![]() In the interim, the developer appears to have moved on to a separate project called Reign of Kings. By 2017, the game itself was removed from sale on Steam and released for free on Codehatch’s own website. Long-time supporters called the game a scam, and even launched a largely ineffectual petition demanding their money back. Not long after, rumors began to swirl that key members of the development team had left, and that Codehatch itself was running out of money.Īfter several years on the market, Starforge’s Steam storefront was filled to bursting with negative reviews. The 1.0 version left many underwhelmed, as it remained full of bugs and unfinished features. Over the course of 2014, it seems that Starforge was rushed onto Steam. We will not rest until this changes.”Ĭodehatch’s track record of hyping games and then effectively abandoning those projects paints very much the opposite story. They put franchises we love in the hands of people who view games solely as an instrument of profit. “They use tricks to keep us playing a game long after its novelty has long since depleted,” Sworin continued, “instead of making the costly decision to provide new content. Co-founder William Sworin goes on a bit of a tangent about game developers having “untold stories and unexplored worlds trapped inside our minds” while deriding AAA developers who “dumbed down or removed features to cut costs.” Even Codehatch’s peers in the Independent Games Festival recognized its potential, naming it a finalist in the technical excellence category in 2013.Īn interview with Rock Paper Shotgun from around that time makes the team out to be a bunch of rebels. The game was in many ways ahead of its time. ![]() Most intriguing, it promises a “fully infinite procedural world.” There are mechanics for crafting, building, and forming parties with other players. ![]() Funded in part through a successful IndieGoGo campaign that earned more than $135,000, Starforge is described as a “sci fi survival sandbox” on the official website. So why should consumers trust them with their money for a third time?Ĭanada-based Codehatch burst onto the independent scene in 2013 with an early version of Starforge, its first game. Both its previous titles - Starforge and Reign of Kings - were effectively disasters. Heat will be Codehatch’s third major release. This particular developer has a notorious reputation of promising the moon to eager fans, and then delivering a pile of rocks instead. For instance, rarely have I seen this many diapered babies inside a log cabin before in a video game. The video trailer itself is suitably bizarre, tailor-made for fans of sandbox sims like Scum and Rust. Later this month the team from Codehatch hopes to rectify that situation with a Western-themed MMO called Heat.Įarly footage looks OK, with decent lighting and functional, if somewhat blocky, character models. For fans of the most powerful and flexible gaming platform who want to ride horses and wield six-shooters, there really isn’t a viable alternative right now. Rockstar Games’ decision not to bring Red Dead Redemption 2 to the PC has left a bit of a vacuum on Steam.
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