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Comment by danso | Hacker News Reader

It's rare to see a Kickstarter project essential "fail" in delivering the original product but to have so many backers feeling satisfied [1]...it's a testament to the creator's consistently thorough and engaging updates that backers were happy to just be on the journey, even if they didn't get the game they promised. Also, it appears that the estimated delivery was Jan. 2017...there's probably a positive psychological component to being honest early rather than dragging people through a long period of denial and delay before going radio silent.

[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gavan/voxel-quest/posts...

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When I fail, I fail spectacularly. :)

I knew coming in that it was overly ambitious (heck, my website stated that from the very first days), but I think that shooting for the stars was a good way to just explore the current limitations of tech and try to do things that no one else was doing - reason be damned.

The best thing that happened was not something entirely tangible. I have witnessed the most beautiful side of humanity in my struggles (however trivial my struggles are in the global scope of the world).

I haven't contributed to the Patreon but have been following from the side lines. From my perspective, this isn't a failure at all. You've created high quality updates as you've progressed in your project and you're leaving the project open source for the community. I know that if I were to have given you money, I would feel entirely satisfied since you're giving your work back to the community. I can't wait to poke around the source.

Thanks for hard work. Good luck at OpenAI!

Thanks!

Same here, didn't contribute, but you are a great person, totally respect your decision; let's try to make this OS project a reality!

Stop trying to give my money back, I don't want it! VQ has been a fascinating project to watch, and I was always more interested in the tech than in any particular game that gets made with it.

I'm happy to hear it'll be open sourced, and hopefully people will continue to push it forward! I've been meaning to pick up some C++ and graphics programming...

Agreed, same here! I was in the Kickstarter, and I don't need my money back. I'd rather Gavan keep it, and not have some debt hanging over him. It's the nature of Kickstarter that not everything makes it. Honestly, I've gotten more out of my $30 just from the updates about the engine (and the fact that you're open sourcing it!) than I've gotten from a lot of the other Kickstarters I've backed.

I guess I have to thank the general outcome of Kickstarters for setting the bar low for me :)

And that your engine is an outstanding piece of work!

Maybe you've gotten used to it from having worked on this so much, but it's a breath of fresh air to see unusual approaches being pursued in a game engine. So much of the industry is dominated by either 3D triangle meshes or retro pixel art, and VQ has shown that these aren't the only ways forward.

Fully agreed. I'd rather someone innovate, be passionate yet fail than do the same old garbage (not literally, just so much stuff is cookie cutter these days) and "produce"

Man, people must really hate money. Somebody just increased their pledge to me, likely out of spite.

It's not that I hate money, it's that I pledged on Kickstarter so you'd make a cool thing. You made a cool thing, I got to read about its development and watch all the update videos, and now you're releasing it to the community under MIT (or similar) license. As far as I'm concerned we're square.

I know the Kickstarter project was planned as an RPG and maybe you could have throw together a game using the engine as it stood a year ago just to call the project done, but I don't think that would have been a better outcome.

Thanks :)

Feel exactly the same. Backed the kickstarter because I was once (a long time ago) also interested in writing a voxel engine but never had the time, and since then - everything voxel related peaked my interest.

The updates were always nice, and I've always thought of it ending up as an SDK/playground for voxel technology, and never as eventually a real game. If it would become opensource, in my view - that would make it a successful kickstarter, and not a failed-one.

I did the same on a different project. I told the guy to keep the money and spread the word or put it toward the next project.

I think part of it is that you made the sincere offer of refund, and gave people control over that. Regardless of how reasonable it is for a sincere creator to keep the money on a failed project, people still appreciate being able to have the option to 'pull out' on failure.

I think you mean "failure"

or the idea of MIT (or similar) license might attract a couple more people... might want to throw up a one time donate link just to see :)

[edit: ah, I see how this patron thing works - or not - one time would be nice]

Or people are more interested in converting their money into your passion :)

You can't take it with you.

Maybe you can :)

I'd rather leave the world penniless, having exhausted all of my funds nudging it in the right direction ;)

When you fail, you fail gracefully. Much respect.

Thanks :)

Like the other commenters, I definitely don't want any money back!

Sad to hear of VQ's demise, but open-sourcing it sounds like a great idea.

I was one of the people who pledged $20. It caught my eye because it was a unique approach that I'd thought of myself in much less concise terms and told myself that I'd think more about or try "someday". Pledging was like outsourcing my someday to you!

As I posted before:

I don't want a cent back. I didn't pay for a "product", I paid to watch him try this novel approach to a game engine. Money well spent.

Now "Transformers 3" on the other hand... I paid to watch that too. Michael Bay, you owe me $12 back for that stinker.

I'm in the same boat. I don't want a refund either. Just watching this dude create amazing work as satisfying enough.

I do plan to tinker with this engine though....

I think people are incredibly supportive when you're open and honest about building. It's not just about delivering on a great product, but sharing in the adventure of making something from nothing. If you're down to build something open and honest with a community you should check out baqqer.

Thanks, I just took a look at it. I have a couple offers to do crowd equity / funding, but for reasons I state below (about family, stress, other things) I am holding off at this point. Additionally I have already committed to a job. I will definitely consider it in the future. :)

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