CRYAMORE! A True, First-Class Take on the Action-RPG Genre
Whaddaya get when you blend obsolete Steampunk with Zelda, Secret of Mana, & Megaman?
Rob, the primary creator of Cryamore writing.
Before I begin the main topic, I have a few words to say to the very kind-hearted backers who have shown us nothing but endearing support and love during the development of this game: If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have gotten as far as we have at this point. Cryamore has had a very rough development, and has now gained quite a lot of "Kickstarter notoriety" despite having a very passionate group of fans who still want to see it in its due glory.
Indie game development for a project of this magnitude is brutally difficult (life circumstances that pop up notwithstanding, as we have had plenty of that happen to us), and back when we regularly read the update comments, you were the ones that kept us going, even during dark periods. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Me, Alan, and the rest of the remaining core team have nothing but appreciation, love, and respect for you. Your actions and behavior is why we're still going to keep developing this game to the fullest.
Now, to the main topic.
The Main Topic
To every backer that has given us grief, ostracized and trolled us, and wrote very disparaging remarks: we don't want this game tainted with money from cruel people, most of which who only paid $15 out of their wallets. Kickstarter is a platform designed to literally help kickstart projects and every last person that fit the aforementioned definition has completely ignored this fact and did the opposite. You are incredibly entitled, ignored all the information we've been trying to communicate, and none of us on the team likes you. We shouldn't have PTSD from hearing the word "Kickstarter" or from visiting this page, but now, we do.
We were essentially kids when we launched this campaign, and I was in a completely different living situation. Horrible, money-sucking, born-in cult-related marriage where I was being controlled to only make money a specific way, was stuck in the cult, and eventually me leaving the cult resulted in stripping away literally everything in my life. My emotionally abusive ex secretly committed infidelity and adultery several times while I was trying to make ends meet and work on the game while being pressured by her, and my waking up process afterwards in said cult led to me having to cut off my family, as they outcasted me for superficial religious reasons. Juggling all of that has put a number on my mental health. I lost everything and hit rock bottom. I've dealt with depression the entire time of the project and it got remarkably worse 2016 onward, as I divorced her and then later moved cross-country to avoid cult members bugging me. This all sounds outrageous, but it is the flat-out truth.
Other team members like Alan went thru bad ordeals as well, such as his father's passing, and your comments really did a number on him. We also had to deal with a team member siphoning off our contractors for their own personal gain/project. This person has been publicly "cancelled" for sexually predatory reasons not related to this project, and isn't working with us anymore. Atlus has been very laid back and supportive the entire time, though we did have a few issues with one of the staff members there that we were in contact with at one point.
I'm not giving out this information to look for any empathy. I don't care what anyone thinks at this point. But I'm giving it out as it's related to the project, as much as you want to deny it.
I'm someone who cares about friends and associates deeply, and that mistreatment fueled anger inside of me in addition to my own for what I went thru. I personally have way too much faith and integrity in this project to let it die, and we are definitely not going to waste the money and time that was put in the project thus far. That's simply stupid. And needlessly to say, we shouldn't be vilified for going thru basic human issues, let alone outrageous ones.
Now? I'm completely self-sufficient making close to $15K a month by drawing porn to get the money necessary to make the game as good as I want it, and that number is growing each and every day as I continue to rev up content on that personal platform. The industry worked against us, there were backers that worked against us, and the internet worked against us. Not anymore. I am personally fed up. So, now I'm doing what I wish I could've done back in 2013.
What I am going to do next is refund every last one of you, starting the beginning of March. I have never once asked for more money after this Kickstarter campaign for this game's development (outside of funding from Atlus), neither asked for money in general for nothing in return (outside of a small art book I tried to get off the ground but met with similar problems and really bad luck that I also will be taking care of), yet we were constantly labeled as scammers and thieves for majority of the development while working. (We still have money left in our contract with Atlus, but we didn't touch it due to taking a step back and analyzing development correctly.)
We want to work on the remainder of the game at our own pace, without Kickstarter backers leaving rude comments in our emails, without anyone's money held captive, and exactly to how WE want it envisioned. The game is real and exists. The soundtrack is essentially finished. There are thousands upon thousands of individual assets we've made. I have every receipt throughout the entire development. It is FAR from dead. And it's going to be made exactly how I want it, away from extravagant outdated promises made here on this platform in order to even succeed.
From this point onward, these matters are none of your business nor concern. And the core team supports this move I'm making to the fullest.
The Refund Process
Refunds will gradually go out in order of the backers who originally pledged. Vitriolic backers will get special recognition by being the first to go. Due to this campaign being 8 years old, cards are expired at this point. So, you will receive a message requesting for a method and information to remit the refund directly to you. (For backers who have special characters in the game, I personally don't mind keeping them in with their approval, as we haven't had a single issue with them. However, if you want them removed, please Direct Message us and we will follow through appropriately.)
While everyone here will be refunded, the entire Kickstarter page will be left up as an example on how to finish an indie game over all odds and to help give courage to other developers for not backing down to people such as you, because people do it outside of Kickstarter and don't drop a single cent towards the developer. Then, I will use my own continuous income to fund the rest of the development and any other project I deem fit. I will then hire the best experienced developers who see the potential in this game and would want to help assist me, and they will be paid well and appropriately. And I know a LOT of experienced developers and artists who would love to get paid well on a game like this.
Personally, throughout this project, I've learned how to program, took on many jobs out of my skillset and learned them as well, made many mistakes, many successes, and learned from it all, and I now know what must be done to follow this through. This Kickstarter campaign was initially a success story, and now it's a failure story, but for me, it is just another failure in my list of failures that I learned from. The game itself will still release, and I will prove to everyone that I'm not f*cking playing around here, and I will succeed.
No one on the team will be replying to any of the comments here. I myself won't even be reading them. Because personally, I'm at my wits end, I'm angry, and I won't let anyone ruin the rest of my life over an unsure choice made nearly a decade ago. Frankly, I'm at the point where I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Enough people know my personal story in detail now. I've always set out to be ethical, treat my workers and associates right, and be transparent right down to this final update. I now have more than enough stature, clout, and industry weight to make sure my goals are met, and I put this on my life: they will get met. And we will finish it without a Kickstarter breathing down our necks.
Thanks for the bumpy ride.
Cryamore.
Wow. I've never given any grief to any kickstarters. I still am waiting on some older ones. I still want to see this game come to light.
