On December 16 2025 15:25 Bacillus wrote: Yeah. I guess it's beating a dead horse at this point mostly, but I don't think the LinkedIns have improved my outlook on Tim. At least the feeling I get it from them is that he seems to be more about rationalizing and recontextualizing the past decisions rather than drawing insight from them. I guess it can be a way to mentally process, but I don't think LinkedIn is the healthiest way to do that in the long run.
Isn't half of the point of Kickstarter to spread awareness anyway? Financing is part of the thing for some smaller projects, but for example for Storm Gate the 2 mil they got from there is roughly 5% of that overall budget at best. Surely it doesn't hurt, but the exposure you get is a much bigger deal.
I think at the time, Stormgate was one of the most successful KS campaigns ever with 2,4 million $. Hell yes that is exposure.
Just checked some KS projects and freaking Brandon Sanderson (Writer of fantasy novels) is owning Kickstarter so hard with multiple projects north of 15 million dollars, the highest beeing 42 million ...
On December 16 2025 15:25 Bacillus wrote: Yeah. I guess it's beating a dead horse at this point mostly, but I don't think the LinkedIns have improved my outlook on Tim. At least the feeling I get it from them is that he seems to be more about rationalizing and recontextualizing the past decisions rather than drawing insight from them. I guess it can be a way to mentally process, but I don't think LinkedIn is the healthiest way to do that in the long run.
Isn't half of the point of Kickstarter to spread awareness anyway? Financing is part of the thing for some smaller projects, but for example for Storm Gate the 2 mil they got from there is roughly 5% of that overall budget at best. Surely it doesn't hurt, but the exposure you get is a much bigger deal.
I think at the time, Stormgate was one of the most successful KS campaigns ever with 2,4 million $. Hell yes that is exposure.
Just checked some KS projects and freaking Brandon Sanderson (Writer of fantasy novels) is owning Kickstarter so hard with multiple projects north of 15 million dollars, the highest beeing 42 million ...
Star Citizen: Kickstarter Campaign (2012) Goal: $500,000 Amount Raised: $2,134,374 from over 34,000 backers Initial Success: Quickly surpassed its goal, funding expansion content. Total Crowdfunding (Ongoing) Current Total: Over $900 million as of late 2025. Funding Method: Primarily through direct sales of digital ships, upgrades, and other in-game items on the RSI website. Key Milestones: Reached $100 million in December 2015, $200 million in 2018, $400 million in 2021, and over $800 million by mid-2025.
Morten probably salivates over the poster of Roberts he has up on his wall.
On December 16 2025 15:25 Bacillus wrote: Yeah. I guess it's beating a dead horse at this point mostly, but I don't think the LinkedIns have improved my outlook on Tim. At least the feeling I get it from them is that he seems to be more about rationalizing and recontextualizing the past decisions rather than drawing insight from them. I guess it can be a way to mentally process, but I don't think LinkedIn is the healthiest way to do that in the long run.
Isn't half of the point of Kickstarter to spread awareness anyway? Financing is part of the thing for some smaller projects, but for example for Storm Gate the 2 mil they got from there is roughly 5% of that overall budget at best. Surely it doesn't hurt, but the exposure you get is a much bigger deal.
I think at the time, Stormgate was one of the most successful KS campaigns ever with 2,4 million $. Hell yes that is exposure.
Just checked some KS projects and freaking Brandon Sanderson (Writer of fantasy novels) is owning Kickstarter so hard with multiple projects north of 15 million dollars, the highest beeing 42 million ...
Star Citizen: Kickstarter Campaign (2012) Goal: $500,000 Amount Raised: $2,134,374 from over 34,000 backers Initial Success: Quickly surpassed its goal, funding expansion content. Total Crowdfunding (Ongoing) Current Total: Over $900 million as of late 2025. Funding Method: Primarily through direct sales of digital ships, upgrades, and other in-game items on the RSI website. Key Milestones: Reached $100 million in December 2015, $200 million in 2018, $400 million in 2021, and over $800 million by mid-2025.
Morten probably salivates over the poster of Roberts he has up on his wall.
10 years, almost $1B and no game. Living the dream.
On December 12 2025 07:16 ThunderJunk wrote: Meanwhile, the Beyond All Reason thread has like 4 pages, and it's an actually incredible game. (If you like competitive multiplayer. Campaign isn't there yet.)
I watched a bit of a stream the other day and couldn't tell what was going on at all. The game looks pretty cool and probably is pretty cool but I find it very hard to casually observe.
I think it's best to watch some casted games before diving into a first-person view on stream. Tbf though I think Starcraft does have a better "over the shoulder" viewing experience. I attribute that mainly to the fact that you can zoom in and out in BAR. It's a great QOL feature for the player, but for the observer who isn't controlling it - totally makes watching a lot less enjoyable.
In any case, I think it's ridiculous that we have 300 pages on a failed project that no one is playing when there's a seriously incredible game that most people haven't tried yet. So, I'm going to keep banging this drum until I'm driven off the site.
Well, I'm interested. Could you point me to a commentated beginner friendly vod I could watch?
I just picture Gobsmack sitting alone in an empty office after having forced the locked door open, having not been payed for months and coding away on anything he has repository access to (which isn't a lot)
On December 17 2025 21:35 Gorsameth wrote: I just picture Gobsmack sitting alone in an empty office after having forced the locked door open, having not been payed for months and coding away on anything he has repository access to (which isn't a lot)
Well at least he can put "$45m project lead software engineer" in his portfolio. Which is de-facto true, with nuances, sure, but true.
On December 17 2025 21:35 Gorsameth wrote: I just picture Gobsmack sitting alone in an empty office after having forced the locked door open, having not been payed for months and coding away on anything he has repository access to (which isn't a lot)
Well at least he can put "$45m project lead software engineer" in his portfolio. Which is de-facto true, with nuances, sure, but true.
With great power comes great responsibility!
Game dev is hard, so I feel for him. But maybe he shouldn't be putting all this responsibility on himself.
On December 18 2025 07:17 Manit0u wrote: What surprises me the most is that there's still like 4-5 people willing to try the game out to find it's not working and actually report the bug.
I also keep coming back to this thread as if it was a meme, fun to check out on.
On December 18 2025 07:17 Manit0u wrote: What surprises me the most is that there's still like 4-5 people willing to try the game out to find it's not working and actually report the bug.
I also keep coming back to this thread as if it was a meme, fun to check out on.
Same. Kinda interested what the words of Tim will be when he finally admits the project was a failure and is officially shut down (probably not gonna happen though).
Game dev is hard, so I feel for him. But maybe he shouldn't be putting all this responsibility on himself.
How does Tim M explain this to normal people? The company hasn't announced that it's closing (or anything else for that matter); doesn't he have to talk to investor or lenders? Does he say there's no money, no income, but he has a junior guy going hog wild on the code base for free? It's going to be 5 months if not longer in between this patch and the last Frost Giant communication (and the launch of the game!). Even if it's free, how do you spin this into something not laughably pointless?
Game dev is hard, so I feel for him. But maybe he shouldn't be putting all this responsibility on himself.
How does Tim M explain this to normal people? The company hasn't announced that it's closing (or anything else for that matter); doesn't he have to talk to investor or lenders? Does he say there's no money, no income, but he has a junior guy going hog wild on the code base for free? It's going to be 5 months if not longer in between this patch and the last Frost Giant communication (and the launch of the game!). Even if it's free, how do you spin this into something not laughably pointless?
On December 17 2025 21:35 Gorsameth wrote: I just picture Gobsmack sitting alone in an empty office after having forced the locked door open, having not been payed for months and coding away on anything he has repository access to (which isn't a lot)
Well at least he can put "$45m project lead software engineer" in his portfolio. Which is de-facto true, with nuances, sure, but true.
With great power comes great responsibility! Game dev is hard, so I feel for him. But maybe he shouldn't be putting all this responsibility on himself.
no its not. you sit in a climate controlled environment lounging about building fantasy worlds. if anything goes wrong nothing of consequence occurs. People will just spend their spare money and time on any one of 10,000 other activities.
I code for a living. relative to real world work... its easy.
you want hard? try to the life of an OR Nurse, a Lab Technologist working night shift in the inner city, a police officer in a big city, a power lineman. The average Canadian nurse is assaulted more than 10 times in his or her career. That's hard.
Try going to work in a place where every month people die. And the parade of sick people never stops. They just keep coming and coming. A place of work where if any one of 10 people screw up someone ends up brain dead or dies. That's hard.
anyone coding for a living has a dream life. I come from a medical family and most of my family rightfully assess that i have a bullshit job. They're correct. I've got cousins who, if they flinch during their job, the patient is never the same human being. I face none of that. I sit around flexing my math muscles all day. Hardly an act of nobility.
These stupid video game companies, including Frost Giant, try to make it seem like they're landing a man on the moon because it justifies the high prices of their products.
On December 17 2025 21:35 Gorsameth wrote: I just picture Gobsmack sitting alone in an empty office after having forced the locked door open, having not been payed for months and coding away on anything he has repository access to (which isn't a lot)
Well at least he can put "$45m project lead software engineer" in his portfolio. Which is de-facto true, with nuances, sure, but true.
With great power comes great responsibility! Game dev is hard, so I feel for him. But maybe he shouldn't be putting all this responsibility on himself.
no its not. you sit in a climate controlled environment lounging about building fantasy worlds. if anything goes wrong nothing of consequence occurs. People will just spend their spare money and time on any one of 10,000 other activities.
I code for a living. relative to real world work... its easy.
you want hard? try to the life of an OR Nurse, a Lab Technologist working night shift in the inner city, a police officer in a big city, a power lineman. The average Canadian nurse is assaulted more than 10 times in his or her career. That's hard.
Try going to work in a place where every month people die. And the parade of sick people never stops. They just keep coming and coming. A place of work where if any one of 10 people screw up someone ends up brain dead or dies. That's hard.
anyone coding for a living has a dream life. I come from a medical family and most of my family rightfully assess that i have a bullshit job. They're correct. I've got cousins who, if they flinch during their job, the patient is never the same human being. I face none of that. I sit around flexing my math muscles all day. Hardly an act of nobility.
These stupid video game companies, including Frost Giant, try to make it seem like they're landing a man on the moon because it justifies the high prices of their products.
Rightfully so landing on a moon......... a moon in a man's dream that is so out of reach, none of the customer ever thought it was an actual moon landing, instead we got the perfect "landing a moon" fake one on earth. hahaha, that's how Frost Giant's play book went it seems. :D
But yeah, I too coded for living..... it's really a bullshit job for sure.
Game dev is hard, so I feel for him. But maybe he shouldn't be putting all this responsibility on himself.
How does Tim M explain this to normal people? The company hasn't announced that it's closing (or anything else for that matter); doesn't he have to talk to investor or lenders? Does he say there's no money, no income, but he has a junior guy going hog wild on the code base for free? It's going to be 5 months if not longer in between this patch and the last Frost Giant communication (and the launch of the game!). Even if it's free, how do you spin this into something not laughably pointless?
This is what I find particularly fascinating about the whole saga. It's not that unusual for a startup to fail, and doubly not that unusual for a gaming startup to fail.
But it's super weird for a gaming startup to fail and then the CEO keeps going on pretending like it's still a real thing. He just needs more funding! Come on, just another $5 million, doesn't anyone have $5 million they can spare? Does anyone know anyone who knows anyone who has $5 million?
There are still 33 names listed on Frost Giant's LinkedIn page. Many of them have the "Open to Work" tag on their avatars. Those who don't are mostly former contractors, weirdo "influencers", and some folks who have literally never posted anything else on LinkedIn. But they are still there, still professing to work for a company that hasn't had any money to pay them for nearly five months.
I don't know how Tim is supposed to spin this for potential investors. He seems like a nice guy, so I bet that all the "encouraging conversations" were just people literally being encouraging. "Chin up, Tim! You can do it, Tim!" But they aren't going to give him $5 million. If they were real friends, they would sit him down and make him face the awkward truth.
On December 17 2025 21:35 Gorsameth wrote: I just picture Gobsmack sitting alone in an empty office after having forced the locked door open, having not been payed for months and coding away on anything he has repository access to (which isn't a lot)
Well at least he can put "$45m project lead software engineer" in his portfolio. Which is de-facto true, with nuances, sure, but true.
With great power comes great responsibility! Game dev is hard, so I feel for him. But maybe he shouldn't be putting all this responsibility on himself.
no its not. you sit in a climate controlled environment lounging about building fantasy worlds. if anything goes wrong nothing of consequence occurs. People will just spend their spare money and time on any one of 10,000 other activities.
I code for a living. relative to real world work... its easy.
you want hard? try to the life of an OR Nurse, a Lab Technologist working night shift in the inner city, a police officer in a big city, a power lineman. The average Canadian nurse is assaulted more than 10 times in his or her career. That's hard.
Try going to work in a place where every month people die. And the parade of sick people never stops. They just keep coming and coming. A place of work where if any one of 10 people screw up someone ends up brain dead or dies. That's hard.
anyone coding for a living has a dream life. I come from a medical family and most of my family rightfully assess that i have a bullshit job. They're correct. I've got cousins who, if they flinch during their job, the patient is never the same human being. I face none of that. I sit around flexing my math muscles all day. Hardly an act of nobility.
These stupid video game companies, including Frost Giant, try to make it seem like they're landing a man on the moon because it justifies the high prices of their products.
You're right, of course. It's a very cushy and easy job compared to lots of other jobs. I was trying to be nice to Gobsmack, I guess.
In terms of programming jobs, I would say that game dev is harder than writing boring business software. You don't have to ever worry about maintaining a high frame rate, for example. Lots of business software runs stupidly slowly.
You have to select a PTR server in order to play it, so it's more of a preview than a patch, but still, it's something!
"This update is the result of a collaboration between members of Frost Giant and a passionate community of Stormgate fans over the last few months." -- this makes it sounds like it was mostly Gobsmack coordinating the efforts of a few volunteer artists and testers from the community, so it's sort of a fan-made patch. That explains why Gobsmack said it was "much cooler than anything we've been able to do before" -- it's just fans doing whatever they want.
2v2 matchmaking is here – with a dedicated leaderboard. A total of 30 new community maps are added. A mix of 1v1 and 2v2 – all battle tested and include Stormgates. 4 new playable units have been added to fill out Celestial and Infernal factions: Dominari – An Infernal Tier 3 spellcaster. Incarnate – A massive Infernal Tier 3 melee fighter. Carnivex – A Celestial Tier 2 front-line tank with stealth. Navi – A Celestial Tier 3 spellcaster. The full data, trigger and map editor is unlocked. To access: open the editor, look to the top left and control+click the Yeti 10 times. That's really how you unlock it. Art and visual effects updates, including new weather/lighting presets and battle legibility improvements. A big change to sound effects concurrency, volume mixing and announcer line priority.
It's simultaneously more than I was expecting and also less than what I was expecting. The crazy "Gobsmack dream game mode" that I imagined he was working on isn't there. The "full map editor" is a big improvement though.
Will it move the needle on the number of people playing the game? Probably not that much. But I'm impressed that it came out.
EPT
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