Yet another lesson to be learned from the mistakes made by a development team that has made a few bad decisions. The team I'm talking about is Madmind Studios and the decisions all revolve around their poorly received game, Agony.
Receiving a bunch of bad reviews, include my own, and follower base waiting for the updates that they claim should of been in the game from the start; it's not a good start for the developers. It got a lot worse in early June when they announced the possibility of Agony Unrated still in the works. In the short run, this was an exciting announcement that probably helped them get a few extra sales, but in the long run, the downfall of their reputation and possibly their studio altogether.
The reason this is such a bad move is from their announcement on June 25th. This is where they stated that Agony's Unrated version has been cancelled and that only part of the studio will continue to work on the game to improve it through patches. This is one of the least well received updates I've seen in awhile. Players have started calling Agony a scam from the start, that Agony Unrated was a tool to keep people from being able to refund, and even that the game was never worth playing before and that this simply confirms that it will never be worth its money.
So what's the lesson in all this? There's actually a few I think. Starting with the lessons for developers:
1) Don't promise anything that's not 100% confirmed content.
2) Don't alter your game to get the rating you want. Own the rating you are given and publish the game accordingly.
3) Always be honest with your community. Don't lie yourself into a corner you can't get out of.
As for the consumers and players:
1) Read a couple reviews before buying a game.
2) Use caution when getting hyped based on a games trailer. It might just be a concept.
It truly is a shame to see what happened to Agony and Madmind Studios. They had an amazing concept for a horror game that they just handled incredibly poorly. All around, they could of done better with their product and more to keep their community happy.
How do you feel about the downfall of Madmind Studios?
