Also, if the underlying cause in this is issues with publishers and distributors getting involved as it appears, it also looks really bad to the Kickstarter crowd. The Kickstarter crowd believes they are "donating" to help fund projects that would otherwise be unable to get published and bypassing publisher involvement.
I think it's obvious that, if they are successful with their Kickstarter project, some of these developers are going to enter into business with publishers for future development, future distribution and future projects. But these Kickstarters should be hands free from publisher involvement. Developers need to be, and should be allowed to make money and improve their business. Getting involved with publishers is often going to be the way for some of them to move forward. However, the "right" thing to do (IMO) is to fulfill the promises of those people who initially funded you first. Fiinish the game as described and intented in your Kickstarter campaign. Release it in the ways available to you to the people that backed it. THEN you can enter into a deal with a publisher for further distribution.
But as it is now, it certainly looks as if your kickstarter backers are getting the shaft, because of a deal with a publisher. Basically you are undercutting your original funders, and that's fucked up.
While Kickstarter was a major part of this game becoming successful, and while we're super greatful to all those who backed us, it was still only a part of it. You can't make a game of this size and complexity with only $77,000. For us to survive as a company, and continue making games, it's naïve to think we could have survived on the Kickstarter money alone. Investors and additional money HAS to be secured for a game like this to get made, unless you manage get much more than what you ask for on KS, and in fact we had to spend almost $70,000 of our own money to develop the prototype before we even launched the Kickstarter. And lets be honest here, if we had asked for something like $200,000, there would have been no game.
We have done everything we promised in the Kickstarter, and then some. We implemented several of the stretch goals that we didn't even get funding for, and we've managed to get the funding to get the game translated into German and Spanish. For a game with 200,000 words, it adds up.
I think lot of people frown upon multiplayer because what we are waiting for, and kickstarted, are single player rpg with tactical depth, coming back to the roots. The multiplayer and mmo , traumatized codexers in their youth and that was the start of decline and disappeareance of every single rpgs. Multiplayer seems wasted time that could be dedicated to more important things.
What you waited for, and Kickstarted is still what you're going to get. To quote our last update, the singleplayer campaign is 98% of the game experience and is what 98% of the work has gone into. We're talking about a TCP/IP and hotseat skirmish mode, not MMO style gameplay or social media integration.
Can't wait for the addition of a co-op zombie mode now....
Damnit! The secret is out! Perhaps we should do a horse armour DLC instead.