Refunding Pre-Orders

After much decision making we’ve decided that it’s best to return all pre-order funds generated for The Very Organized Thief.

This has come as a result of some issues out of our control and not enough funding to produce the game we’d like to make, such as incorporating things people would like to see and provide the support necessary to ensure its success in order to take Redefinition Games in the direction we want to take it.

As we’ve worked on The Very Organized Thief, observed games of similar niches and the industry in general, we’ve come to better understand what is possible and what is not. From both a development and a marketability standpoint.

And in order to get The Very Organized Thief into a position where it is possible to create it, we need to step back and do a number of other things before we can truly take it forward to produce a good game.

As a team of two developers, getting the funding we need to produce the types of games we’d like to create is critical and has to come from somewhere.

And it is clear, that pre-orders aren’t working, for a number of reasons.

First reason being, we’re only two developers, making it difficult to generate or maintain the kind of buzz that can help a game succeed.

Second reason, despite it being a simple game in appearance, there is a large number technical hurdles to overcome in order for us to create and manage the experience we’d like everyone to have. This takes time and pushes the general release date back to a point where it’s no longer reasonable for pre-order-ers to wait that long.

And thirdly, not enough funding to sustain development or to responsibly hire the help we need to develop The Very Organized Thief.

There is also growing reluctance to support developers in this way (pre-orders and Kickstarter). Which has come about as a result of setting expectations too high, technical issues at release, or large groups of people being disappointed or not completely satisfied with the end results. Or all of the above.

The Very Organized Thief is a game which grew wings of it’s own, took off and landed in the hands of both small and large content creators who review and Let’s Play games. All of which happened on it’s own.

This created more attention than we’d planned for and pushed a more manageable business plan out the window.

The effect of this is that we will not be able to produce a game which lives up to the hype and expectations of everyone in a timely fashion as a result of all of the above. So rather than developing a game in the same vain of Icarus flying into the sun, we are bringing ourselves back down to earth.

By doing that, we will be able to adjust our focus to produce a range of smaller enjoyable games, in order to help us generate the funds we need to produce a major game of respectable quality.

This doesn’t mean that development has stopped on The Very Organized Thief. We will be continuing to work on it as usual, along with posting developer diaries.

This decision simply removes the looming pressures of having to fulfil pre-orders and setting a final release date which is currently indeterminable based on the reasons previously stated.

It has been yet another tough decision this year. But we feel in order for us to continue to make games, changes needed to be made, starting with removing pre-orders and release date expectations.

We hope everyone understands and respects our decision.

Thank you to everyone who has played The Very Organized Thief, and took a chance at supporting us this early on. Your support will not go unnoticed ; )