Project GODUS, the ultimate Peter Molyneux fiasco

[potatojohn]

Other than the ugly UI, it looks OK

 

[Archibald]

Other than the ugly UI, it looks OK

For a tablet game.

 

[Agesilaus]

Populous II, literally the greatest god game of all time, and one of the best games ever created.

Godus, uh, yeah. Not going to install this piece of shit. I can learn from other people's mistakes.

 

[Astral Rag]

Inb4 they release the long-promised multiplayer mode as a half-arsed standalone game (Early Access would be nice ) to milk the sheeples even further:

https://steamdb.info/app/422420/subs/

 

[Metro]

Oh God...us.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Biggus dickus

 

[Astral Rag]

A new game bundle wants to give Bryan Henderson, the god who Peter Molyneux forgot, $10,000
By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 27/01/2016

The people behind an upcoming game bundle want to give Bryan Henderson, the winner of Curiosity: What's Inside the Cube?, $10,000.

The Forgotten God game bundle goes live on 26th February, with 10 per cent of revenue going to the Scot.

Last year Eurogamer told the story of Bryan Henderson, the god who Peter Molyneux forgot.

Molyneux's studio 22cans promised Henderson a percentage of revenue made from Godus, the controversial crowdfunded god sim, while he assumed the in-game role of God of Gods. But that role - and therefore the money - never materialised.

Now, a company called Bulletproof Bit is using Bryan's story - with his blessing - to help promote GameBundle.com.

The Forgotten God game bundle includes eight games that, currently, remain unannounced (Bulletproof will reveal the games in the bundle as it gets closer to launch). But we do know it'll include a game that has won game of the year awards previously and a game that has never previously been bundled.

Bulletproof boss Patrick Archer told Eurogamer the aim is to raise $10,000 for Henderson.

"When we first started work on GameBundle.com, we discussed which charities we wanted to support," he said.

"This was right around the time that Bryan's story came out in the media. Like many of those who had read the story, we empathised with Bryan and how he must have felt after coming to the realisation that the amazing prize he had won would never be delivered.

"We decided that we wanted to do something to make him whole and approached him to participate in our first bundle."

Henderson told Eurogamer he's perfectly aware that his story is being used to help promote a game bundle, but is happy to help.

"I realise it's beneficial for both sides," the Scot, currently wrapping up college work, said.

This isn't the first time Bryan has worked with the game industry. Last year publisher Devolver Digital made Bryan a "digital god" in Not a Hero. He's also been asked to make music for games.

"Even without me gaining anything, whenever someone's asked me for something like this before I've always been happy to help," he said.

"I've always said yes to people in the past after the whole Godus thing. I was featured in games. I've had other offers that haven't happened.

"A lot of people felt bad for me. That's what people have come to me before with, to make amends for what happened with 22cans.

"I just hope it's not been so long after all the crap went down that people will lose the sympathy for what happened, and maybe they're not so inclined to give the money. They're getting games out of it. It's not like they're donating."

If the Forgotten God game bundle is as successful as its organisers hope, Henderson's in line to pocket $10,000.

He said he'd use any money he receives to travel after wrapping up university.

"I would save most of it for travel, and probably buy a few bits for my computer, some upgrades. I've been looking at a new graphics card. I'd probably buy some music gear," he said.

"I've been thinking about backpacking after uni. I'd love to go to Canada. That's my number one place to go. I'd probably do quite a bit of travelling for a month or two."

The story shines the light on Godus, 22cans and Peter Molyneux, who hasn't spoken to press in nearly a year. We'll have more on all three soon.

 

[Metro]

Christ, Molyneaux should have just given him the money out of his own pocket.

 

[Astral Rag]

Community Herald: Volume Eleven - Soonus (Year 4, Week 3)
Apparently Konrad, the (as far as we know) lead designer of Godus, is still actively play testing the game... or maybe he just lets it run in the background while he's waiting for timers and playing other games. It's unlikely we'll ever know for sure.
http://godus.boards.net/post/25958/thread

Game status
Radio silence. The 4th cycle.
Last game update: 2. April 2015 (296 days ago) - Easter reskin
Last opt-in update: 27. March 2015 (302 days ago) - Very basic combat
Last official post: 11. September 2015 (134 days ago) - New button art and bug fixes

 

[Metro]

Konrad = some fan modder they hired to dump the project on.

 

[talan]

Konrad = some fan modder they hired to dump the project on.

Do they pay him?

 

[Metro]

Konrad = some fan modder they hired to dump the project on.

Do they pay him?

I'm sure they do now. But he had nothing to do with the development of the game.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Valve should finally crack down on this shit and give everyone full refunds and remove the game from Steam. This shit has gone far enough to the point where it's not even so sad that it's pathetic, but just disgusting.

 

[Astral Rag]

Don't worry guyz, they're working on the game, creating complex games like Godus takes time you know... I'm sure the upcoming patch will turn Godus into an awesome game...

https://twitter.com/22Cans/status/692828161348915200
https://steamcommunity.com/app/232810/discussions/0/412446250040382273/


I like how their Steam forum is read only for people who don't own Godus.

the adds in the mobile version are unacceptable, every time you do something theres an add, its a sorrowful mess

 

[Astral Rag]

Are you ready for the next evolution in God gaming?

Godus Wars - February 3rd 2016

When is combat coming out?

Right now! With the release of Godus Wars, combat finally makes it’s full introduction into the Godus universe. Peter has always considered Godus being two games: one tranquil, peaceful and the other war-like with bloody battles taking place across the unique lands.

Have you abandoned Godus?!

Not at all! The release of Wars proves that we are still dedicated to Godus and everyone who owns or has previously purchased Godus, already has Godus Wars! Yes! Godus Wars is free for all previous Godus Kickstarter backers & owners.

How many people have been working on Godus and what are their roles?

11 people have worked on Godus Wars.

Peter and Konrad - Design
Dimitri, Gary, Ryan & Richard - Programming
Annah - Art
Ian - Audio
Anthony & Turner - Production
Martin - QA
Tony - GUI


What about the winner of Curiosity - Bryan Henderson?!

Bryan is featured in Godus Wars! He can be seen as an opposing deity on one of the continents.

Why Early Access?

We’re using Early Access to gather balancing feedback and gauge player reaction as we work towards a feature complete release.

Early Access will allow our users and loyal Kickstarter backers to try out and provide detailed feedback in order for us to deliver a more polished, optimised and balanced game upon release!

The release of Wars demonstrates that we are still dedicated to Godus.

Everyone who owns or has previously purchased Godus, already has Godus Wars! Yes! Godus Wars is free for all previous Godus Kickstarter backers & owners - It should auto-magically appear in your steam library, if it doesnt please let us know!

What's the plan with the Godus backer rewards at this point? When will people be receiving those?

We're continuing to work through the release of the Kickstarter backer rewards. The Art of Godus backer book was sent out to the appropriate tiers last year and the Early Access launch of Godus Wars brings with it a large collection of Godus design documents and Documentary has been completed.

What will you do with Godus Wars feedback?
We will be collecting all detailed and relevant feedback posted and while we won't be replying to all posts individually, we will be reading everything. Be sure to keep an eye on the Announcements board for Feedback updates!

What is happening to this page now that Godus Wars is out?

Now that Godus Wars & Godus are both available as one package, we will be closing the Godus Store page and removing the higher price from sale. The discussion boards will be left untouched.

Steam page

Godus Wars includes Godus

If you’ve not had the chance to play our delightful, Zen-like re-genesis of the God-Game on Windows PC or Mac OS X, there’s never been a better time to do so!

Have you ever wanted to play god? In GODUS, you can sculpt every inch of a beautiful world that you look down upon, where your population of Followers will settle and multiply. As you rule over your living, breathing society, a civilization will blossom across your land and offer you their belief. The more Followers that believe in you, the more powerful you will become. It is as simple to play as it is spectacular to behold. Come and lead an incredible journey - this delightful, charming world is waiting for you to make it your own.


The Early Access build includes:

First continent included as standard - Second continent available unlock-able via premium addon.
Over 70 unique and deformable levels
4 playable Deities with a range of abilities
2 base unit types - Archers & Catapults!
20 cards with 10 power levels!
2 Deity opponents - including Bryan Henderson!
Original Godus included

First continent included as standard - Second continent available unlock-able via premium addon.

 

[Astral Rag]

What is Godus Wars? - A Message from Peter Molyneux

"To answer the question, “What is Godus Wars?” You have to take a step back and look back at the very start of our Kickstarter campaign - where we stated that we wanted to reinvent the god game. What were were taking on was this massive task of developing a game for PC and Mobile platforms. Those are completely different audiences with different likes, dislikes and different mechanisms."

"In 2015, We had taken the mobile build as far as we wanted to take it at that particular point. The mobile build has been successful, editor picked and downloaded millions of times and had over 250,000 4 star or higher reviews."

"When we wind back to the PC version, it wasn't by any stretch of the imagination a PC game and thats where we started - What is Godus and what should it be come?"

"We’ve always loved the landscape forming, changing and sculpting but quickly realised that it’s slightly more uncomfortable to do a lot of sculpting with a mouse. Really what it lacked was brutality, was war, was the ability to take on challenge and use your god powers and sculpting powers to fight, war and battle. And that’s where our initial concept of Wars started."

"We said this simple thing - “Why don't we change Godus into a RTS style game with God-game capabilities and landscape modification, a RTS game with a huge amount of variation and power, the ability to approach each battle in a different way?”

"We sat down and said if we’re going to make an RTS game in Godus and do it right - What are we going to have to do? Yes, we could create battles on Godus landscape and yes the landscape modification could be wonderful, you could create your own landscapes, turrets and use followers strategically - but there were a few things that really got in way. "

"One of those examples, which our Godus PC community had been crying out about for a long time, was the nature that you collected your belief - that didn't really fit within a RTS game. Our aim was to make each battle an intensive 20 minutes - not 2 hours or 10 hours but 20 minutes. So we did the logical thing, we make the collection of belief completely automatic - so the player could concentrate on the troops."


"We also had this idea of making it far more fluid and far more focused on battles rather than focused on belief and spreading people. We created a completely new GUI which was more orientated towards troops and battling. It has the ability to group troops together and mix troop type together was at the centre of our thoughts."

"That was the core of what became Godus Wars - but that wasn't enough. What we need was motivation. What would would motivate me, as a player to move from land to land to land? "

"In fact, we wanted to create hundreds lands, we wanted to give the player an entire world to conquer. Split up into continents, each continent having different maps. To do that, to get players to play hundreds levels you have to worry about their motivation."

"We’ve centred on is the ability to become more and more powerful and with it - giving the player more flexibility. We’ve brought over cards from Godus but in a completely different way. These cards can be extremely strategic; there are cards that’ll buff your troops, there are cards increase the speed, attack, range and even introduce stealth."

"Finding a level it too difficult? There’s a probably card for that. All of these cards you can collect together and by the end of hundreds of levels I imagine players will have hundreds of these cards to use. We’re incredibly proud of the card system."

You’re also going to need an opponent. You really need the concept of fighting against someone. We introduced opposing deities. and these deities control continents and they’ll take lands as you take lands. It really feels like you’re fighting against them; when you pick cards, they pick cards - they modify your strategy according to you. Now this starts to feel like what it truly should be, this real threat this real challenge a real purpose. "

"What we’ve ended up with is a true mix of a god game and a RTS with the ability to build your own deck of powers and buffs."

"We’ve got all sorts of surprises in the game. Try playing around with the globe. See what happens.We really wanted to make this brutal, we wanted to make it funny and we wanted to make it exciting. I feel we’ve really done that and I can’t wait to see what the community thinks."

 

[J_C]

Oh man, you can't make this shit up. I can't believe that Molyneux doesn't realize that he should just shut up and let everybody forget about this abomination. Seriously, it is like he constantly wants to remind the people to the biggest fuckup of his life. A normal person would just remain silent in shame and hope that in a few months, nobody will remember it.

Or, if he insists on working on this game, only say something when you have a solid game to show, and surprise everybody.

 

[Havoc]

I rather have a Molyneux than Schafer.

 

[Jarpie]

Couldn't find video of Molyneux cut on this, so this will have to do.

 

[Astral Rag]

Now that Godus Wars & Godus are both available as one package, we will be closing the Godus Store page

22 Scams sure found a nice way to remove that Godus User Rating from Steam.

They already have more sub-forums than we do. Only owners of the game can post on the non-Off Topic boards. There is no General Discussion area and shills/ moderators nuke critical threads like there is no tomorrow.

Some examples:

With Godus and Godus Wars being one product, Reviews about Godus are on-topic.

What is this game? did they just change the name of the game or whats happening?
Rebranding?
Threads closed - Why are the threads being closed ? this is a discussion area right ?? or do the moderators don't like the negative feedback on this so called new/old game ?
Roadmap?

Plus ça change...

 

[Perkel]

How to make a game tutorial for devs:

Make a game:
Is it shit ? Yes ? - Make an update, change name and release it again.
Is it still shit ? - Make an update, change name and release it again.
Is it...

Message to people:

- WOW WE ARE AWESOME, YOU JUST GOT BEST DEAL ! IMAGINE THIS ? 2 GAMES AT COST OF ONE ! HELL 4 GAMES AT COST OF ONE !

 

[Astral Rag]

Oh Godus! 22cans Release Godus Wars Into Early Access
By Alice O'Connor on February 3rd, 2016 at 3:35 pm.

As if one unfinished Godus game weren’t enough, Peter Molyneux’s studio 22cans have launched another. Godus Wars arrived [official site] is out on Steam Early Access today. It appears to be a combat-oriented spin-off with the fighty improvements that 22cans had billed as coming to the original Godus. Folks who bought or backed Godus get Godus Wars free, and it even comes with Godus thrown in, but I’m still not really sure why it’s a seperate game.

First, the basics: Godus Wars is a skirmish RTS with AI opponents. Two deities square off by sculpting land, raising armies, summoning their godly powers, and activating special abilities with their selection of ‘cards’ collected by playing.

According to Eurogamer, who played it and interviewed Molyneux, it’s pretty basic now. 22cans plan to expand it, add multiplayer, then work on that ‘god of gods‘ jazz.

Now shall we have a little history lesson? Let’s. Godus is a strategy ‘god game’ from 22cans, the new studio of former Bullfrog and Lionhead co-founder Peter Molyneux, who was hugely influential through games including Syndicate, Populous, Theme Park, and Dungeon Keeper. Godus was to be a return to his god game glory days, a pitch which raised £526,563 on Kickstarter in 2012. When the first release arrived in 2013, it was barebones and so far from what people expected. And then improvements and expansions were slow to arrive. And then 22cans said they might never finish everything the Kickstarter billed. And then John had a word with Peter Molyneux about its many failings and oh gosh.

So here we are now, with Godus still far short of the game they pitched to pledgers, and things that look like they were supposed to be in Godus being in a separate game. 22cans say they haven’t abandoned Godus, but don’t say what they are doing with it. “The release of Wars proves that we are still dedicated to Godus,” they say.

Why a separate game, given that it even includes Godus? Molyneux explains its origins in a Steam post, but that’s mostly talking about additions and changes they started when trying to improve Godus. It sounds a bit like their experiments went too RTS-y, too far from god game. So what’s happening with improving Godus’s own combat?

I’d guess they’re also hoping Godus Wars will become a little success of its own, shaking off Godus’s stigma and – perhaps more importantly – the weight of those negative Steam reviews. That Eurogamer bit says 22cans need to sell tens of thousands of copies to see their plan through, which EG present as not being that many but to me sounds pretty high considering how well Godus has gone down. As a separate game, Godus Wars starts with a clean review slate.

Anyway. It’s £10.99 on Steam Early Access for wild and trusting dreamers. I’ll wait to see how it shapes up, thanks.

 

[Infinitron]

Split thread? http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/godus-wars.106748/

 

[Lucky]

Split? Godus Wars is clearly a legitimate strategy game unrelated to the original sim title.

 

[Astral Rag]

Wars is just another aspect of Godus, not a replacement of it.

Why not just rename this thread again?