The heart-warming tale of the Kickstarted Haunts: The Manse Macabre
Rick Dakan finds himself in a very uncomfortable position right now as the project that he was working on through the help of crowd-funding seems to be heading nowhere at the moment.
Haunts: The Manse Macabre is a game that is based on ideas and concepts that were deemed as appealing and viable by the public, thus causing them to donate generously towards the development of the project.
Dakan surrounded himself with a team of talented programmers and game designer to start working on the project.
Things got off to a smooth start, with the progress taking place at a good pace, allowing the team to get done with the base of the game in good time.
However, good times were not meant to last and things began to fall apart as two of the programmers Jonathan and Josh left the project.
Jonathan had already informed Dakan that he would not be able to stay onboard for long as he was going to be joining Google. However, the latter had considered the risk of selecting him for the project with the hope that most of the work on the game would
be completed before the time for the programmer to make the move came.
As it turned out, Dakan’s estimate of the rate of progress of Haunts: The Manse Macabre’s development had been flawed and thus he lost one of the programmers.
Another programmer, Josh, also quit the team after getting an opportunity to work elsewhere.
While Jonathan had offered to work on Haunts: The Manse Macabre in his spare time, Josh made no such commitment and thus Dakan found himself without programmers.
While the basic elements of the game were in place, there were still plenty of bugs that needed to be taken care of. The online play was also far from becoming workable.
Dakan admitted that he did not possess enough programming skills to take care of the existing issues in the patch Haunts: The Manse Macabre and while he had Austin, another team member, working on the art design, there was very little that they could do
from there.
However, one thing that the developer and mind behind the Kickstarted project could and did begin to do was contact other studios for their help and support.
"We are not giving up!" writes Dakan. "I am currently in talks with another game company owned by some old friends and coworkers of mine, Blue Mammoth Games. They have expressed an interest in taking on Haunts. Austin and I would continue on in our roles,
although we would both be doing so in our spare time. These new potential partners won't be able to make the decision for a few weeks at least, and then after that it would be months before anything came out. Still, I think it's our best shot at this point."
Dakan offered to refund the money to the backers if they wanted it back, but there was hardly a single demand for refund as the backers, impressed by the honesty and determination of the developer, assured him of their continuous support.
The comments following the post by Dakan on the game’s official development page was a proof of the bond that had been formed between them and the developer.
After sensing the desperation and determination of Dakan to ensure that Haunts: The Manse Macabre does see the light of day and the way the people who contributed to the funds for the project are supportive even in such a dire situation, one feels compelled
to pray that the project does reach its completion.
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