what is said and what isn't. Anyways so I decided to take a peek around things, see if maybe a tidbit of information could be inferred and I think there's a slight bit of hope. Although first, I now heavily doubt that the site in question has any sort of reliable source in regards to this. Why you might ask? Well, namely they seem to have no issue reporting on things that enable game piracy. In general any gaming site that's able to take tiny bits of hidden info to put up for the public will not risk relations by reporting on something like that. So here's what I suspect might be happening: Bigben very likely stopped putting any more funding into the game since their website has since been redesigned and scrubbed clean of any mention of CO. If they still had any stake left in the project then there would be -something- at least. However, there is that second comment from Fishing Cactus' facebook about not being in charge of communications anymore. (There's actually two instances of that comment, first one dating back to July) Seems a bit odd that Bigben's affiliation to CO is only scrubbed from the company site and not the product's site? Plus they're apparently still in charge of PR despite it all? The easiest thing to do would be to bypass any editing and just pull down the CO site completely so they can wipe their hands clean from there. As far as I can tell it hints at something that isn't simply a case of discarding a project. Maybe you see where I'm going with this but, I think that FC either is or will be trying to move CO away from Bigben. Could be that they want to self-publish the game or get a deal with a far more sympathetic publisher to fund the game. Until delicate negotiations like that are done though, there won't be a single thing said related to them that isn't a non-answer given that FC doesn't seem to want to ignore people asking. Epistory could arguably be proof of their desire to eventually self-publish with the Steam page listing both Fishing Cactus and Plug In Digital as publishers. |
|||
 Rha |
But can FC do that? Is the IP even theirs in any way?  |
|||
Razgriz |
Well the natural assumption would be that if they're indeed attempting it or wanting to, they either have Gameware's okay to proceed or they're waiting on the approval. Honestly there's just so many variables that can come into play here. The best thing people can do is incessantly poke Bigben's PR (and only them since it's been made quite clear that FC is barred from really saying anything that isn't redirecting someone to Bigben) and see if they will give a proper answer or not. |
|||
 SpaceShipRat |
well, what we know is: -FC are still in a contract with BB -BB are in a position where they can order FC not to talk about the game -FC still want to make a game, or at least they've said they're "sad" about the situation and "hoping that a solution will be found" And what we can pretty much guess is that -BB have been funding developement of Creatures Online with their own money (this was probably confirmed somewhere, but I don't remember for sure) -FC used up all the money that BB were willing to give them, and probably all the deadline extensions they could get. (Or they're defending design decisions BB just won't agree with?) I just don't know what usually happens in a situation like this. I suppose BB wouldn't want to just give them a pat on the back and say, "alright, go find another publisher for this game we spent lots of money on". So they'd prevent FC from placing their game elsewhere, while at the same time refusing to support it further. So the only chances are -FC managing to get the game untangled from BB AND finding a new publisher (very unlikely) -FC convincing BB to give them another extension (unlikely) -FC completing the game on their own time and money (if one of their games does really good, or if Creatures Online can get some kind of grant or funding by someone not interested in the profit) |
|||
 Andrettin |
Considering how long the game was taking to make, I am honestly not surprised. |
|||
 Ilovegrendels |
VioletGrendel wrote: Dragoler wrote: Wow! I never heard of that before, but I just looked at the link, and it looks pretty incredible! I never heard of it either! It's all in the mind, you know. |
|||
 Zaf |
Erm, not sure how to put this but erm, the financial problem is sort of not true. ProSieben Games and Big Ben are both companies that has the money needed to finish the game. ProSieben Games at least is a big site that is rather well known and has quite some games on as well as other stuff. So why would they run into financial problems? o.O I think they decided it wasn't worth spending funding on as there didn't seem to be much of an active fan-base for it to be worth it. They probably told Fishing Cactus that they wouldn't give them more money for the game, so now they either have to stop making the game or get the money from somewhere else. And getting money from somewhere else can prove to be quite a challenge. I am not sure if Kickstarter is out of the question, as that might be a good place to get some funding, provided that people are willing to help out. They would have to convince people that their money are not wasted and to captivate people's interest. Not saying that is impossible of course, but it might prove difficult as they need to get new fans interested. Unless one of you guys got the amount they need? |
|||
 Tea Queen Laura Administrator |
Erm, not sure how to put this but erm, the financial problem is sort of not true. Can you back that claim up with some solid proof, Zaf? It's just, it sounds like an assumption at this point... I don't think any of us know what's really happened between Fishing Cactus and the publishers, only those who are directly involved.It's okay to have a theory on the matter, but let's try not confuse theory with fact. That'd just end up being misleading and confusing for everyone.  There's a chance that you could be right, but we don't know for sure! |
|||
 Deskman |
do you have any basis for that that statement at all, Zaf? all of those things seem like hunches, really. |
|||
Zaf |
Laura wrote: Heh, I got no proof no, hence the "I think" part. However the theory is based on my boyfriends experience within the game industry, as he is educated game designer and knows how companies works when it comes to develop and publishing games. After he saw the Creatures Online webpage being filled with spam and read the few words spoken from all the companies involved and now the financial issue, he said it sounded like the case I just mention above in my post. So the post is basically written by what he said, tho I think it makes sense. Of course, as he doesn't work with the Creatures game, he can't be 100% sure that, that is what is going on. The only way to really know for a fact, is if the game gets released. Tho I hope it gets released, it looks to be a fun cozy game ^^ |
|||
Tea Queen Laura Administrator |
Heh, I got no proof no, hence the "I think" part I was referring to the first part, where you said the financial problem is sort of not true, actually. |
|||
Zaf |
Laura wrote: Heh, I got no proof no, hence the "I think" part I was referring to the first part, where you said the financial problem is sort of not true, actually.Oh I apologize! That part is based on what he said as well, tho I wondered why a company like those two would have issues like that. I am sorry for not have written that clear, I hope I didn't confuse too many. |
|||
Razgriz |
Not to be nitpicky but your SO being a game designer doesn't necessarily mean he's going to know everything about the financial side of the industry. I realize it's probably easier for him to speculate but he has no involvement with the companies in question so ultimately it's just like what my own posts in this thread are made of; speculation. |
|||
 Code Monkey evolnemesis |
Well, one piece of speculation I can put forth that I am reasonably sure of is that the game's development time (and almost certainly budget) went WAY over what was expected when the project started... I mean, the game was originally slated for release in 2011 wasn't it? 3 or 4 extra years in the development cycle might be in the range of acceptable for a large A-title game by a big developer, (look at Starcraft 2)... but for a mobile app, especially one that seems to have such a niche audience, it's gotta be to the point where someone finally says 'is this really worth it?'... Still, Fishing Cactus' last update message in their forums seemed to imply that there was at least some hope that the project could be picked up again in the future, just that they had to put it on hiatus for a while due to other projects becoming a priority (seemingly due to word from above). From how much they got involved with the community, and all the work they put into the game already, they really did seem to want to finish this game... If it were directly up to them and NOT something financial or time- or priority-related (which are really the same things as financial), I don't think they would have stopped... Maybe Big Ben isn't hurting for money, but that doesn't mean they will fund a developer indefinitely to come out with a game that was supposed to be done years ago, without even trying to put them onto other more lucrative projects... Fishing Cactus is not Big Ben and needs the money... They also have a limited programming staff, and can't have all THAT much leeway to keep working on a project if they have like 3 other projects that need to get done for them to get paid. "For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love." "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself." - Carl Sagan |
|||
SpaceShipRat |
Zaf wrote: I thought this wasn't even in doubt, that it would be Fishing Cactus that ran out of money because the higher ups lost faith, and not that it's Big Ben that ran out of money. |
|||
Zaf |
evolnemesis wrote: Have you even seen their forums lately? 500 pages with nothing but spam :S They don't monitor the forums anymore or something else is preventing them from cleaning up. |
|||
Code Monkey evolnemesis |
Yep, they said in their last forum post that they would not be able to maintain their forum posts or communicate about the game anymore... so it's not surprising that the forum is in that state... Still, they DID update at least one website for the game since then, in a way that strongly implies they still intend to come out with it eventually, and FC said at that time that the game was not specifically cancelled, just on an indefinite hiatus pending other work they had to do. "For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love." "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself." - Carl Sagan |
|||
SpaceShipRat |
They're not their forums, they're Big Ben's forums, so I wouldn't judge by that. |
|||
| downloads cobs adoptions creaturelink metarooms breeds gallery art wallpaper screenshots graphics promos sprites |
dev hack shack script reservations dev resources active projects dev forum community links advice chat polls resources |
creatchi forum bookmarks general news help development strangeo survivor |
mycaves log in register lost pw |
1 online Malkin |
| creatures caves is your #1 resource for the creatures artificial life game series: creatures, creatures 2, creatures 3, docking station, and the upcoming creatures family. contact help privacy policy terms & conditions rules donate wiki |
||||