Unsung Story, a Kickstarter Disaster to Surpass Mighty No. 9

if you thought mighty number 9 was a disastrous Kickstarter campaign you haven't seen [ __ ] now just to give you a little refresher about mighty number 9 in a world where capcom has practically given up on the Mega Man series mighty number 9 was supposed to be the beacon of hope and spiritual successor to the neglected franchise it was supposed to be a big [ __ ] you to Capcom for the community that they abandoned people were immediately amped about this endeavor especially when it was being spearheaded by Keiji Inafune a who's named misguidedly became synonymous with Mega Man thus the Kickstarter closed with an incredible four million dollars from 68,000 backers including PayPal donations everything seemed to be going splendidly and from there all fans could do was wait in anticipation of a genre-defining title unfortunately they would be met by numerous shady practices like finding additional funding from third-party corporations and publishers which goes against the spirit of Kickstarter or starting another Kickstarter for a second game before mighty number 9 was even finished broken promises like the game is pretty much finished or there will be no more delays and subsequent unprecedented delays all of which culminated to a mediocre final product that nowhere near lived up to being a Mega Man spiritual successor and more recently there was the whole fiasco with one of the physical rewards famicom or nes style boxes with accompanying manuals not only was the manual not full-color as promised they didn't even fit inside a Famicom version of the box one last [ __ ] you from Keiji Inafune a who by the way was never the mastermind behind Mega Man to begin with he produced many of the games and did some art for them but he certainly wasn't the creative force behind them as PlatinumGames Hideki Kamiya tweeted back in September 2012 kg was mainly a businessman and apparently not a great one considering mighty number 9s utter failure so yeah long story short this whole mighty number 9 Fiasco was a complete disaster going down as one of the worst Kickstarter campaigns in history now with that out of the way allow me to introduce to you a Kickstarter campaign that asked my number nine to hold their beer this ladies and gentlemen is unsung story tale of the Guardians an ongoing disaster much of the information in this video comes from an article by Jason shreyer from website Kotaku alongside my own research so here's what happened unsung story was a game being developed by assuming matsuno the creator of the highly renowned Final Fantasy Tactics the game was first announced back in September 18th 2013 alongside a digital card game of the same universe in partnership with a company called play deck with reassurances that both games would be out by the end of 2014 a couple months later on January 14th 2014 play deck launched a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of $600,000 promising to reimagine a classic game genre as Yasumi Matsuno weeds together one of the complex and rich game worlds that he is known for with inspiring class-based tactics gameplay on this date Jason the Kotaku editor decided to back this game for $20 with the estimated delivery date of pledges indicating that the game would actually be out by July 2015 the following month On February 3rd 2014 played XP our company contacts Jason with an opportunity to interview Yasuni Mizuno himself about unsung story stating that the interview has to take place on February 10th and has to be in a QA format Jason responded that while he'd be happy to do an interview the date and format cannot be dictated three days later on February 6th 2014 played xpr responds stating that they won't be able to set up the interview after all 6 days later on February 12th 2014 with just two days left until the Kickstarter campaign is over unsung story is still not fully funded sitting at five hundred and eleven thousand dollars eighty-nine thousand short of its initial 600,000 goal so that day Jay wrote an article talking about how he thought it was crazy that a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy Tactics one of the greatest games of all time wasn't an instant hit he said considering the talent involved Matsuno artist akihiko yoshida and composer hitoshi sakimoto and considering the public's general love for all things Final Fantasy Tactics it's strange to see a project like this go unfunded this article ended up being the last push that the Kickstarter campaign needed On February 14 2014 just hours before the deadline unsung story successfully managed to fund its campaign by raising a total of six hundred and sixty thousand dollars the part that Jason played in aiding this campaign ended up being one of his greatest regrets from there playback provided what Jason described as mundane updates about the staff and other high-level details surrounding the game for a couple weeks finally on March 21st 2014 play deck provided a backer update with reassurances that it won't be long before they can share a lot of content about unsung story promising that great things are on their way tobacco's dismay and concern subsequent updates had an uncanny focus on the unsung story digital card game which wasn't what backers had signed up for then on July 31st 2014 played X community manager provided a timeline of promises for the rest of 2014 among them being gameplay details of the game they also addressed backers concerns and clarified that the unsung story strategy game would happen before the digital card game finally the July 31st 2014 update promised that there will be another progress update the following month August 2014 when August 2014 finally came and went there was no update this was the first of many broken promises play deck finally posted an update on September 5th 2014 where they shared details about the games professions and some story details nothing worth too much attention from there the following month on October 16th 2014 play jack announced the launch of their forums and the month after that on November 26th 2014 they shared some more story details alongside some new artwork then silent for three months next time backers would hear from play deck was on February 20th 2015 which is a little over a year after the successful funding of unsung stories Kickstarter campaign at this point the update featured new story details some more concept artwork and some really rough looking gameplay screenshots this was certainly not the kind of quality backers were expecting with six hundred and sixty thousand dollars worth of funding in a full year of additional development especially with only 5 months to go before the game's estimated July 2015 delivery date two weeks later on March 6th 2015 another update provided details about the games schools and character attributes and showcased a couple more rough looking screenshots this was then followed by another month of silence before the next update on May 15 2015 which talked about the games combat and equipment system showcased more artwork and promised the following development on the game is progressing nicely as we continue down this path we will finalize a development timeline to share with everyone later this summer by the way at this point the game was two months away from its July 2015 estimated delivery date from there four months went by without an update not only did the game miss its July 2015 estimated launch window there was an area peep from the games developers leaving people wondering if the game's development had been cancelled and play deck have just run away with the money play Jack finally broke their silence with a dreary update on September 21st 2015 in the update played ex CEO Joel Goodman began by apologizing for the lack of updates while reassuring backers that the game hasn't been canceled he also confirmed that the game has been delayed with a following statement unsung is and has been in development although development has been going more slowly than we anticipated and I will cover that as well there is no way to avoid stating the fact that the game will be delayed until next year and we wish it were otherwise all this was a baffling contradiction to the statement provided on their last update four months ago which reassured backers that development on the game is progressing nicely things went from bad to worse as Goodman's update continued he preceded by announcing that they've had plans for a while now to partner with an outside publisher for unsung story which goes against the principles of crowdfunding the excuses he provided for the lack of disclosure was shady at best he said being that these discussions were confidential in nature we were unable to discuss neither this nor any of the details I understand that in hindsight it might appear that we could have just shared this with you all but without knowing how it was going to impact the development and any announcements concerning the game we chose to wait it through that timeframe Goodman then talked about some of the development issues that they're faced over the last few months namely financial crunch that caused them to reduce some key staff furthermore two backers further dismay good man proceeded to outline out of nowhere plans to implement online PvP including matchmaking rankings a tournament system create game system friends lists and chat naturally backers were upset by this particular announcement since unsung story was advertised to be a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy Tactics not a multiplayer game now the excuse that was given for the implementation of PvP was that it would provide data that would allow them to balance the game but single player experiences have never been about balance or fair chance these words only come into play in multiplayer games where everyone every player has to have an equal playing field so to use that data the multiplayer data and based a single-player experience around that was simply wholly misguided backers knew that balancing single player from multiplayer data meant that the single-player experience could be compromised not to mention that the addition of PvP would only divert resources from the core single-player game which has already been delayed from its initial July 2015 launch window finally for this update Goodman promised backers more constant updates with quotes like we will work to rectify that and will outline the plan going forward one that will keep you in the loop henceforth and it's been our loss up to this point not involving the great community of backers we have and going forward will be more transparent while looking to engage you on the development progress as it unfolds plot twist these promises would be broken following this fiasco nine days later on September 30th 2015 during an ask me anything session on reddit Joel Goodman was asked if he can provide any proof of unsung stories development Goodman replied with on the next major update we will have video footage of in-game gameplay and will go into more details on the UI development direction according to Kotaku editor Jason Goodman also made it clear that the assuming Mizuno's involvement with unsung story has already ended at this point yep the Final Fantasy Tactics creator and the one who was supposed to lead and create its spiritual successor basically jumped ship not a great confidence booster at this point the unsung story that was originally promised was pretty much dead following the reddit AMA the following month on October 20th 2015 playback posted the first-ever gameplay footage of the game two backers dismay and expectations the game looked pretty dreadful at best it could pass for a shitty half-assed mobile game this is apparently where six hundred and sixty thousand dollars and a year and a half of development to add insult to injury after promising an update the following month with a more thorough video going over the specifics of combat play deck went incognito for another four months the next time backers would hear from play deck was on February 6th 2016 and the update had nothing but bad news to offer they stated that the company was once again facing development setbacks going through financial hardships and losing key staff members it was also suggested that play deck would be pausing unsung stories development to work on other short-term products for the financial health of the company finally they discussed the possibility of exploring options for outside development help and to bring an outside team to a system at this point backers were beginning to request for refunds on mass but to no avail these requests were all but ignored 21 days later on February 27th 2016 play deck provided a slightly more optimistic update stating that they have been able to secure more funding through a secured creditor they also informed their backers that roughly 1.5 million dollars has been spent on various aspects of unsung stories development which is shocking considering the results so far apparently this is what a 1.5 million dollar game looks like the update then detailed the various game elements that they have allegedly been working on including the dreaded PvP that nobody asked for they also briefly touched upon refunds basically stating that they'll consider it once they get in a position of stronger financial health finally the update closed with a statement that an update would come sometime in the following month March 2016 plot twist no updates on March 2016 the next update came the following month on April 9th 2016 they began by stating that they should have another update with more game specific progress features and design details in May while reassuring that they're on track for a play beta for unsung story containing a few single-player levels with two character schools and PvP to be released in fall 2016 that was their promise a beta demo of source for fall 2016 the update closed with other promises such as we want everyone to know that we are close to being on track with our latest development plan and should have some game specific development updates to start sharing in May over the summer we'll have new screenshots videos and our to share along with gameplay specific details about our progress on the character and battle systems and the game world from there May 2016 came and went with nary an update the next month on June 28th 2016 play deck posted an update apologizing for the lack of updates while reassuring backers once again that the beta is on track for fall 2016 they closed with as of now we estimate to have new art screenshot and design details to show by September and we will have another design update for you next month thus next month July came and went and no update August came and went and no updates finally on September 21st 2016 play deck provided an update announcing that they have entered into a strategic agreement with a major company who will be providing design work for the tactics game as well as get this unsung branded games in the future holy [ __ ] talk about jumping the gun as for the lack of updates they add this to say we had hoped to have some design and art progress to show by this month but we are just now getting the time we need to spend with our partner on the core mechanics and the game world and need to do this before providing updates with visual content progress rather than making estimates as to when we think content updates will be ready we will stick to updating on the design progress more regularly and then update you when we have a good step forward with some content progress whether it be concept art or screenshots of in-game progress moving on you guessed it no updates on October or November 2016 the next update came on December 23rd 2016 and it only offered another apology for the lack of updates more tired progress reports and talks of gameplay mechanics and systems and whatnot and yet more promises for future updates that would never come it's worth noting by the way that by now to fall 2016 window for unsung story's beta has long passed and it's a topic that didn't come up during their December 2016 update in fact it's a topic that would never come up again and this ladies and gentlemen would be the last we would hear from play deck in a very long time as the new year 2017 rolled by over 8 months would go by with absolute silence from the project on June 21st 2017 Kotaku editor Jason who was getting tired of waiting reached out to play deck CEO Joel Goodman for an update and he responded with in about a week or so I should have some solid news to share with you that will positively impact the project when I do I'll reach back out to you thanks oh we came and went and still no news play deck would finally break its eight-month silence on August 1st 2017 that's right very recently if you thought things couldn't get worse oh don't worry things get much worse in this update play deck essentially announced that they would be jumping ship stating that their involvement has come to an end and that publisher developer little orbit would be taking over yep God knows where those six hundred and sixty thousand dollars went play deck just ran away with it this was followed up by a ray of hope though the same day little orbit CEO Matthew Scott released his own update on the matter here are a few highlights from his statement I would like to start by taking a moment to introduce myself my name is Matthew Scott and I am the CEO of little orbit we started as a small game developer in 2003 and have grown into a small publish in the last seven years to date we have primarily focused on retail with twenty titles on many different platforms working alongside Cartoon Network DreamWorks Warner Brothers and Mattel inevitably many of you will google us and you may have your doubts which is okay this project has struggled but give us a little time and hopefully we'll surprise you I'm a gamer at heart and my first love has always been turn-based tactics games I met the playback team a couple months ago and got a first-hand look at the amazing work from Yasumi Matsuno simply put this game needs to exist so I am excited to be taking this project over and helping deliver it to the community I recognize that this project is now more than two years late from when it was originally supposed to ship but rather than jump into lofty promises I want to level set expectations with a bit of both bad and good news first the bad news little orbit is starting from scratch we have spent hours going through the Kickstarter Commons and researching all the projects materials and I feel the backers have made one thing clear we need to focus on the original single-player game and Matsu knows design that was promoted during the campaign and that is exactly what we're going to do at this point our primary goal is to separate the years of modifications and changes that were made while play deck attempted to deliver something to their backers second the good news I want to make this absolutely clear little orbit will honor the Kickstarter backer rewards at no extra cost I can't know how frustrating this has been for the many fans of this game but over the coming weeks we will be reaching out to make sure we have all the current information for each of you so that rewards can be delivered properly as we make progress in a separate comment Scott replied backers questions with a following statement dear backers I appreciate the many questions both private and public that have come in taking on this project was a very difficult decision for us honestly there is a lot of toxicity and unhappiness and I knew it would be risky to involve ourselves in this uphill battle but in the end I personally made the decision to take on unsung story I have seen the entire Monsuno design and it was simply too compelling to walk away from there are significant pieces that have never been discussed and we look forward to sharing those in the near future in the meantime here are a couple of quick answers one we didn't pay any significant amount to play deck there was a token amount paid that ensured the ownership of the design name and game IP would be ours legally to move forward with we felt it was better for all involved if play deck no longer had any attachment to we also didn't get any of the Kickstarter money this was simply not a monetary-based transaction we sincerely love what this game could be and it is our intention to see it through for the community little Orbitz funds all of its games internally so that is our plan for this project three we got everything play deck has done to date but we are not interested in looking backwards at any of the previous development 3d art or conceptual design in addition to the English design and story we also got the original Japanese work from Yasumi Matsuno bits of this are being retranslated back to english so we can get a clearer understanding of his core ideas for we will not do any work on the multiplayer feature or card game until we deliver the original single-player story line 5 again we plan to honor the Kickstarter rewards entirely at our own expense lastly we want to respond to those of you that have reached out asking for refunds I can't know the sheer amount of frustration you have endured we are here to help but we aren't in a position to do that right now please know that we are starting from scratch without the money you actually invested so all of our funding needs to go into the game and delivering this Kickstarter if we start giving refunds right now it will simply hurt everyone who backed the project and limit our ability to finish sincerely Matthew Scott this ladies and gentlemen is the last we have heard of unsung story as of the publishing of this video I will say that little orbit at least makes a good first impression they've got the right attitude and approach a realistic outlook and a willingness to be open with their backers well the backers didn't technically back little orbit but it's good to see that little orbit is treating the backers like their own and little orbit is doing this all out of their own pocket they got none of the Kickstarter money to begin with it is kind of admirable what they're doing their intent on unfuckin a truly [ __ ] situation it couldn't have been easy to make the decision to helm such a trainwreck with all the negative PR surrounding it this is the type of decision you can only make if you're really passionate about something and that's a start it does seem like they are passionate about this or at least the CEO Matthew Scott however until we see proof of little orbits commitment it is impossible to trust them at this point in time nothing against them per se but just again the whole situation is [ __ ] so it's understandable that people would be skeptical about anything surrounding this project there's also the fact that little orbits game development portfolio doesn't boost confidence either having only developed titles such as Adventure Time games barbie games Monster High games How to Train Your Dragon to Kung Fu Panda Penguins of Madagascar Disney Violetta rhythm and music and Young Justice legacy none of which have been all that well received it is worth noting however that all their projects so far have been direct adaptations of existing cartoons animations and intellectual properties which have strict restrictions in terms of creative freedom and development timeline and more often than not a second-rate development environment will only yield a second-rate product with unsung story on the other hand this is their own project for once they are free from their usual shackles giving them a chance to put all their experience to use and show the world what they're capable of maybe all they need is the right IP and the right development environment to turn out a genuinely good product maybe they'll surprise us now that they're working on their own brand new game from scratch I'm not holding my breath quite yet though I need to see how Orbitz works a little bit before I can make any kind of determination currently as it stands I don't expect unsung story to be a mind-blowing game that lives up to the original promise of a spiritual successor to the acclaimed Final Fantasy Tactics at best under little orbits leadership I expect the game's development to be smoother for sure and I expect the game to be released at least in some coherent form unlike play deck little orbit does have many years of experience in game development even if their portfolio isn't necessarily all inspiring despite my doubts I do wish little orbit the best of luck I hope they prove my doubts wrong I hope that at the end of all this backers can at least get something substantial and satisfying with little orbit now coming into play if there was any time for little orbit to prove their worth as game developers it is now or never as the end result of unsung story under their direction could make or break the studio fingers crossed that they'll succeed I want these underdogs to rise to the occasion and turn this mess into something successful that would be one hell of a story huh anyway with that I would like to end this news update thank you for tuning in let us know in the comments below what your first impressions are of little orbit do you think they could make this game good or do you think that their portfolio speaks for itself also if you enjoy my content I hope you'll consider supporting me on patreon to help our community remain independent from third-party sponsorship and corporate interference and to be further updated on all things gaming news reviews and discussions stay tuned right here on young yeah I'll see you guys next time young out

Channel: YongYea

Views: 1,403,420

Rating: 4.8310509 out of 5

Keywords: worst kickstarter, mighty no 9, unsung story, unsung story gameplay, mighty no 9 review, mighty no 9 gameplay, unsung story review, kickstarter disaster

Id: qIvM3aVmYSU

Length: 28min 27sec (1707 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/SapphireSalamander]

so basically:

AND THIS....IS TO GO...EVEN...FURTHER...BEYOND....AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Kickstarter has been getting a lot of flack. Terrible projects make the news as "kicksterrter disaster" while succesful ones dont tend to be remembered as having begun in kickstarter. Ther's so many people that dont know shovel knight was a kickstarter for example.

Funding a project is a really hard thing to do. Projects collapse not because it's crowdfunded, but because they were missmanaged. and if they where officially funded they would probably be missmanaged to (or more likely they would never get the green light). This is both a reminder that Producers and companies are not just "yarr they limit the creator with executive-ness" but a nessesary cog in the industry; AND that crowdfunding does need people experienced in profesional project management.