EPThttps://store.steampowered.com/app/585240/Return_to_Zork/
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread - Page 312
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JimmyJRaynor
Canada17677 Posts
https://store.steampowered.com/app/585240/Return_to_Zork/ | ||
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Miragee
8677 Posts
On May 10 2026 03:50 ChillFlame wrote: https://www.twitch.tv/tastelesstv/clip/CogentCourageousJackalNotATK-_XxWjDZZqoCP8yCg My favourite one :D peak. | ||
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CicadaSC
United States1957 Posts
I like how I immediately knew what that clip was going to be before watching it. | ||
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Jeremy Reimer
Canada1183 Posts
On May 12 2026 12:25 CicadaSC wrote: I like how I immediately knew what that clip was going to be before watching it. Me too lol. Okay, one more (final?) Steam Chart, in loving memory of all the good times we had posting Steam Charts: ![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/Bp3od7R.png) | ||
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ChillFlame
309 Posts
On May 12 2026 13:21 Jeremy Reimer wrote: Okay, one more (final?) Steam Chart, in loving memory of all the good times we had posting Steam Charts: Cmon, don't slack. It's at least 2 more. P.S. I too acknowledge the irony. Multiplayer crowd always being the priority. From the start to the community patch (which added zero features for campaign or co-op. Yet, multiplayer shuts down and numbers remain the same :D This could almost be a Monthy Python sketch. | ||
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Gargonus
37 Posts
Can I be real: I think the community is dumb for simultaneously saying Tim isn't communicating with us and making fun of him for giving updates on LinkedIn. Just because you don't like the way he's communicating doesn't mean he's not communicating | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland27072 Posts
On May 14 2026 22:51 Gargonus wrote: According to Gobsmack on Discord, the community is dumb. I’ve a healthy amount of respect for Gobsmack’s attempts to salvage this shitshow but this is remarkably tone-deaf. Tim’s never been criticised especially for not communicating, but for obfuscating or talking bollocks when he does. Fully funded to release man, I mean my definition of what that means is basically different from everyone else alive, but I am communicating! | ||
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JimmyJRaynor
Canada17677 Posts
@10:30... Frost Giant is just head and shoulders above the older RTS games guys! ! ! "it feels like i'm playing a Blizzard RTS game"  | ||
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Jeremy Reimer
Canada1183 Posts
On May 15 2026 02:14 WombaT wrote: I’ve a healthy amount of respect for Gobsmack’s attempts to salvage this shitshow but this is remarkably tone-deaf. Tim’s never been criticised especially for not communicating, but for obfuscating or talking bollocks when he does. Fully funded to release man, I mean my definition of what that means is basically different from everyone else alive, but I am communicating! The other thing is that Tim's "communications" on LinkedIn weren't actually communications. They were delaying and stalling tactics. A week after the launch, Tim said "Stormgate had a smooth launch last week, and the critical reception has been positive. That said, Stormgate is not getting the concurrency or sales that I hoped for." Okay, um, what does that mean? That's when he first talked about finding a "partner", which was also confusing-- what does a "partner" mean exactly? A publisher? An investor? Someone to buy out the company? Who knows! Then Tim said nothing until one month later when he posted his famous line: "For the sake of players, and the team, I'm hoping to have a meaningful update in the weeks ahead. I'd ask for patience in the meantime -- we all want to resolve uncertainty, but that will take time." Weeks ahead. Of course no such "meaningful update" ever came. He started droning on and on about how hard the market was, and how super saturated things were, and started talking in generalities about fundraising difficulties, but none of that was communicating to anyone about what the state of Stormgate or Frost Giant actually was. All other developers were silent, except Gobsmack, who just kept posting dumb cooking GIFs in Discord. It was a stupid time, and it was a time of stupid communications by stupid people. The first meaningful update wasn't until December, when Gobsmack admitted that the "Community Update" was entirely done by volunteers. Then the next meaningful update was in March, announcing the server shutdown. And then Gobsmack admitted that he actually left the company and got a new job in November. And then the 2025 Financial Report came out. It was dumb of Tim Morten to just pretend that everything was sorta-fine, that all he needed was a "partner" and everything would just proceed normally, when he knew the reality of the situation. He could have been honest. He chose not to be. | ||
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JimmyJRaynor
Canada17677 Posts
On May 15 2026 04:07 Jeremy Reimer wrote: It was dumb of Tim Morten to just pretend that everything was sorta-fine, that all he needed was a "partner" and everything would just proceed normally, when he knew the reality of the situation. He could have been honest. He chose not to be. Morten's moves are very calculated. For legal reasons has to appear to be "this close" to nailing a deal. This way he won't have to refund any players' money even though the game lacks a substantial portion of the promised feature set. the same thing happened with George Costanza at the unemployment office. he was very very close to getting a job as a Latex Salesman at Vandelay Industries. Here is a 5 minute recap of the last year of Tim Morten's life. | ||
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Jeremy Reimer
Canada1183 Posts
On May 15 2026 05:23 JimmyJRaynor wrote: Morten's moves are very calculated. For legal reasons has to appear to be "this close" to nailing a deal. This way he won't have to refund any players' money even though the game lacks a substantial portion of the promised feature set. I don't think this is true. I don't think Tim Morten is legally obligated to issue refunds to Kickstarter backers. He delivered a "product". Yes, it sucked, and the company went under, but he did "ship" the game he said he would ship. And IGN even gave it a 8/10! Instead, I think Tim is stretching things out to ridiculous lengths because he simply isn't psychologically ready to admit that Frost Giant failed. For whatever reason, he can't do it. He finally was able to admit that Stormgate failed, but that took about six months after the game launched and utterly flopped. And it took a whole bunch of posting weak excuses on LinkedIn to do it. But the fiction of "finding a partner" allows him to stretch out the Triumphant Return Of Frost Giant forever, or at least until Silicon Valley Bank finally tells him that the party is over. Maybe they're holding out hope as well that some "partner" comes along who really wants to pay them back their $2 million, since Frost Giant certainly can't. | ||
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Gorsameth
Netherlands22440 Posts
On May 15 2026 08:41 Jeremy Reimer wrote: the half a mil of his own money he sunk i to it probably has something to do with his reluctance to give in.I don't think this is true. I don't think Tim Morten is legally obligated to issue refunds to Kickstarter backers. He delivered a "product". Yes, it sucked, and the company went under, but he did "ship" the game he said he would ship. And IGN even gave it a 8/10! Instead, I think Tim is stretching things out to ridiculous lengths because he simply isn't psychologically ready to admit that Frost Giant failed. For whatever reason, he can't do it. He finally was able to admit that Stormgate failed, but that took about six months after the game launched and utterly flopped. But the fiction of "finding a partner" allows him to stretch out the Triumphant Return Of Frost Giant forever, or at least until Silicon Valley Bank finally tells him that the party is over. Maybe they're holding out hope as well that some "partner" comes along who really wants to pay them back their $2 million, since Frost Giant certainly can't. | ||
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townhouse
United States40 Posts
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Jeremy Reimer
Canada1183 Posts
On May 15 2026 08:47 Gorsameth wrote: the half a mil of his own money he sunk i to it probably has something to do with his reluctance to give in. Oh, undoubtedly. But the question is: was the $500,000 loan something Tim did because he couldn't give in, or is he reluctant to give in because he is owed that money? Or is it a bit of both? We know the loan was given some time in 2025, because it wasn't in Frost Giant's 2024 financial report. I'm thinking it was probably some time before launch, like maybe a month before, just to keep the lights on, to give the company another couple of months of runway. The weird "negative $7200" line item for salaries in December 2025 makes me wonder if the loan was being used directly to pay salaries in prior months, and then enough people found new jobs and left the company that Tim ended overpaying, or redirecting the remaining bit from the loan towards the company directly. It's not clear. I've never seen a negative salary line item in a report like that. EDIT: I did a bit of Googling, and found some accountants very distressed about having negative salary items, because you're never supposed to have that, ever, and you certainly have to reconcile it before the end of the quarter. But I guess Frost Giant no longer has an accountant, so it's just Tim doing his best... On May 15 2026 09:19 townhouse wrote: not to mention that half a mil is a loan, so there's a chance he gets it back if he somehow raises $5M. i'd be pleading on LinkedIn too Sure, but... there is literally no investor on Earth who will give Tim Morten $5 million, just so he can give $2 million of it directly to a bank, and $0.5 million of it back to himself. That's literally half of the investment, a 50% loss, on day one, with nothing to show for it. (EDIT: I tallied up all of Frost Giant's outstanding debts and the total is actually $2,847,198, or 57% of the $5 million Tim is asking for) That's... not how it works. That's not how any of this works. | ||
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JimmyJRaynor
Canada17677 Posts
On May 15 2026 08:41 Jeremy Reimer wrote: I don't think this is true. I don't think Tim Morten is legally obligated to issue refunds to Kickstarter backers. He delivered a "product". Yes, it sucked, and the company went under, but he did "ship" the game he said he would ship. And IGN even gave it a 8/10! i think Steam will get pissed off at him for only half fhe product working as promised. Steam doesn't like outright frauds on their store. It harms the Steam brand. I think Steam is the big obstacle here not the kickstarter donors. It is also an image thing for Tim ... he has to "die with his boots on". He can't look like he "took the money and ran". Poor little timmy. poor tim. poor, sad, sweet tim. | ||
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Jeremy Reimer
Canada1183 Posts
On May 15 2026 10:38 JimmyJRaynor wrote: i think Steam will get pissed off at him for only half fhe product working as promised. Steam doesn't like outright frauds on their store. It harms the Steam brand. I think Steam is the big obstacle here not the kickstarter donors. It is also an image thing for Tim ... he has to "die with his boots on". He can't look like he "took the money and ran". Poor little timmy. poor tim. poor, sad, sweet tim. I don't think Steam cares that much about policing products that become half-working, but maybe they do? It would explain the push to get peer-to-peer custom online games working come hell or high water. But in any case, the easier option is simply to delist the game from Steam. That way nobody has to do anything at all! But I suppose Tim's pride prevents that from happening. They did at least finally remove the pre-launch "Roadmap" graphic from the Steam page (and they took away the !roadmap command on the Discord as well). It took a whole bunch of people complaining before they made that simple change. | ||
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ChillFlame
309 Posts
On May 15 2026 11:18 Jeremy Reimer wrote: They did at least finally remove the pre-launch "Roadmap" graphic from the Steam page (and they took away the !roadmap command on the Discord as well). It took a whole bunch of people complaining before they made that simple change. https://imgur.com/a/qcIfkgk Well, they still have a lot of stuff to remove. | ||
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Jeremy Reimer
Canada1183 Posts
On May 15 2026 14:08 ChillFlame wrote: https://imgur.com/a/qcIfkgk Well, they still have a lot of stuff to remove. "Join our development journey today!" Thanks, I won't. | ||
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JimmyJRaynor
Canada17677 Posts
On May 15 2026 11:18 Jeremy Reimer wrote: I don't think Steam cares that much about policing products that become half-working, Steam does not want to get in trouble with consumer regulatory bodies over a a coupla 2-bit, pissant, pea-headed guys named Tim. Stop Killing Games is gaining momentum and they could easily slam a Frost Giant logo on one of their slide presentations. All it takes is a couple of loud angry people and Stormgate ends up on the Stop Killing Games list. They pissed off a lot of people with their Kickstarter campaign. If the angry people are loud enough no one will listen to Tim's cock and bull stories about how parts of the game do ... actually ... work. | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland27072 Posts
On May 15 2026 23:44 JimmyJRaynor wrote: Steam does not want to get in trouble with consumer regulatory bodies over a a coupla 2-bit, pissant, pea-headed guys named Tim. Stop Killing Games is gaining momentum and they could easily slam a Frost Giant logo on one of their slide presentations. All it takes is a couple of loud angry people and Stormgate ends up on the Stop Killing Games list. They pissed off a lot of people with their Kickstarter campaign. If the angry people are loud enough no one will listen to Tim's cock and bull stories about how parts of the game do ... actually ... work. If Steam as a platform has a flaw, it’s that its sheer size means it’s not exactly great at clamping down on slop, questionable attitudes to copyright or controversial Kickstarters Doubt it’s going to be much of a headache for Tim et al | ||
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