Starward Rogue (Alpha) - ARCENGAMES

[undercovergeek]

They laid off all their staff today

[Jarhead0331]

They laid off all their staff today

Regardless of the fact that I do not like Arcen games and never felt any of the magic many of you speak about, this is very sad to read. Arcen's games seemed to have touched a lot of people, so hopefully they will land on their feet.  :-\

[spelk]

It seems to me the developer at Arcen has some of you guys brainwashed.

He had me at AI War. :)

I just admire his ideas/designs, even if he genre hops over to areas I don't usually play.

If its Arcen, I sort of know it will at least be interesting.

[FarAway Sooner]

That sucks.  Based on the linked post at the start of this thread, it sounds like they have the resources to get Stars Beyond Reach out.

What I admire about Arcen is their willingness to innovate.  AI Wars is the only title of their's that has really hit a home run with me.  I enjoyed Bionic Dues and was intrigued by aspects of The Last Federation when I played it.  But I LOVE the fact that they keep coming up with different ideas.  As spelk suggested, even if I didn't end up liking the games (their platformer was a swing and a miss), at least for the first hour or two I play it I feel like I'm playing something different.

Sameness is the rule in game development today.  I understand the commercial reasons why.  But as somebody who's been playing PC games ever since I got Temple of Apshai on my Commodore 64 in 1983, I'm not spending much money any more on games that do the same things the same way.  Too much of a "been there / done that" sense five minutes into the game.  I'm in the minority there, but it's one of the reasons why I like Arcen's development philosophy.

It helps that he's displayed some real integrity in the way he designs and releases games.

I eagerly await Stars Beyond Reach.  I wish Chris luck in his creative endeavors.  And I hope all his employees land on their feet.

[undercovergeek]

I think we're all coming to your gaming conclusion - been there/done that - there is only so many different games that can be made and arcen challenged that, sadly I never appreciated their games but don't wish failure on anyone - apparently there last release didn't sell anywhere near enough but fingers crossed they come out of the other side

[Huw the Poo]

Seems like they've been a bit indecisive on what they want to do lately.  I wonder if it's due to finances or just overly whimsical creative urges. 

Was rather surprised and disappointed to hear the 4X game was put on the back burner in favor of a twin-stick arcadey top-down shooter.  :-\  When I think Arcen, I think strategy games. 



Makes me think they must need income so bad that they decided to put out a quick and inexpensive Arcade game in the hopes that all the twitchy Platformer-players pick it up.

This is all addressed in the blog post Spelk linked to.

As much as I hate to say it, especially as I regard Chris Park as some sort of coding genius, the man apparently has no idea how to run a business.  As he says, this is the second time they've been in this situation and it's always down to his (mis)management.  To be fair though, he does take full responsibility and it's on his conscience now.  Maybe if they pull out of this he should look at hiring some kind of finance director or producer.

[Huw the Poo]

I enjoyed Bionic Dues and was intrigued by aspects of The Last Federation when I played it.

I think The Last Federation is an incredible achievement.  It's pretty systemic but it doesn't feel that way when you play; it always feels like everything that happens in a playthrough has been hand-designed.  That's quite remarkable really.  I really enjoy the game and come back to it often.  I think it has their best soundtrack too. :)

[FarAway Sooner]

Honestly, I just couldn't keep all the different alien races separate from each other.  There was no background text around who they were, clues were only dropped as I played the game, and the names of the alien races had too many damn syllables and consonants.  Ultimately, an inability to keep track of the distinct factions in my system was what drove me to gave up.

I still intend to go back to it at some point, as I know lots of people who love this game and I generally appreciate games like this.  Of course, I feel the same way about Crusader Kings II...

As for Arcen games being in dire financial straits for the second time as an indictment of Chris Parks' mismanagement, I think most indie software companies in the PC gaming business are surprisingly short-lived.  It only takes about 2 ambitious games (or 3 inexpensive ones) that don't have much commercial success before you're out of funds. 

Speaking as a guy who's done corporate finance for 15 years, my sense is that Chris suffers more from marketing challenges than from finance challenges.  I love his design philosophy, but I wonder if he's not too tied to what worked so well in AI Wars that he keeps just trying to recreate that?

I think a lot of Arcen's sales volume comes from a loyal fan-base.  They've always designed games that bent genres, that innovated, but that appealed to folks who really loved strategy titles.  A lot of their sales has probably been been tied to buzz from folks who love their games and talk it up on forums, tell their friends about it, etc.  And, let's be honest, nothing has generated nearly as much success as AI Wars and the DLC with that game.

A twin-stick arcade shooter (I don't even know what that means, I'll admit) might be an interesting gaming concept, but it's not anything that appeals to Arcen's established fan base.  So even folks who like Arcen are MUCH less likely to buy it.

If Starward Rogue turned out to be as brilliant a design as AI Wars, it probably could have stood on its own merits.  But I think releases like that happen only once or twice in a lifetime for most indie developers.

Chris convinced himself that if you design a good game, it will sell itself, and his business model has reflected that.  But the truth is, it takes a great game to sell itself today.  In that sense, he would have had better luck carving out a niche and sticking with products that had more predictable revenue streams.

[Nefaro]

Well... I read further into the article on Huw's suggestion.

However, unfortunately, Starward Rogue has seen financially the worst launch for us except for Tidalis and Shattered Haven.  Those two did worse (much worse), but we were not as large at that point.  The Tidalis flop is what precipitated the 2010 money woes that were public, though.  Shattered Haven was fortunately not really more than a disappointing blip in 2013, financially speaking (there are honestly people in our fanbase for whom that is their favorite Arcen title — I know the steam reviews are "mostly negative" and I get that most people don't like the game, but it wasn't something that nobody could enjoy).

This paragraph pretty much describes results I would expect.

He took a gamble on jamming out a quick arcade "twin-stick shooter", a genre in which a new title is released almost every other day on Steam, and hoped to get a decent payoff. 

Unfortunately for Arcen their most popular titles, and therefore their regular consumer base, have all been strategy games.

I'm sure there is some crossover but I've not noticed many people here, who've enjoyed at least one of their previous titles, get excited for a top down arcade style shooter.  Especially not compared to a 4X horse getting changed mid-stream.


...


I've known numerous business owners who didn't have the administrative & managerial skills or insight to run their own small business.  They were always people who worked in the business before, hands-on, but the difference between the heavy lifting and management was a notable problem. 

They would proceed to slowly run them into the ground until they paid someone else to manage it for them.  In some cases that Administrator/Manager would even scold the owner when he made a bad decision without consulting them.  Sounds odd, but it just shows that the owner in question knows the score too.  Then the owner was free to do the creative & technical work required, with any other employees, and just be consulted on the rest.  These types usually want to avoid all the paperwork & such anyway so it's generally a successful arrangement once a capable Admin has been found. 

Maybe Mr Park has come to the same realization (too late?) and will consider his first future staff hire as such.  This is also something Huw suggested ("Finance Manager").  I've just seen too many self-employed SBOs who were terrible at running the Admin side of their own business, and would rather be knee deep in the raw work anyway.  Sounds like this is the exact case, here.  Trade a staff programmer for a smart manager.

*shrug*