Someone Actually Removed An Unfinished Game From Steam Early Access

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

Under The Ocean spent more than a year on Steam Early Access, but—despite steady progress and a relatively fun experience—the survival game's creator yanked it from Valve's service. His reasoning? He's not sure if he can deliver on his promises anymore, and he wants to make sure he's not being dishonest with players.
 

Under The Ocean is a colorful yet daunting island survival game that's been in development for years. Recently, however, it hit choppy waters when its lead developer, Paul Hart, and programmer, Michael Reitzenstein—who'd been living and working together for much of the game's development—decided they didn't see eye-to-eye. The two parted on amicable terms, but in the great survival game that is game creation, good programmers are drinkable water—or at least conveniently placed bags of potato chips. In other words, vital. This leaves Under The Ocean in an awkward place.

Hart plans to continue development (he knows how to program; it's just not his specialty), but he asked Valve to pull Under The Ocean from Steam Early Access nonetheless. This in a time when some developers—Double Fine and the people behind notorious indie game Towns among them—have elected to swerve away from game development's rockiest shores by slapping a "finished" tag on their unfinished games and moving on. Meanwhile, big publishers have moved toward a disturbing trend of releasing thoroughly unfinished games and patching them to completion. So, why didn't Hart follow suit? He explained his rationale to me via email:
 

"Because fuck that, Firstly, I am way too stubborn to quit, but secondly, we promised the player-base that a game would be delivered—not a broken alpha product. It isn't even about money or lack thereof at this point. It's about pride and finishing what we started. Despite Mike leaving, I still feel strongly about what this project could be, rather than what it is currently."

 

  

So he got in touch with Valve, and that was that.
 

"I emailed Jason at Steam to take it down," said Hart. "I can't in good faith keep the store page up without something decent to show. Jason was very understanding, and I just told him if/when I have something worth selling I'd shoot him an email again to ask to revive the store page. But until that time, I will be starting again by myself, and the game will not be available until I am happy with it."


 

Hart admitted, however, that he was hesitant to shake things up for a while. Despite smoke and the beginnings of a fire between himself and Reitzenstein, he didn't want to let people down."We didn't want to disappoint the players with failure, we didn't want to admit we failed, and that took a long time to come to grips with," he explained.
 

Reitzenstein echoed that sentiment in a post on Under The Ocean's Steam forums, adding that he would've also been more than willing to continue making the game solo, but it was Hart's game first. "We both take our obligation to finish the game very seriously, and it's not the first time we've spent thousands of hours finishing up a project with no expectation of future sales," he wrote.
 

Fans are saddened by the news, but they're also largely understanding of the situation. Despite some lapses in updating, Hart and Reitzenstein have been pretty open with the game's development since day one, so they've engendered a good deal of trust from the community.

 

The only question remaining, then, is what's next for Under The Ocean. For now, Hart plans torelease builds on his own—separate from Steam—so players who bought the game can still be involved in its progress if they want. He also plans to offer refunds when he has the necessary funds to do so.
 

Hart isn't fooling himself, however. He has no programmer and almost no money; getting the game back on track is gonna take a while. He's also decided to essentially start from scratch, or at least pull a lot of the work he previously did into a new 2D version that better emphasizes his strengths as a designer, artist, and programmer. Some fans are upset that Hart isn't releasing what he has of what would've been the 3D version's ninth major alpha update, but he just doesn't think it can stand alone. He probably could've pulled a Double Fine or even aTowns and gotten some support for it, but that idea just doesn't sit well with him.
 

"I think the concept is sound, but [the last alpha build that Mike and I worked on] is a buggy mess and definitely not fun by finished game standards," he confessed.

"I think I can do better, I think I can make something more focused and refined solo, and I don't care if it takes another few years of my life. I am not quitting until it reaches a point where I am happy with it."

 

 

To some, that might sound like the beginnings of a lengthy slog—a finger-scraping, back-breaking mountain climb with no end in sight—but Hart is feeling strangely optimistic about it all.

Source : http://steamed.kotaku.com/game-maker-says-fuck-that-to-keeping-unfinished-game-on-1684274354

[Marvzl1357]

Wow, that's some mad honesty on the Dev's part, but good on him I guess...

[flibberdipper]

Good luck to him. Sounds like a real pain in the ass.

[Laputacake]

Good luck Hart

[Deletive]

I own the game, it was rather interesting. 

[TheSLSAMG]

I'm okay with this. Clearly, there were issues and clearly they are sorting that out, so if I had supported the game, I would have no hard feelings and I would just wish him well.

[AlexGoesHigh]

if devs are going to trash their project and leave, this is how they should do it, not just waving the white flag and hope for the best, or in more real life term GTFO about it, props for stepping up to try and fix the situation even if it might end up going no where

[Hans Christian | Teri]

Then what happened to all the people who spent money on the game during the one or more years it was on Early Access? I don't wanna be an asshole here or anything, but he promised to deliver and have taken peoples money in exchange for that promise.

[IdortMasterRace]

Okay, now give the customers refunds. You took people's money in order to develop and improve the game, you've now completely abandoned it, so now refund every copy bought.

 

The sooner Valve gets rid of this early-access cancer, the better.

[PercySavageEG]

the dedication is real, best of luck to him

[YellowDragon]

Then what happened to all the people who spent money on the game during the one or more years it was on Early Access? I don't wanna be an asshole here or anything, but he promised to deliver and have taken peoples money in exchange for that promise.

 

Okay, now give the customers refunds. You took people's money in order to develop and improve the game, you've now completely abandoned it, so now refund every copy bought.

 

The sooner Valve gets rid of this early-access cancer, the better.

 

Read the terms of the sale, Early access the Dev can pull the plug at any time for any reason. You are not entitled for a refund, do not pass go, do not collect $$$, Early access is like an investment, there is no guarantee that the investment will come to fruition, its just like kickstarter.

 

In my opinion the developer has no obligation to anyone to issue a refund.

[Victorious Secret]

How long until Early Access gets pulled from Early Access? 

[UnknownEngineer]

Then what happened to all the people who spent money on the game during the one or more years it was on Early Access? I don't wanna be an asshole here or anything, but he promised to deliver and have taken peoples money in exchange for that promise.

You didn't read the entire thing did you?

People who already have the game can keep it, the dev plans to release patches through other means to people who already have the game. 

The game will simply not sell new copies until it is finished.

[cesrai]

How long until Early Access gets pulled from Early Access? 

Never, Early Access is great but it's kind a rename of Alpha and Beta.

[Trik'Stari]

Good to see a Dev with some moral fiber.

[Mattk50]

Okay, now give the customers refunds. You took people's money in order to develop and improve the game, you've now completely abandoned it, so now refund every copy bought.

 

The sooner Valve gets rid of this early-access cancer, the better.

did you even read the OP?

[Toddwjp]

Fair enough, I respect honest devs on early access, there the system it was for. Treat early access like kickstarter .

[razor767]

Not exactly a great situation, but we need more honestly like this instead of the PR crap that we normally get.