Peliala on kova paikka, eikä kaikki aina mene niin kuin on suunniteltu. Tämän rankan opin joutui kokemaan indie-pelikehittäjä Tale of Tales, jonka uusi Sunset-pelin julkaisu floppasi yhtiön odotuksiin nähden.
Sunset on epätavallinen ja hidastempoinen seikkailupeli, joka keskittyy hienovaraiseen juonenkuljetukseen ja pelaajavalintoihin. Se ilmestyi Steamissä toukokuun lopussa ja onnistui myymään kesäalennustenkin jälkeen vain noin 4000 kappaletta.
Myyntiluvut eivät riittäneet pitämään studiota pystyssä, ja sen johtohahmot Auriea Harvey ja Michaël Samyn ilmoittivat blogissa Tale of Talesin lopettavan pelien kehittämisen. Se on harmi, sillä Sunset on kieltämättä omalaatuinen tapaus, jollaisia alalla kaivataan.
Gamereactorin seikkailupelien asiantuntijan Mika Sorvarin arvion pelistä voi lukea täältä. Pelasitko itse Sunsetin? Kerro kommenteissa mitä mieltä oli Tale of Talesin ensimmäisestä ja viimeisestä julkaisusta.
In the end, we spent more money than we had on the production of Sunset. Because we wanted to make it really good and reach a wider audience. Compared to the ambitions we had for the game, the extra $40,000 seemed like a relatively small sum. "Surely we can make that amount back in the first month of sales!"
We were wrong.
So far a little over 4,000 copies of Sunset have changed hands. That includes the copies for our backers on Kickstarter. That includes the sale. There's barely enough income to keep our company going while we look for ways to raise the funds to pay back our debts.
It's hard to deal with this intense feeling of disappointment in a context of glowing reviews and compliments and encouragement from players. A small group of people clearly deeply appreciates what we do and we curse the economic system that doesn't allow us to be pleased with that.
-- So now we are free. We don't have to take advice from anybody anymore. We were wrong. Everybody whom we consulted with on Sunset was wrong.
We are happy and proud that we have tried to make a "game for gamers." We really did our best with Sunset, our very best. And we failed. So that's one thing we never need to do again. Creativity still burns wildly in our hearts but we don't think we will be making videogames after this. And if we do, definitely not commercial ones.
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