Landless

Landless

View Stats:
codeBullet  [developer] 27 Jun, 2018 @ 9:57am
Game is not dead
Yes, I know very cliché title for indie games with a lot of inactivity... First off, I'd like to reassure everyone that the game is not dead.

All of the team members have moved on to greener pastures and now there is only one person working on Landless at the moment and this is in a very part-time capacity. Realistically most of the team members are in their late 20's and need some stable source of income to support their family. With that said, Landless is still making enough sales that I can still work on it, getting it closer to final release, even though this might be at a snails pace.

In all honesty, Landless was meant to be simple rpg/runner game (with small hints of survival) at it's inception, but after the the big intial support at launch, we wanted to go balls deep and trick out the game as much as possible. This was our first project as a team and I'll admit we've made a lot of mistakes during the process. (ie. poor management, poor allocation of resources, etc). This is why we'll need to cut short on some of the promises we made for Landless.

On the bright side Landless already has a great deal of features in it, a lot more than other indie games and we're very proud of our accomplishments. Our current focus now is more on polishing as well as adding small features to keep the updates interesting still.

We ended up overcommiting on certain features, expanded our team a bit too fast, and overall got too ambitious with the project. But through a gauntlet of mistakes, we've gained valuable industry experience that will help us on future projects, so that we will make less mistakes and make promises we can keep.

With all that said, we do have an update coming out sometime in July, and will try to continue updates going every 1-2 months to keep the game alive. One promise we don't wanna fall short on is not finishing the game, and thats one promise you can be sure we'll be keeping as long as you don't mind the long time frame.

Thank you all for your understanding
< >
Showing 1-15 of 88 comments
Simon K. 28 Jun, 2018 @ 8:58am 
I'm happy to hear, that you didn't give up the game. It's a great game and will be an even greater game in the future.
Finch 28 Jun, 2018 @ 4:28pm 
One word! Discord.

Steam is an outdated mode of sharing information between community and development and those developers who have moved to discord have thriving enthusiastic communities who not only keep interest in the game but bring in more sales to the project via streams and friends lists.

This enables the developer/s to continue working on a project more efficiently as reports for bugs, feedback etc are constant and up to date. The developer does not have to sift through a lot of posts as everything is at hand at any given time.

The key is to provide tools in way of channels to the community which keeps them active, amuses them and in the case of streamers, gain more subcriptions to their channels.
In the case of the community, they share knowledge, help with one anothers problems with the game and provide a support network that cannot be rivaled, in addition to sharing their creations if the game supports it.

The following is a typical Discord setup for both parties to gain the most efficient means of sharing information.

1. Announcements (developer and moderator use only for providing information to the community such as patch notes, up and coming features and general community notices)

2. Feedback/Suggestions (general feedback on player experience)

3. Bug reports (linked to trello if applicable)

4. Screenshots (community interaction)
5. Competitions (in game competitions run by community)

6. Streamers (channel for streamers to advertise their channels on any subject which will inturn give more exposure for the project) I am not a streamer.

You should also appoint the following; These appointments can be community members and in most cases are.

1. Community Manager
2. Moderators
3. Community Support Team (game help)
4. Technical Support (Hardware/Software problems)

The development progress remains transparent to the community, the community are happy and as a result they keep things running like a finely tuned engine.


Last edited by Finch; 28 Jun, 2018 @ 4:43pm
CaptSpock 10 Jul, 2018 @ 8:15pm 
I'm glad to hear it. Your on your own as a Dev, but it looks like you have a lot of supports. When i see the next update. i will pick up the game my self. Thanks for you hard work.
Wuulfe 18 Jul, 2018 @ 3:22pm 
this guy was on steam 92 days ago........ so i think your post from a week ago hasn't been read...
Sataniel 24 Jul, 2018 @ 10:30pm 
Thank you for your updates! Love the game, but I must watch Waterworld for that dire need to play it. Fun game, love the survival and waterworld, looking forward to some of that polish.

I'm glad I supported your project and hope to see what you have planned next. I love indie games, even with cheesy graphics, as long as it's not a cookie-cutter or following a fad.

Great job, looking forward to the update. I'll have Waterworld in the VHS *DVD player :P
Shawnb861 20 Sep, 2018 @ 9:19am 
Your dedication to this great game is commendable most people would have just jump ship and continue with their lives I'm very proud to help support this game and keep it going hopefully you get all the resources you need to make it the game we all want and know it can be 😎😎👍👍
Pops 30 Oct, 2018 @ 9:59pm 
Best to let this one go, CB. With everything thats happened to you, I wish you the best...but I don't think Landless can ever be what you meant it to be. I've only ever said that to one other developer (Railboy), and you shouldnt take what' happened as negative, just as a learning experience. I hope things straighten out for you, and that future projects go better!
codeBullet  [developer] 16 Nov, 2018 @ 9:13am 
Thank you for everyone's kind words. Unfortunately, it does not look too great for Landless at this point. I have taken this project as a huge learning experience and also have gained a lot of new skills and insight.

I will continue to give some small updates over the course of time, but it will only be small improvements. I love this project and really hate to see it cease, so even though this project is done, I will still continue to apply updates (Because so many have invested in this project, I don't want to completely cease it's development, so I want to keep it progressing gradually when I have the spare time). But any big features promised have been cancelled as well as any hope for multiplayer.

I am also planning on setting up a discord and posting the info on these boards. Through that people can keep reporting bugs, so I can easily add them to my trello list for the next update. Also any ideas for small features or ease of use features will be welcomed as well.

Here's a bit of good news, some dev groups have recognized my accomplishments in Landless and wish for me to team up with them for a new project. This opportunity is a new chapter in my life and I will definitely keep you guys updated on what's going on.

Although Landless will not reach it's full potential in the future, I still keep it close to my heart and will continue to keep it going little by little.

With everything I've learned, hopefully the new project will have more success than Landless.

P.S. - Also have a new update coming soon

Last edited by codeBullet; 17 Nov, 2018 @ 6:05am
robilar5500 21 Nov, 2018 @ 9:26am 
My problem with this post is that you are using early access to fund development, which is exactly what you aren't supposed to be doing. Early Access is only supposed to be used to allow people who don't mind assisting with the testing of a game to have an opportunity to do so despite paying for that right. It's literally in the developer's TOS.

What happens when you rely on early access and don't see enough sales? An abandoned or largely abandoned game. Which is my sad expectation for this one as well. The odds are against you beating the odds.
codeBullet  [developer] 16 Dec, 2018 @ 7:45pm 
I understand what you're saying and unfortunately that happens to be the reality of most small indie productions. This was our first production, so we ran into a lot of problems due to our inexperience. That said, I still believe in honoring the early access promise, hence why I am still updating it and not relying on the early access funds.

More funds would allow me to spend more time developing Landless, because I don't have to worry about paying utility bills, this is because I still need a computer, internet access, electricity, working plumbing, and food in order to continue developing. Since I can't rely on Landless funds to take care of those essentials, I have to utilize my time in other areas to pay those costs so I can continue developing Landless with the leftover time I have.

Also because I lack funds to keep my team together, I am the only one working on it, hence why the production time is much slower, but the updates are still coming, so the game in theory has not been abandoned.

Another bit of news, I am currently in talks with other developers (In the promise of future profits) if they want to join in on the Landless development to try to rebuild it. It's a bit of a risk at this point, especially since I don't have much knowledge in the customer base and if players would try Landless again.

I'm always open to discussion on discord if anyone is interested in giving me some advice.
kareed1975 11 Apr, 2019 @ 4:51am 
somehow there should be something we could do about these indie developers who come here sell a half done game and disappear for well over year and not complete there promises. its fraud simple as that. This last post was 2018 and still nothing.
SOLA 25 Apr, 2019 @ 2:39pm 
Its good that its not dead because there was a point where I was super impressed at how plentiful the updates were and how good the communication was. Almost unheard of nowadays. Keep it up.
Cutterjohn 7 May, 2019 @ 6:36pm 
yep, really good, since it's getting a little ripe around here... must be something else...
Zothen 3 Jun, 2019 @ 4:31am 
Originally posted by codeBullet:
Yes, I know very cliché title for indie games with a lot of inactivity... First off, I'd like to reassure everyone that the game is not dead.

Wow, how does it read almost a year later? Feel the cringe..??

Originally posted by codeBullet:
I understand what you're saying and unfortunately that happens to be the reality of most small indie productions.
Yeah fool, thats why you DONT put up something for sale when you dont know if you CAN DELIEVER!
Else its fraud!
Last edited by Zothen; 3 Jun, 2019 @ 4:33am
Sataniel 9 Jun, 2019 @ 10:50pm 
Ive still got faith in ya' 👍
< >
Showing 1-15 of 88 comments
Per page: 1530 50