Vapourware The Mandate - LOL DEAD

[Blaine]

Oh darn, I guess the publisher saw the gameplay video.

RIP

 

[Darkzone]

Overambitious in some departments and they should have gone for TB spaceship combat.

 

[Explorerbc]

Sometimes it is better to let go ...

For some reason I always imagine being a coder on these projects, going to work everyday without any motivation knowing my work is pointless and will probably never be used, watching everything around me collapse during those years and have the initial excitement slowly be replaced by the realisation of the imminent cancelation...

 

[Lhynn]

What is the next feature to be put on "hold" on the next update?

Im guessing that "on hold" is the feature to be announced in the next update.

 

[Severian Silk]

It's too bad. There are not enough sci-fi RPGs.

 

[thesheeep]

Nonsense. ME:A just came out!

Spoiler

 

[Severian Silk]

ME is a TSG: "Turd Simulation Game". You get to play the role of a turd traveling across the Galaxy!

 

[thesheeep]

To be honest, though, it seems to be better than its current reputation. If you can look past the facial animations and the lame beginning. And the interface. And the occasional shitty writing (but with that amount of writing, it is bound to be hit and miss - not all games can be Witcher 3). And the AI that is utterly useless on anything harder than normal difficulty. And...
Well, maybe wait for a couple patches.
A sure buy on sale!

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

One or two from months from being canceled. Highly doubt it will get released.

https://www.gamewatcher.com/news/20...ace-strategy-rpg-the-mandate-seems-to-be-dead

Crowdfunded space strategy-RPG The Mandate seems to be dead



Just yesterday we broke the news that developer Playdek was quitting their troubled Kickstarter RPG Unsung Story. Today we have another Kickstarter RPG, that frankly we were personally more excited about than Unsung Story, but this one seems to be completely dead. We're talking about highly ambitious space strategy-RPG The Mandate, which raised $701,010 from 16,408 backers in 2013.

It is now August 2017, with the game two years out from developer Perihelion Interactive's estimated release date, and there have both been no updates from the developer since April. Furthermore Perihelion's own website is offline, and the developer itself may have been dissolved.

The April update was to admit that this year Perihelion was reduced to only "a core team" due to continual negotiations with their publisher EuroVideo about funding. "We have been working on securing more fundings since the end of 2016. It is still a work in progress and we will follow up with you in upcoming developer's updates when we have managed to close a deal," they said. No update has been given. They claimed they would have an update every month on the forum, but this hasn't happened.

Recently backer 'Count Thalim' on the forum dug up legal documents suggesting that Perihelion Interactive has been dissolved, with The Mandate trademark not renewed since April. The final piece, The Mandate website and forum (which is still active with backers commiserating the game's demise), is due to expire on August 19 so it will be quietly taken offline then.



The reason that the death of The Mandate stings is that it's initial Kickstarter pitch was fantastic. The 'Game at a Glance' page gives a good idea, but in short it was a futuristic space RPG with internal ship battles like XCOM and external ship battles like Star Trek Online, with a story inspired by Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek where you could get to know your crew before taking them into battle and exploring a open universe. They'd even cast veteran actor David Bradley (Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, the next Doctor Who Xmas special). It seemed too good to be true, and apparently it was.

The failure of The Mandate is part of a troubling run of crowdfunded videogames that were mismanaged, fell away from their initial pitch, or simply spent all their funding without knowing what to do with it. Games like Unsung Story, Yogventures, Project Godus and more. While there are still many Kickstarter games that seem to be going well, like Divinity: Original Sin II, A Hat in Time or Kingdom Come: Deliverance, the fundamental rule to remember is to treat a Kickstarter pledge as a donation, not a guarantee.

We've reached out to Perihelion for a comment and will update this post if we get a reply.

 

[HoboForEternity]

At least we git csg and stellar tactics

 

[Irenaeus]

How To Squander 7 Hundred Grand

 

[fantadomat]

How To Squander 7 Hundred Grand

The best way is with a lot of teen sluts and a few kilos of coke!

 

[FritzedProcess]

Backing an ambitious game when the developer hasn't even got a fucking alpha version as a proof of concept: never again.

Looks like we're not even getting that shitty Battlefleet Gothic knockoff they had made, guys.

 

[Keldryn]

I thought it sounded far too ambitious for the timeframe they had planned and the amount of money they were raising, so this hardly comes as a surprise.

This is why I'll generally only pledge the $20-25 for a digital copy of any of these crowdfunded games. It's a small risk that I'm willing to take. (I pledged that amount for The Mandate; this is the first KS I've backed that folded)

 

[fantadomat]

I thought it sounded far too ambitious for the timeframe they had planned and the amount of money they were raising, so this hardly comes as a surprise.

This is why I'll generally only pledge the $20-25 for a digital copy of any of these crowdfunded games. It's a small risk that I'm willing to take. (I pledged that amount for The Mandate; this is the first KS I've backed that folded)

Such a small amount of money could be realistic only if it is coming from eastern Europa!

 

[anus_pounder]

But then I realized I still have my pre-orders for Shadow of War, Far Cry 5, Vampyr and XCOM2: War of the Chosen.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

I guess the one guy who did his job was the concept artist... so EA hired him

https://www.artstation.com/artist/garret_aj

At least backers can still check out the portfolio they funded

 

[Irenaeus]

I guess the one guy who did his job was the concept artist... so EA hired him

https://www.artstation.com/artist/garret_aj

At least backers can still check out the portfolio they funded

Nice to know it didn't all go to waste

 

[JarlFrank]

Fuck, I was really looking forward to this one

 

[Fry]

I thought it sounded far too ambitious for the timeframe they had planned and the amount of money they were raising, so this hardly comes as a surprise.

This is why I'll generally only pledge the $20-25 for a digital copy of any of these crowdfunded games. It's a small risk that I'm willing to take. (I pledged that amount for The Mandate; this is the first KS I've backed that folded)

I've stopped supporting crowdfunded games except for devs that have proven they can deliver a good product. It's just not worth the bullshit.

I guess I'm fairly lucky in that this is only the second of the 20ish games I backed that's failed completely.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Looking back, I did at least get some entertainment out of that small pledge though - when Bubbles asked them my obvious question. Could have been worse, like TTON.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=10082

Bubbles: Your game is really extremely ambitious. Many people feared you were going to cut down on some features -- instead, you've been announcing new ones. Do you think you have a handle on feature creep? Should we be worried that this game may end up running out of money?

The devs smiled and said that they had this well under control and were well funded. As they were speaking, I noticed a sudden movement from my right: my Eurogamer colleague had stopped packing and was now leaning forward in his seat, staring straight at the developers with a strange, hungry look in his eyes. He interrupted their answer: "You know, I'm not impressed by what I've seen here today. I've seen failure many times, and this looks like failure to me." Mr. Eurogamer went on to explain that he considered the scope of the gameplay to be vastly unrealistic; a game like this had "never been achieved before", and the devs had not convinced him that they could achieve it. The Mandate was "at least three games in one." (By the way: one of the presentation slides had also mentioned planetary exploration and away missions, although the devs had not been eager to talk about those aspects of the gameplay.)

Our interview partners did not seem prepared for this change in atmosphere; they were dead silent for a while, just listening to my colleague tearing them to shreds. If the Codex had made a remark like this, they could have just shrugged it off, but this was Eurogamer – they could not ignore him. They tried multiple angles to defuse the situation: first, they mentioned that they were currently working with "8 or 10 development tools" and were committed to getting them all "working perfectly for the community" at launch to enable easy modding and further content creation. However, this unfortunately required more development time. That little factoid didn't really address any of Eurogamer's concerns, so instead they tried to argue from a position of experience: "We haven't discussed this openly, but many of the people on the staff are veterans from other games [this means MMOs, mostly]. One of our guys has worked on the Assassin's Creed games." Again, I fail to see how that was meant to reassure us in any way; as far as I'm aware, none of the Assassins Creed games were funded through Kickstarter, and none of them promised full moddability, simultaneous fleet and boarding combat, or a revolutionary RTS AI. Then they took their final stab by explaining how the game would be financially viable despite its large scope: "we have a publisher" [EuroVideo, who according to a Kickstarter update also allows the developers "full creative control. Full stop."], which meant a lot more funding. The Mandate was really a long-term investment: "we're also laying the groundwork for future RPGs with this release." This was a slightly more convincing, although it didn't address the problem of the massive delays in the game's development schedule. The fact that a game of this scope was originally announced as going into beta in January of 2015, 12 months after the start of pre-production, strikes me as utterly absurd. Since then, the game's alpha has been postponed twice, and is currently scheduled for "we will get back to you." Unfortunately, the devs had nothing more to tell us, so we had to take our leave. They made sure to bribe me with a shoulder bag and a bunch of cheap swag, including a USB stick in the shape of a star ship. My colleague from Eurogamer was a bit too old for swag, so instead they invited him to next year's Gamescom, where they expected to have "more stuff to show." Naturally, The Mandate does not have an official release date yet.

 

[Irenaeus]

I miss Bubbles.

 

[Infinitron]

lawl. I'm glad I didn't devote any attention to this game.

 

[Jaesun]

I held off on backing this, and this is why.

Anyways, good luck to the team on future endeavors and jobs.

 

[thesheeep]

I don't regret backing this. Was worth a shot.
And it was clear from the start it was a veeeery long shot.

Still, to just go down this silently is a serious dick move.