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ragingslowly · 5 years

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Mystic Destinies: Echoes Fiasco or how not to Kickstarter a project: UPDATE

As of Friday 18.01.2019 Aeon Dream Studios are on a long-time-in-the-making hiatus. Something that was proposed to them repeatedly over the last year (by many people, me one of them).

There’s so much that happened since the post I made in the end of October, but at the same time it feels frustratingly little.

As devs promised in their last Kickstarter update, they never showed up on the site again. The only source of information from them, up to this date, remains to be their official website and their twitter.

After October update ADS twitter produced lots of information on TTEOTS and, as it could be expected, not a word on Echoes. The closest we got to hear about it was a personal blog post created by ADS leader, Ajané, on 18.12.2018, who explained that she is no longer able to be productive due to one of BTS members’ injury.

Almost a week later we got an official ‘update’ were, to my frustration, more delays were announced. And while delays came to no one’s surprise, what came as an unpleasant shock were the attempts of Ajané to put it all on Echoes creative team. The newbies that she chose and appointed herself. The people with genuine interest in the project who wanted to help make it come to life and who now were thrown under the bus.

For every ‘update’ there was a commotion on steam forums, where you can check for more input of people other than me.

After the Christmas update devs twitter went seemingly quite. The only things posted were related to some troubles within the BTS (forgive me for not delving into that one as I am not a fan of the band). So nowhere on social media where fans notified that the studios finally went on the hiatus.

To me, this speaks of cowardice. Of her (yes, her, Ajané, as the one who’s in charge and, in my opinion, the one responsible for the whole mess) being afraid to face another backlash for her actions. Of her hoping that if she avoids and ignores the problems long enough, everyone will forget about them too.

Well, I, for one, sure am not gonna let it go that easy :D

I don’t want this be swept under the rug.

I know I am not the only one hurt and pissed off by this situation.

On the last post I made I was asked what do I want from ADS. I answered - I want acknowledgment. I still do. I may not get my money back. I certainly will not get the product I payed for - and it does not matter if the game will actually be released or not. But I don’t want for this to go unnoticed since it would mean ADS got off the hook - with backers money and zero regrets. And I despise the very thought of that. Just because they are indie devs does not mean we should close our eyes on their behavior.

So I, in turn, want to ask a question of my own. What can be done? I’m not asking for a witch hunt but I do want to spread the word. Mostly, on twitter, since it seems to be the only platform used by the studios to communicate with people.

I’ll be grateful for any input.

#aeon dream studios #mystic destinies: serendipity of aeons #mystic destinies: echoes #to the edge of the sky #tteots #mdsoa #mde #mystic destinies serendipity of aeons #mystic destinies echoes

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ragingslowly · 5 years

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Thank you for putting the link up! I was just editing my reddit update when I saw your reblog, gonna post it as a separate post here on tumblr too.

I completely forgot about this YouTube incident tbh. Looking back now it was such a major red flag. Shame, I was so in awe with the developer at the time - with their communication, with their thoutfulness on the game universe and the lore - that I completely ignored the signs. And I think you are right - rebranding seemed so bizarre at the time they were going through with it but now it kinda makes sense.

A Mystic Destinies: Echoes Fiasco or how not to Kickstarter a project

Aeon Dream Studios are a fairly known OELVN developer whose very first project, Mystic Destinies: Serendipity Of Aeons (MDSOA), had beautiful unique art style and interesting premise and was, overall, quite a success. If you look at the devs’ social media now you’ll find them working on a new shiny project - To The Edge Of The Sky (TTEOTS), a game which characters were initially based on famous k-pop band BTS. The game quickly gathered a big following, there’s lots of hype from both the fans and the devs about it with the game gaining constant updates as it is released by chapters. The only thing you won’t see being mentioned is how they were promising to finish their second game - Mystic Destinies: Echoes (MDE), a sequel to MDSOA - before working on their ~BTS project.

There would be no questions asked if they were just contemplating doing that and simply could not - life happens, after all. The problem is that the devs held two successful kickstarters for it, resulting in total more than 21000$ collected. One KS was for the MDSOA deluxe edition to help finish the main game, with Echoes being one of the stretch goals (13062$ pledged); the other KS was dedicated solely to the sequel (8033$ pledged). The estimated release date was approximately June 2017 as the devs claimed they could finish the second game in about three months:

I’ve lost count to how many times the game was delayed by this point. In July 2017, almost five months after KS, it became apparent that the game was being pushed back as the studios had no news on a release date. In the update from August 25, 2017 the devs stated that they’re planning the release by the end of September 2017. Personally, I was alright with that. It seemed like a reasonable delay and at that time they were still evidently working on the game, answering asks on the game on their tumblr and sharing tidbits of the story with us bakers.

In September 2017 came big news: their lead artist was leaving the studios and one of the devs was affected by hurricane Irma. That meant further push back - upsetting but quite understandable. New schedule was October 2017 for the MDSOA deluxe edition and November 2017 for the MDE. This is also the first update where TTEOTS was mentioned.

In mid-October an update came out stating that they’ve found a new artist and that their release dates did not change - game was still set to release in November. That is also when the devs claimed that the MDE will be released before TTEOTS.

November was spent in silence on the devs’ side until they posted a new update and promised both of the games out in December, blaming the absence of their programmer and Steam’s new procedures for the delay.

December 7, 2017, less than two weeks from the previous update, came as a shock as we were told that the game is being delayed with no set release date this time. I was extremely disappointed but tried to be understanding at the same time - the studios acknowledged they had a problem. Not having a certain release date this time around came as a relieve as constant push backs with no clarification were starting to make backers worried. I believe this is one of the first updates that caused an uproar - the devs also announced that the whole MDE game would now contain ~10 hours of gameplay as opposed to 15-25 hours we were promised during the KS campaign. They offered a refund to anyone who wanted it to which we could apply until January. I’ve decided against it at that time. On one of the screenshots below you can see my very first KS comment, which I posted to the December update:

A month later, on January 5, 2018, a new update with a new delay came. Now the developers were stating that the game was going to be out by the end of January and that if we wanted a refund we had time until February to apply. This one update was rather lengthy, telling us how the devs were only human and were still learning to manage their projects (while also stating that their work on MDSOA proves they can do a good work and finish a big project).

Obviously, people were upset with this delay. To which the studios issued an additional update on what is the proper way to treat them. Asking us to be polite and behave correctly and telling us how they reserve the right to refuse us service if they find our behavior improper. While I do understand the sentiment, this update was rather confusing and seemed out of place as at least their KS common section stayed civil. I admit I felt a little attacked for displaying my concerns so I’ve decided to stay out of this. Since then I was trying not to comment and muted the devs’ tumblr page as all they were posting about at the time was TTEOTS anyway.

Unsurprisingly, the game did not come out in January. It did not come out in February, either. Actually, February updates did not contain any information regarding MDE at all. But we were finally sent MDSOA deluxe edition steam keys - that was a six month delay for those who wanted to get the game through Kickstarter as the last MDSOA route was released on July 8, 2017. Those backers that did not want to get the game twice had to wait from July to February to finally be able to play it. Being one of those backers (I only had bought three routes out of five by the time the devs initiated those Kickstarters), I found myself baffled. My understanding of KS was that the backers usually get the stuff they’ve pledged for earlier than those who did not, but, obviously, it was not the case with this one.

March 1, 2018 update was almost the same as usual - the studios artist had health problems so the release of TTEOTS chapter 01 in March was impossible. No, I am not mistaken. Yes, they were informing us of the delay of their completely unrelated project. There was no word about Echoes until the very last sentence of the update.

On April 17, 2018 the studios finally decided to inform us that they’ve hired a new writer for MDE. In February. A fan, who, according to the information on the studios web-site, “has continuously offered us unwavering support, love and good energy. During the time when we just started creating TTEOTS she was one of the people who volunteered her time to help us spread the word and even helped out with handing out TTEOTS promo cards during BTS concerts.” I believe this one requires no comments as I was speechless when this particular update rolled out.

The next update was issued on June 30, 2018, stating the game was now planned for release in September 2018.

I admit I was doubtful after the previous update but during August the studios released a bunch of updates on Echoes story, art and GUI so I was beginning to feel hopeful again. ‘Finally!’ I thought. ‘They are finally fulfilling their promises and we all will be able to move forward’. But if everything was so easy you would not be reading this very post right now.

Game did not come out in September. Actually, nothing came out on Kickstarter in September. Apparently, the devs took a hiatus and the game was delayed again and the only reason I knew about it is because one of the people I follow on tumblr reblogged the link to the studios site update (https://www.aeondreamstudios.com/news/2018/9/21). This was the moment when my patience snapped. I’ve commented on Kickstarter comments section, asking for update. I’ve sent them a private message. None of those were answered.

As it stands now, on October 23, 2018 the devs issued a link to their official web-site as a KS ‘update’ were they stated that the game is being delayed. Again. Below you can see the screenshots of this update, extracts from the web-site update and my response to it all on Kickstarter:

To my relief, I was not the only one disappointed. The response this October update received was the most vocal I saw during the whole campaign. Until yesterday, October 29, 2018, the studios did not issue a new post. Which is too long and frustrating but, thankfully, not restricted to backers only, for now. So here’s the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aeondreamstudios/mystic-destinies-echoes-the-dark-epic-visual-novel/posts/2328034 .

I know shit happens in life. I can understand the need to delay. What I can’t, refuse to understand or accept is shifting blame. You can’t state you are a professional and then whine that people are demanding the stuff they’ve paid for. You can’t ask for understanding but share no information for people to realize you actually need one. You can’t demand respect and then throw accusations and threats at the very people you ask it from.You can’t ignore all the attempts to contact you and then accuse people for problems with communication. For someone who claims to be blunt and honest, Aeon Dream Studios leader does not know how to handle critique very well.

I consider my response to all of this disgrace justified. Yesterday, October 29, 2018, I reported the game to the Kickstarter services. I won’t let people use my kindness and resources only to blame me and use me as an excuse for their own wrongdoings anymore. If they can’t have a civil discussion with their fans then I won’t try to reach them on my own any longer. So, I’m reaching out to the other fans instead. I really want more people to talk about this.

My original reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/otomegames/comments/9s85vx/a_mystic_destinies_echoes_fiasko_or_how_not_to/; Mystic Destinies: Echoes Kickstarter updates: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aeondreamstudios/mystic-destinies-echoes-the-dark-epic-visual-novel/updates; Comments: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aeondreamstudios/mystic-destinies-echoes-the-dark-epic-visual-novel/comments; Mystic Destinies: Serendipity Of Aeons Kickstarter updates: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aeondreamstudios/mystic-destinies-serendipity-of-aeons-deluxe-editi/updates; Comments: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aeondreamstudios/mystic-destinies-serendipity-of-aeons-deluxe-editi/comments; Aeon Dream Studios blog: https://www.aeondreamstudios.com/news/; Twitter post: https://twitter.com/yalithesloth/status/1056970586013003776?s=21;

#aeon dream studios #mystic destinies: serendipity of aeons #mystic destinies: echoes #to the edge of the sky #tteots

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ragingslowly · 5 years

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A Mystic Destinies: Echoes Fiasco or how not to Kickstarter a project

The next update was issued on June 30, 2018, stating the game was now planned for release in September 2018.

#mystic destinies #mystic destinies: serendipity of aeons #mystic destinies: echoes #to the edge of the sky #aeon dream studios #mdsoa #mde #tteots

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