Interview RPG Codex Exclusive Interview: bitComposer's Take on the Chaos Chronicles Dispute

[Roguey]

Shovelware publisher getting its just desserts. Everyone wins, especially me.

 

[evdk]

Yes. Above all the Codex is about cutting out the bullshit and being honest. We did not want to arrive at bitComposer's doorstep with all pretty words and "please-may-we-have-an-interview." We also clearly stated the terms of our deal with Coreplay's hosting of their forums here. I imagine it was exactly that lack of bullshit and evident honesty that led bitComposer to trust us with their as-honest-as-possible take on the situation (for which we are, quite obviously, thankful).

Seems to me they you can have all that without going all "ShitCompostor LOL," which is frankly just the different kind of bullshit.

It seems you misunderstand. We're not calling them ShitComposter. Most of the staff are pretty sympathetic to both sides of this issue I imagine. What we're doing is informing them that some members of the forum are calling them that, so they don't have any illusions about the crowd they're talking to.

If someone were to interview me about something this delicate, I'd be thankful to know beforehand exactly what I'm dealing with.

Come on, Grunker, give me and my reading comprehension at least some credit. I obviously got all that, but I still disagree with your choice to include that in your question in that form.

I also believe that there was no need to beg, as the interview was their idea in the first place

No it wasn't. It was mine.

Hmm, bad memory on my part. Still I distinctly remember someone from bC (probably crashOberbreit) offering to make the Q&A happen, so even if the first impulse came from us/you, it is obvious that they were interested enough that any pussy footing around issues wouldn't be necessary, which was my whole point.

I don't dispute that hardballing this interview wasn't warranted, I just question the choice of vocabulary.

It wasn't our choice of vocabulary. It was a restatement of what many of our members were using as a nickname for bC.

It was your choice to include it though.

PS Stop answering piecemeal I keep missing stuff

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Good interview. Though I agree with @evdk on that that you can conduct an interview in frank manner, without softballing, but not resorting to "Did you know that some people (that you don't care about, but still) on our forum call you Shitcomposter? Durrr." We're prestigious magazine, FFS, why should we lower ourselves to "UR MOM" level.

 

[felipepepe]

Fantastic interview, thanks glorious codexian staff for it, and especially thanks BitComposer & Mr. Wolfgang; it's very brave to come into a forum such as this and defend your point on why one of our most anticipated games may not be released.

Very honest interview, and by his answers you get the feeling that Coreplay is being stubborn about all this, with an odd "my way or the highway" stance for a developer... regardless, I await for their reply to this before passing judgment.

Hope this game still gets release, and free of tantrum from any side.

 

[Bubbles]

The real problem with the "ShitComposter" reference is that it's the wrong term. A simple forums search would have shown you that most people here actually use the term "ShitComposer" (which is also, obviously, far wittier).

I don't have a problem with the reference itself; if you exclude thread titles, more people here use some variation of "ShitC*******" rather than the actual name of the company. Might as well give an honest representation of the kind of audience his interview is going to get.

 

[Metro]

It would be interesting to see a more thorough set of answers presenting Coreplay's side. And let it be known the Codexian Community is calling them 'Foreplay' or 'Shitty shit fukkin' shit developers who need to stop sucking at the private and government teets and get off their ass and produce a game' ...play.

 

[May God Gently Caress You]

Well, at least, I didn't expect BitComposer to accept an interview. However, does this end up just putting a finger on the new shareholder? It's natural to see the publisher stuck between the devs and the shareholder but I wonder if this clears up things. Then again, I haven't heard of a publisher answering such interview..

 

[Berekän]

Great interview @Grunker, this is the kind of news we need at these forums, very eye-opening

 

[Drowed]

Great interview. Truly worthy of this prestigious magazine.

But...

Good interview. Though I agree with @evdk on that that you can conduct an interview in frank manner, without softballing, but not resorting to "Did you know that some people (that you don't care about, but still) on our forum call you Shitcomposter? Durrr." We're prestigious magazine, FFS, why should we lower ourselves to "UR MOM" level.

Yeah, this. But to be fair, it's not that unexpected to see these things here.

 

[Jashiin]

Fucking butthurt about using shitcomposter

Well done for getting this interview.

 

[Brother None]

Good work, Grunker and Codex.

 

[evdk]

Anyway, prepare for Watchwitz vultures using the story.

 

[Grunker]

Anyway, prepare for Watchwitz vultures using the story.

I preemptively posted a link in their thread on the subject

 

[Metro]

One question you should ask Coreplay is what their timetable would be for finishing the game in the event all parties can come to an agreement. Of course when doing a Kickstarter you can just laugh at frustrated backers and say 'you'll get it when we're done,' but with a publishing contract funded by a private party you have to produce a release version in a timely manner.

 

[HiddenX]

Mr. Grunker posted it already on the Watch - thx!

 

[Diablo169]

Great interview. I look forward to Coreplays response.

 

[Monty]

Yes, good work @Grunker , certainly didn't expect detailed answers like this from BC.

It's obviously a mess with so many parties involved, but hopefully the amount of money and effort already invested means the game will come out at some point. The problem is, obviously the longer this game of legal brinkmanship goes on the less chance there is - I guess the dev team are all on other projects by now.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

What gets me the most is that in mid 2012 Coreplay assured BitComposer that their hack and slash console action RPG could be converted into a turn-based D&D-like RPG and be released within a year. How is it anywhere close to realistic? To me this is where it first went wrong, it might have been the only way to get this product out, but Coreplay made a flatly unrealistic pitch in the first place and this got us in the mess where we are today.

Also no matter what kinds of disputes you have, at the end of the day you just can't go rogue with someone else's money.

 

[HiddenX]

Problem: If bitComposer only talks on boards or with lawyers with Coreplay chances a very small that Chaos Chronicles will ever be released.

 

[felipepepe]

Problem: If bitComposer only talks on boards or with lawyers with Coreplay chances a very small that Chaos Chronicles will ever be released.

I'm also a bit sceptic of how something like this can impact the overall quality... Coreplay seems angry and decided to move on, even if they solve everything and go back to work, the project has stopped for some time now and the goodwill & enthusiasm probably won't be the same...

Also, so it was a PSN/XBLA game before?

 

[Excidium]

Good interview.

People crying about the use of shitComposer should go find a dildo to sit and occupy their times because holy shit man

 

[Monty]

Problem: If bitComposer only talks on boards or with lawyers with Coreplay chances a very small that Chaos Chronicles will ever be released.

Yes, it appears they need a mediator of some sort, with a foot in each camp, who can talk to both sides. Perhaps a German TB RPG enthusiast could be found.

 

[Irenaeus]

What gets me the most is that in mid 2012 Coreplay assured BitComposer that their hack and slash console action RPG could be converted into a turn-based D&D-like RPG and be released within a year. How is it anywhere close to realistic? To me this is where it first went wrong, it might have been the only way to get this product out, but Coreplay made a flatly unrealistic pitch in the first place and this got us in the mess where we are today.

Yeah, how was that even possible.

I guess it was all... a Myth of Glory.

 

[Jack Dandy]

Thank you for doing this interview- it's nice to no as much as possible about this conflict.

 

[Monty]

The response from BC mentions the funding %s, but to get an idea of the overall budget there is this in the Chaos Chronicles interview here last year:

- no funding - site states "Chaos Chronicles is funded by the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern", but I cannot find it in funded games list , anyway typical project got about 100k euro there that is not serious for such team

The working title of this game was 'Myth of Glory' and the funding of FFFBayern was 195.000 EUR in total.

Looking at that it seems a very ambitious game for the budget, can see why they got to the point where they had to bring in more money.