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Pixelmage Cancels Game, Full Refunds Offered - Hero's Song - MMORPG.com

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
edited December 2016 in News & Features Discussion

imagePixelmage Cancels Game, Full Refunds Offered - Hero's Song - MMORPG.com

Hero's Song News - Pixelmage Games, home of John Smedley, has announced that its flagship title, Hero's Song, has been canceled. Hero's Song has been cancelled due to the inability to raise sufficient funds to continue development. All backers and pre-purchasers on IndieGoGo and Steam will receive a 100% refund.

Read the full story here



¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 


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Comments

  • Slapshot1188Slapshot1188 Member LegendaryPosts: 17,651
    the signs were pointing this way for the past few weeks. If they make good on their refund pledge then all is well. If they don;t then Smed will likely never be able to show his face again.

    All time classic  MY NEW FAVORITE POST!  (Keep laying those bricks)

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  • ianicusianicus Member UncommonPosts: 665
    refunds or not Smed should pack it in permanently
    "Well let me just quote the late-great Colonel Sanders, who said…’I’m too drunk to taste this chicken." - Ricky Bobby
  • Kunai_VaxKunai_Vax Member RarePosts: 527
    Saw this coming for a while now.
    Cant say im a fan of smed but i feel a little bad for the guy.
    I dont think this industry was ever a good fit for him. 

  • epoqepoq Member UncommonPosts: 394
    Yeah Smed needs to hang up his hat, nothing that he's involved with goes right.
  • ShaighShaigh Member EpicPosts: 2,150
    A good call on their behalf. Hope their next game will be better.
    Iselin: And the next person who says "but it's a business, they need to make money" can just go fuck yourself.
  • Kunai_VaxKunai_Vax Member RarePosts: 527
    Shaigh said:
    A good call on their behalf. Hope their next game will be better.
    Their next game? ....cute ;)

  • AlbatroesAlbatroes Member LegendaryPosts: 7,671
    Without failure, one cannot truly appreciate success.
  • bartoni33bartoni33 Member RarePosts: 2,044

    Albatroes said:

    Without failure, one cannot truly appreciate success.



    Without talent, one cannot truly achieve success.

    Bartoni's Law definition: As an Internet discussion grows volatile, the probability of a comparison involving Donald Trump approaches 1.


  • FacelessSaviorFacelessSavior Member UncommonPosts: 188
    Of course. The game with the mechanics I was looking forward to most. Starting to look like emergent AI and living, virtual worlds require more tech and coding than the industry is currently capable of.
  • SlyLoKSlyLoK Member RarePosts: 2,698
    That stinks. The game looked promising. Though they probably jumped in to deep right away with all the mechanics they wanted on world creation. May have served better to get the basic gameplay mechanics going and then add all the other stuff later on. 
  • DarkVagabondDarkVagabond Member UncommonPosts: 340
    maybe after multiple failed funding attempts they should have realized that the people didn't want what he was selling.
  • postlarvalpostlarval Member EpicPosts: 2,003
    Maybe 2017 won't be so bad. A portent of the coming year: The Exodus of Washed Up Game Developers.

    Who should be next? Richard Garriott or Chris Roberts? Bonus if we can get rid of them both.
    ______________________________________________________________________
    ~~ postlarval ~~
  • thunderclesthundercles Member UncommonPosts: 510
    edited December 2016
    savage. Seems like the whole company is calling it quits. "Pixelmage Games is going to be shutting down..."
  • BizkitNLBizkitNL Member RarePosts: 2,546
    This makes me sad. It had something.....special.
    10
  • lahnmirlahnmir Member LegendaryPosts: 5,053
    Wow, and I actually like Hero's Song...

    Unlike some here I feel no pleasure in a company or person going down, there aren't any winners in this scenario, only very sore losers that think they have won something.

    I am sorry for the people working on it, sorry for the people looking forward to the finished product, I know I was one of the latter. 

    /Cheers,
    Lahnmir
    'the only way he could nail it any better is if he used a cross.'

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    'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless. 

    It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.

    It is just huge resource waste....'

    Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer

  • lahnmirlahnmir Member LegendaryPosts: 5,053
    Torval said:
    SlyLoK said:
    That stinks. The game looked promising. Though they probably jumped in to deep right away with all the mechanics they wanted on world creation. May have served better to get the basic gameplay mechanics going and then add all the other stuff later on. 
    This really sucks. I've wanted to play a game with an underworld and a different approach to death penalties. The only other mmo I've seen do something like this is PlaneShift and that is an ancient community driven project and extremely niche.

    On top of that the concepts behind lore, world creation, and history was very cool.

    It's so disappointing, not because some effort failed, but because the potential lost and the likelihood of anything even remotely fresh with regards to these concepts looks to be dismal.

    Stagnation Express - next stop....
    I could not agree more....

    /Cheers,
    Lahnmir
    'the only way he could nail it any better is if he used a cross.'

    Kyleran on yours sincerely 


    'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'

    Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...



    'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless. 

    It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.

    It is just huge resource waste....'

    Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer

  • AethaerynAethaeryn Member RarePosts: 3,150
    I was watching this one with some hope.  waiting to see if they could pull it off.  It seemed pretty complex but something I would play for a ridiculous number of hours.  Bah. . oh well.

    Wa min God! Se æx on min heafod is!

  • BloodaxesBloodaxes Member EpicPosts: 4,662
    Wow, that is unexpected.

    Such a shame, I liked the premise...

  • syriinxsyriinx Member UncommonPosts: 1,383
    The backlash against crowdfunding (via kickstarter or early access) is happening and its going to make using crowdfunding as a main tool for MMORPGs very difficult. While gaming is generally a good fit for crowd funding, MMORPGs are not.

    Obviously part of this was the Smedley factor, but not all.
  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 32,936
    edited December 2016
    It's a shame and I hate that people have to give up/alter their dreams-work-ambitions however I can't help think that developers just don't think things through.

    It's as if they believe that if they start it that "somehow" things will work out. 

    No real business plan other than "we'll constantly ask for money and maybe we'll get enough".

    Maybe that's all game development can muster but I wonder if there is another way.
    Post edited by Sovrath on
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  • observerobserver Member RarePosts: 3,685
    What was he thinking? Seriously. Was there some kind of trend that demanded retro isometric games? They're pretty popular on mobile, but that market is fiercely competitive.
  • barasawabarasawa Member UncommonPosts: 618

    DarkVagabond said:

    maybe after multiple failed funding attempts they should have realized that the people didn't want what he was selling.



    I think with a few changes and a distinct lack of Smedley, a whole LOT more people would be interested enough to put up money.

    Lost my mind, now trying to lose yours...

  • RelampagoRelampago Member UncommonPosts: 451
    =(
  • DullahanDullahan Member EpicPosts: 4,536
    Sad to hear this, despite my love hate relationship with the Smedster. It pains me to see any indie game fail.

    I really think skepticism surrounding Smed ultimately brought it down. He is the guy that championed micro-transactions and casual design in MMOs so many years ago.

    Despite some good ideas, this game smacked of an easy way to make money selling nerds retro fantasy. Don't get me wrong, I still wanted to play it, but not enough to back it's development.


  • syriinxsyriinx Member UncommonPosts: 1,383
    observer said:
    What was he thinking? Seriously. Was there some kind of trend that demanded retro isometric games? They're pretty popular on mobile, but that market is fiercely competitive.
    I think its more about making a robust game on a small budget.

    One of the keys to EQs long term success was being able to pump out enormous chunks of content.  EQ's first few expansions were larger than most MMORPG release game worlds.  This was because it took far less programming hours to create them.

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