Ant Simulator: Die Welt als Ameise erkunden

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Ameisen in Videospielen gab es schon öfter. Maxis' SimAnt und CinemaWares It came from the Desert zählen wohl zu den bekanntesten Vertretern. Aber auch Tiefschläge wie Konamis Ant Nation blieben haften. Mit dem aus einem 48-stündigen Game Jam (Ludum Dare) hervorgegangenen Ant Simulator wollen bald auch die Entwickler von ETeeski spielerische Einblicke in das Leben der emsigen Insekten gewähren - s...

Hier geht es zur News Ant Simulator: Die Welt als Ameise erkunden

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Die Arbeiten an Ant Simulator wurden abgebrochen, Entwickler Eric Tereshinski hat dazu folgendes Video veröffentlicht:

Ant Simulator is canceled. Eric Tereshinski resigns from ETeeski LLC.

Offizielle Webseite von ETeeski
(archive von heute, archive von September 2015)


Zusammenfassung:

• Seine Geschäftspartner hätten ihn hintergangen und insgeheim den Großteil der Einnahmen aus der Kickstarterkampagne wie auch seiner persönlichen Investitionssumme für Alkohol, Bar- und Restaurantbesuche sowie Stripper/innen auf den Kopf gehauen.

• Er, Eric Tereshinski, ziehe sich darum aus ETeeski LLC zurück.

• Er könne das Spiel jedoch nicht ohne seine Geschäftspartner veröffentlichen, sonst würde er nach eigener Aussage rechtlich belangt; deshalb breche er, der bislang der einzige Programmierer im Team gewesen sei, die Arbeiten an dem Projekt wie auch die Beziehung zu seinen Geschäftspartnern ab.

• [siehe Kommentarspalte] Von einem Prozess gegen seine ehemaligen Geschäftspartner werde er absehen, da diese zu gut abgesichert und die Erfolgsausssichten damit zu niedrig seien.

• [siehe Kommentarspalte] Die Vorbestellungen, die nicht Teil der Kickstarterkampagne waren, wolle er aus Eigenkapital zurückerstatten.


Angefügt sei, dass das alles nur auf Tereshinskis persönliche Schilderung der Geschehnisse zurückgeht, und Monce, Staley wie auch Peterson sich bislang nicht öffentlich zu diesen Vorwürfen äußerten. Das ganze ist jedenfalls mit Vorsicht zu betrachten.


Edit #1:

ETeeski seeks to serve as a leader in providing knowledge and enjoyment of video games to consumers through rigorous adherence to our core values of transparency, trust, and creativity.

-,-


Edit #2: Erwähennswerter Kommentar eines Gafers zur Kickstarterkampagne:

Four things:

1) this project only asked for $4k. That's a red flag. $4k going to three people is about their living expenses for a month if they're frugal. Projects cannot get done in a month. This, by definition, even without scamming business partners, people were paying knowing that the completion of the project absolutely required the guy to have a day job and other priorities. That's a zero accountability situation.

2) the risks section doesn't mention this possibility. Why not? Is the answer because "no one thinks their partners will screw them over"? That's exactly why the risks section exists. Not for you to write a token one paragraph "there are risks but I believe in the heart of my destiny and I will give everything to make this work". In fact, the opposite is true--the guy brags about his business partners. Savvy backers would note that the business partners consist of college buddies who got business degrees, not people with any actual experience.

3) the actual project goal was pretty unclear. It was for a series of video game tutorials. But the project links a series of video game tutorials by the same author. But these will be higher quality? And it will also include a 3D plat former... But what happened? Did they make a decision to switch the 3D platform we for the ant game, an extension of a game jam game? Does this not strike people as a huge red flag?

4) finished game due at end of summer 2014. Project was funded end of May 2014. So, generously, a four month project just got cancelled about 20 months later?

All in all a brief read suggests to me this was a fatally flawed KS outside of anything related to the business partner stuff and the terrible contract decisions.

Edit #3: Monce und Staley haben sich nun auf GameInformer dazu geäußert:

When I spoke with Monce and Staley, the two opened up about their work at ETeeski, the allegations, and their side of the convoluted story. “We created the company with Eric,” Monce says. “We didn’t sign on. Because of our size, we had to be jacks of all trades. We handled a big number of things.”

During the 20 months the pair were part of the company, Monce and Staley say they invested a combined $5,000. They told me that was more than Tereshinski put into the firm. The company also had one other significantly smaller investment from one of Tereshinski’s friends.

The duo flatly deny their former partner’s claims. “It’s completely false,” Monce says. “I don’t know why he’s painting that picture, but the reality is that anything that was spent in a bar or restaurant was very reasonable in nature when you look at any business, including video game companies. It was part of our operating budget, it’s not anything that was excessive. It was all reported to the IRS. The picture he’s painting about that is 100 percent bull****.”

Monce, who served as ETeeski’s director of finance, says that the books were open. According to him there was no opportunity for clandestine embezzlement, because Tereshinski had access to all the financial data.

According to the pair, things were going well until November 2015. Shortly after Thanksgiving, Tereshinski made the decision to cut ties with the rest of the company. In doing so, he allegedly made the unilateral decision to close the firm’s business accounts.

“He took control of everything,” Monce continued. “He took control of not only all the company’s physical property, our bank accounts, our social media accounts, our website (which he changed to just our faces for some unknown reason), that was all him. This all started to take place right after the game started to get really popular late in the summer. My personal theory is that he wanted to take it all for himself and cut us out of it. We made it clear that we weren’t going to let him do that, because we had a moral and legal right not to."

According to Monce and Staley, Tereshinski moved the company’s funds to a personal account. That money was being used to support the development of the game, which the pair tell me included nine or ten independent contractors.