The excellent news is that extraordinarily foolish and efficiently Kickstarted action-RPG Barkley 2 remains to be in growth, regardless of rumours of its absolute demise. The dangerous information is that according to developers Tales Of Game’s latest Kickstarter update, growth has been slowed to a crawl by a lot of the workers leaving. Offering a ballpark estimate, remaining developer and voice of the workforce’s Twitter account “Bhroom” estimates that production is a mere 85% dead. 87.5% in case you consider that he’s lifeless inside. Below, what we all know to date.
The shit publicly hit the fan over the weekend, after one-time developer “GZ”, posting beneath the username “Hiratio” made a number of posts on the Something Awful games discussion board. The studio had been radio-silent on the mission for a very long time, and GZ confirmed many individuals’s fears. He claimed that a lot of the builders had gone their separate methods years again. There had been the occasional growth stream over the previous 12 months or two, however the video uploaded to the game’s official YouTube channel is the trailer beneath from 2015.
You can see some posts, helpfully screencapped by “Josh Bossie” on Twitter here. Not lengthy after, the studio’s Twitter account confirmed most of the allegations, though denies that the mission is lifeless. At current, the one core workforce member engaged on the game nonetheless is Bhroom, together with a part-time coder referred to as “paperjack”, and progress remains to be taking place, albeit slowly.
Bhroom says that the game’s Kickstarter funds were spent solely on development, however provided that the crowdfunding drive occurred practically seven years in the past, it’s unsurprising that funds have dried up. It’s a tough state of affairs for everybody concerned, and over the subsequent few days, Bhroom hopes to reply as many questions as he can from Kickstarter backers. Unfortunately, Bhroom seems to be primarily a PR particular person, moderately than a coder, so it’s in all probability going to be a protracted whereas but till we see something playable launched to the general public. It’s at all times a disgrace to see a studio disintegrate, particularly once they had been carrying the hopes of so many with them.
Still, fingers crossed. The game may simply be on monitor for the (at-the-time joking) November 11th 2023 launch teased within the live-action trailer above. And if nothing else, we nonetheless have the unique Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa (to provide its full, superb title), which is at all times good for a giggle. It’s free.
