The final update
SpaceVenture was finally released to the backers.
The big one, 23rd of August, 2022
This is it, I reckon, for the backers at least. The most recent update has finally given a release date of SapceVenture for the backers. The way it's worded it's hard to tell if the game also goes to the general public as well, but at least all the backers should get their little hands on the long waited game around September 16th of the year 2022.
An update, 17th of June, 2022
It has been very, very silent on all fronts of SpaceVenture. The latest official update from the project is from November 7th, 2021. The update claimed, that the last hurdle of the project is the save feature, which was indeed lacking in the beta version of the game. No other news of the project, it seems to be, otherwise, missing in action.
A small update, 20th of November, 2020
when I wrote about my disappointment with the project the last time, the last post from the Two Andromedans was from March 2017. After that one, they posted an additional 7 (seven) updates considering the state of the game. So, let's take a look at them first.
The first update they made came on July 18th 2017, about a month after my original rambling blog post. Not that I think I had anything to do with it. They told about the final scenes that needed to be finalized (how many is unknown), cutscenes were still in the works, voice-over recording date had to be set (so at least the script was complete, I hope) and there was a general debugging and polishing going on as well for the completed areas. No promises on the release date.
Other stuff they showed here was the in-game star map navigation system, a roster of parody villains for the evil corporation and a cutscene with a T-1000 parody space cop pulling Ace over. There also was an insider with the composer Ken Allen, a teaser of the big game box that some people pledged for and an announcement that Mark Crowe and not a Guy From Andromeda Chris Pope were attending a game expo and AVCon.
In the end, there was nothing too concrete about the update. What it boiled down to was, that they had done stuff and more stuff was still in the works.
The next update came on November 16th, 2017. Still scenes and cutscenes in the works, VO date to be set and no news on the release. Mark Crowe talked about puzzles, they showed a video of one of the scenes they had now shown before and posted something on the almost abandoned SVRewards site. For a carrot for high-level backers ($150 and up), they opened a poll on whom of the previously mentioned villain parodies would end in the game. That's all for 2017.
April 10th, 2018 was their next communique. They started by talking about VO and beta testing dates. Not 100% certain about those yet. They hoped soon and stated they were almost there at least what came to actually finalize the game.
There's actually quite a bit of stuff here, like some concept art, a more fleshed-out scene video of a previously shown scene and the announcement for the villains that were picked. But again, there really wasn't much of anything concrete on offer. Just assurances, that they were still working hard on it.
The next update was actually rather interesting, on August 12th, 2018, the Guys informed us that alpha testing had started. They also confirmed the VO dates and presented some of the actors hired for the job. On the other hand, some of the cutscenes still needed work as did the music and SFX. As a whole, this was an update that got me excited. Things seemed to be moving on now.
I'll just slump October 1st 2018 and January 27th 2019 updates together because they are about the same thing, voice acting. And an extent, the GoFundMe campaign for Scott Murphy to help him with his medical woes. The latter I am not going to say another word of.
The best things that come from these updates are the actor introductions as well as some sneak previews of the voices work for the game. All in all, pretty good stuff, which made me think maybe the game could potentially come out in 2019.
The latest update the project has made came on June 3rd, 2019. Again, no release info, but Mark Crowe did show a reference box for the game sent them by the printing company. Other stuff included more voice actor interviews and a couple of screenshots and videos of the game.
And that's all about the updates. From the looks of it, unless something miraculous happens, SpaceVenture is not going the be released in 2019. So here we are, getting close to December of 2019. A little over a month away from 2020. SpaceVenture project began May 8th, 2012, a half a year shy of 8 years.
So, will SpaceVenture ever come out? I have no idea, to be honest. While I don't personally know any of the people working on the project, it does have an air of being something of a burden rather than a project they love working with. Or maybe it hasn't. Maybe they don't even care anymore.
In the end, we know preciously little of the game itself, what has been done with it, who has worked with it, who still is working with it, how much of a backburner project is it considering the limited budget and so on and so worth. I would wager, that most of the team is doing SpaceVenture on the side while getting their bread and butter from other sources.
As for the game and its release, I'm not holding my breath for a near-future release.
So, the beta for SpaceVenture did, indeed, get on its way on the 2nd of August. The game was, as I expected, very buggy and was impossible to complete because of the bugs. A couple of versions later, the current version of SpaveVenture can be played through from the beginning to the end.
As such, the game still is very buggy and far from being in a condition that it can be released. I've played the game through a couple of times and stumbled upon a few game-breaking bugs that need to be addressed. On that same note, the developers have managed to fix a couple of very nasty bugs that were complete showstoppers in the previous versions.
It is very likely the game won't be released this year, considering all the bugs. But it does have that Space Quest feel and if the devs ever get it properly fixed, it should provide fun enough of a game. Maybe be not a fantastic game, but good for what it is.
End of update
The last time I took a bigger glance at the greatly delayed SpaceVenture Kickstarter project by the original creators of the Space Quest series was on June 16th, 2017. As time does fly, I thought it would be good to take another glance toward SpaceVenture and see where it is now. And no, it has not been released, if you were wondering.
when I wrote about my disappointment with the project the last time, the last post from the Two Andromedans was from March 2017. After that one, they posted an additional 7 (seven) updates considering the state of the game. So, let's take a look at them first.
The first update they made came on July 18th 2017, about a month after my original rambling blog post. Not that I think I had anything to do with it. They told about the final scenes that needed to be finalized (how many is unknown), cutscenes were still in the works, voice-over recording date had to be set (so at least the script was complete, I hope) and there was a general debugging and polishing going on as well for the completed areas. No promises on the release date.
Other stuff they showed here was the in-game star map navigation system, a roster of parody villains for the evil corporation and a cutscene with a T-1000 parody space cop pulling Ace over. There also was an insider with the composer Ken Allen, a teaser of the big game box that some people pledged for and an announcement that Mark Crowe and not a Guy From Andromeda Chris Pope were attending a game expo and AVCon.
In the end, there was nothing too concrete about the update. What it boiled down to was, that they had done stuff and more stuff was still in the works.
The next update came on November 16th, 2017. Still scenes and cutscenes in the works, VO date to be set and no news on the release. Mark Crowe talked about puzzles, they showed a video of one of the scenes they had now shown before and posted something on the almost abandoned SVRewards site. For a carrot for high-level backers ($150 and up), they opened a poll on whom of the previously mentioned villain parodies would end in the game. That's all for 2017.
April 10th, 2018 was their next communique. They started by talking about VO and beta testing dates. Not 100% certain about those yet. They hoped soon and stated they were almost there at least what came to actually finalize the game.
There's actually quite a bit of stuff here, like some concept art, a more fleshed-out scene video of a previously shown scene and the announcement for the villains that were picked. But again, there really wasn't much of anything concrete on offer. Just assurances, that they were still working hard on it.
The next update was actually rather interesting, on August 12th, 2018, the Guys informed us that alpha testing had started. They also confirmed the VO dates and presented some of the actors hired for the job. On the other hand, some of the cutscenes still needed work as did the music and SFX. As a whole, this was an update that got me excited. Things seemed to be moving on now.
I'll just slump October 1st 2018 and January 27th 2019 updates together because they are about the same thing, voice acting. And an extent, the GoFundMe campaign for Scott Murphy to help him with his medical woes. The latter I am not going to say another word of.
The best things that come from these updates are the actor introductions as well as some sneak previews of the voices work for the game. All in all, pretty good stuff, which made me think maybe the game could potentially come out in 2019.
The latest update the project has made came on June 3rd, 2019. Again, no release info, but Mark Crowe did show a reference box for the game sent them by the printing company. Other stuff included more voice actor interviews and a couple of screenshots and videos of the game.
And that's all about the updates. From the looks of it, unless something miraculous happens, SpaceVenture is not going the be released in 2019. So here we are, getting close to December of 2019. A little over a month away from 2020. SpaceVenture project began May 8th, 2012, a half a year shy of 8 years.
So, will SpaceVenture ever come out? I have no idea, to be honest. While I don't personally know any of the people working on the project, it does have an air of being something of a burden rather than a project they love working with. Or maybe it hasn't. Maybe they don't even care anymore.
In the end, we know preciously little of the game itself, what has been done with it, who has worked with it, who still is working with it, how much of a backburner project is it considering the limited budget and so on and so worth. I would wager, that most of the team is doing SpaceVenture on the side while getting their bread and butter from other sources.
As an update to this one, written on the 1st of July, 2020, it seems that the beta testing should finally begin sometime this month. So... fingers crossed, maybe?
The beta didn't quite manage for July but did hit swing in August 2020. The game does indeed exist and is now on Kickstarter backer beta testing.
The backers have been taken. 500k is no joke. Lawsuit is way over due. Wake up.
ReplyDeleteKickstarter is a way for people to scam other people and has been set up as such. Unfortunately because of this I doubt any "lawsuit" by which I am guessing you mean class action would be useless. Scott scams people everyday and he has become a master of delays , scams and pity. I only hope he gets hit by a car or something so the world can be rid of a skid mark on it.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of any meaningful attempt of Kickstarter trying to enforce their policies what comes to the delivery of the product. If anyone has ever paid back to the people who pledge, it's because those people have felt honour-bound to do so rather than they were forced to it by KS. I don't really see lawsuits going anywhere either, as the people who pledge to KS projects come from a myriad of different countries and most pledge so little, in the end, that there's little incentive to jump in a multinational lawsuit.
ReplyDeleteI do think that the biggest scam of KS still is Project Phoenix though. (Not a project I've backed myself)(https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1300298569/project-phoenix-japans-indie-rpg-feat-aaa-talent/description)
They collected over a million and ended up splurging most of the money in making an entirely different game and setting up expensive studio location. The people who backed that one are really, really unhappy.
Yeah just read the Kickstarter's "Basics page". They pretty much free themselves from any responsibility or obligations to backers. I'm sure some or most projects are legit but, I would not invest any money through this site. Creators can easily walk away with backer money with no repercussions like the Space Venture project.
ReplyDeleteThe big problem with KS has been from the beginning, that they've seen themselves as good faith or a honor based system. The system is built on a rather naive idea of "good people gathering together to do good things" and the concept of projects failing never really tailored much to the process. The general idea always was, that those good people try their hardest, but not everyone can be a winner.
ReplyDeleteI have backed only two projects, that I've been disappointed of, in terms of delivery. One is SpaceVenture, other was educational coding game called CodeHero. There also was one ebook project that aimed to scan old sci-fi books, which is now dead, but they did end up delivering several books at lest.