There is also a place for a detective in the life of developers. The history of Golgom Games studio is proof of that. The creators of the studio from the American city of Austin raised $ 30 thousand to launch the game through the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. And then they disappeared along with the money.
The Mansion Lord game was supposed to be a hotel simulator with RPG elements. Golgom Games studio started raising funds for its creation in November 2013, and planned to launch it in August next year. To start on the main platforms, the game required $ 28 thousand.
If you scroll through the project page to the very beginning and look at it with an open mind, you will not find anything unusual. The developers talk about themselves and describe the advantages of the game, announce standard rewards for support and call for help to the project. Knowing how the case will end, of course, you will begin to find fault – for example, in a short story about the studio, the developers do not indicate their names. They tell about themselves in the most general terms. They say that they worked in the game industry, but they do not name turnout passwords. There are no photos of the smiling team on the Facebook page, no chat with fans.
And the game turned out to have a lot of them. By the beginning of December 2013, Mansion Lord had gained 2/3 of the required amount.
After that, the studio regularly released reports on its achievements. Judging by them, things were going well. However, the release dates of the game shifted slightly – which Golgom Games carefully warned fans about every time. However, the studio did not forget to please them with a trailer. And then she reported that the game was given the “green light” on Steam. And even provided a link.
And so it continued until the deadline for the launch of the project came. He looked absolutely ready. But the developers still posted a message that the deadline for fundraising for the game has been extended. And attached a link to PayPal.
And then they disappeared.
Another year has passed. At first, fans of the game were interested in the state of affairs timidly and politely – then on Facebook, then on the project page. Then they began to ask openly, and where, in fact, is the game. It was then that interesting details began to emerge. For example, in the entire history, none of the developers have responded to users on their own behalf. Correspondence with the backers was conducted only on the Facebook page under the name of the group. On Twitter, developers simply copied posts from other social networks.
Then it became even more interesting. It turned out that Golgom Games is not officially registered anywhere. And the registration period for the domain belonging to the studio’s website has long expired.
Inquisitive backers still managed to find traces. The domain was registered by a certain Michel Wong (Michael Wong). There was even his e-mail and even his residential address. But Wong did not respond to any angry backer to letters, e-mails and any other.
If we were writing this detective story, it would end like this: Kickstarter would cooperate with the poor backers, Wong (if he is a criminal) would be caught. Well, and absolutely for a caramel happy ending, the game would have been released by some volunteer developers.
But in real life, Kickstarter does not assume legal obligations for unreleased projects. Therefore, the detective will remain without a happy ending, and the backers will remain without a game. And perhaps history will repeat itself in a circle again. And again. And again. And… well, you’ve already figured out where the quote comes from.
You will be able to learn about the latest trends in the gaming industry first-hand, personally meet and discuss working issues with leading companies in the game development and publishing market at White Nights Moscow 2015, which will be held on October 13-14.